Listen to Tracks From Horror Master John Carpenter’s Debut Non-Soundtrack Album

The films of horror director John Carpenter distinguished themselves from their competition in several ways, none more important than their iconic scores, most composed by Carpenter himself. The themes to ‘Halloween,’ ‘Escape From New York,’ and ‘The Fog’ are just as classic as the movies themselves. But for all his musical prowess, Carpenter’s musical career never expanded beyond his films. So this is very cool news, via Pitchfork: Carpenter is finally releasing his first non-soundtrack album, ‘Lost Themes,’ and you can listen to a few of the tracks right now.

First, here’s ‘Night,’ which definitely sounds like something from an ’80s Carpenter thriller:

Via label Sacred Bones Records, here’s what Carpenter had to say about the album:

‘Lost Themes’ was all about having fun. It can be both great and bad to score over images, which is what I’m used to. Here there were no pressures. No actors asking me what they’re supposed to do. No crew waiting. No cutting room to go to. No release pending. It’s just fun ... The plan was to make my music more complete and fuller, because we had unlimited tracks. I wasn’t dealing with just analogue anymore. It’s a brand new world. And there was nothing in any of our heads when we started other than to make it moody.

From what we’ve heard so far, this thing is definitely moody; the perfect soundtrack to a late-night drive through the woods or a creepy nightmare about aliens taking over America with subliminal messages. John Carpenter’s ‘Lost Themes’ will be available on February 3, 2015; in the meantime, here’s one more track to sample, the synth-y ‘Vortex.’ Close your eyes while you listen, and imagine Kurt Russell wearing an eye patch.