John Carpenter Releases Two-Song Single

Halloween came early this year, and no we’re not saying that because of the nightmarish state of the world.

On Friday, John Carpenter shared two haunting new songs — “Skeleton” and “Unclean Spirit” — marking the legendary composer/director’s first non-soundtrack compositions since 2016’s Lost Themes II. The slasher film king again teamed up with son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, whom he collaborated with for the David Gordon Green-directed Halloween films.

“It was refreshing to be able to write music that didn’t have to fit to any sort of locked image,” Carpenter said in a statement. “We also had a specific focus and direction we wanted to follow when working on Halloween, both in terms of mindset and instruments, and being able to return to working without that narrow focus was refreshing. Although working on Halloween didn’t specifically influence any of these new compositions, there is always a honing of craft that must take place when working on a film like Halloween, and our improved skills definitely helped us in writing these songs.”

The tracks are available digitally now and will be released as a deluxe limited-edition 12″ single on Aug. 28. They serve as the first taste of Carpenter’s upcoming collection of music, Lost Themes III.