John Cody Carpenter (born May 7, 1984) is an American musician and composer. He is the son of film director

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

and actress

Adrienne Barbeau Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American actress and author. She came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical ''Grease (musical), Grease'', and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findl ...

. Carpenter is mostly known for his work with his godfather and musician Daniel Davies, as well as his various solo projects.

Early life

Carpenter was born on May 7, 1984, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, U.S.. He began taking piano lessons at a young age, and was always surrounded by instruments at both his mother's and father's house, who had separated shortly after his birth. Carpenter started writing music at age 13, but admits he "didn't write anything of quality until I was into my mid-20s". He has been referred to by his middle name 'Cody' since birth to avoid confusion with his father.

Career

With John Carpenter

Carpenter's first major musical contributions were to ''

Vampires A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

'' (1998) and ''

Ghosts of Mars ''Ghosts of Mars'' (titled onscreen as ''John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars'') is a 2001 American action horror film written, directed and scored by John Carpenter. It was produced by Screen Gems and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It sta ...

'' (2001), where he is credited as playing keyboards. In 2005 and 2006, Carpenter composed and performed the soundtrack to both "

Cigarette Burns Cigarette burns are usually deliberate injuries caused by pressing a lit cigarette or cigar to the skin. They are a common form of child abuse, self-harm, and torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a p ...

" and "

Pro-Life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the lega ...

", John Carpenter's two episodes in Showtime's ''

Masters of Horror ''Masters of Horror'' is a horror anthology television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network. Origin In 2002, director Mick Garris invited some director friends to an informal dinner at a restaurant in Sherm ...

'' anthology television series. 2015 saw the release of ''

Lost Themes ''Lost Themes'' is the debut studio album by American film director and composer John Carpenter. It was released on February 3, 2015, through Sacred Bones Records. Carpenter created ''Lost Themes'' in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter an ...

,'' the first musical collaboration of Carpenter, his father, and Daniel Davies. The trio continued to work together with 2016's '' Lost Themes II'', after which they embarked on a European and North American tour, performing popular themes from John Carpenter's films and material from both ''Lost Themes albums.'' In 2017, the trio re-recorded a number of John Carpenter's best-known movie themes in for '' Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998''. In 2018, both Carpenters and Davies composed the score for ''

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

'' (2018), and ''Lost Themes III'' in 2021. In 2022, they also composed the score for the remake '' Firestarter''. '' Lost Themes IV'' was released in May of 2024.

Solo work

Differing from his composing work and his collaborations with his father, Carpenter's solo work falls more in the genres of progressive rock and jazz fusion, with Carpenter listing such artists as Genesis, ELP, Vince DiCola, and T-Square as major influences. Cody released a number of solo albums exclusively on Bandcamp from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, Carpenter released his first non-Bandcamp exclusive progressive rock album on Blue Canoe Records titled ''Cody Carpenter's Interdependence.'' This was his first album in a series of Blue Canoe Records releases featuring recurring guest musicians such as

Jimmy Haslip James Robert Haslip (born December 31, 1951) is an American bass guitarist who was a founding member of the jazz fusion group the Yellowjackets, which he left in 2012. He was also an early user of the five-string electric bass. Early life and ...

Virgil Donati Virgil Donati (born 22 October 1958) is an Australian drummer, composer and producer. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also proficient at the keyboard. Donati formed Planet X with Derek Sherinian and was the band's pri ...

, Scott Seiver, and Jimmy Branly. He would follow up with 2019's ''Force of Nature'' and 2020's ''Control,'' both featuring many of the same guest musicians as well as PJ D'Atri, John Konesky, and Junior Braguinha.

As Ludrium and other contributions

Carpenter also has composed music under the moniker Ludrium. His work as Ludrium leans more toward the broader genres of

synthwave Synthwave (also called retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with the Film score, film soundtracks of action films, science fiction films, and horror films of the 1980s. ...

and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

, although still retaining some of the progressive stylings of his solo works. In 2018, Carpenter released his first album as Ludrium titled Reflections on Lakeshore Records. He followed up this album with 2019's Stargazer, released independently. That same year, Carpenter worked with English composer Mark Day on ''Shadow Spirits Vol 1.'' 影なる霊魂, a

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

soundtrack album of a video game that does not exist. Carpenter performed backup keyboards for composer Vince DiCola in multiple live music performances in 2019 and 2018, playing music from DiCola's movie and video game soundtracks. Carpenter listed DiCola as one of his primary musical influences.

Discography

Cody Carpenter solo albums

*''Cody Carpenter's Interdependence'' (2018) *''Force of Nature'' (2019) *''Control'' (2020) *''Memories and Dreams'' (2021) *''Balance of Extremes'' (2022)

Piano solo albums

*''Piano Improvisations: The Major Arcana'' (2020)

Compilation albums

Electronic - compilation albums

*''Neon Sludge 2014-2018'' (2018.09.25)

Prog rock / fusion - compilation albums

*''Mind Over Matter 2014-2018 Vol. 1'' (2018.11.14) *''Mind Over Matter 2014-2018 Vol. 2'' (2018.11.21)

As Ludrium - synthwave / synth-pop albums

*''Reflections'' (2018) – (As 'Ludrium') *''Stargazer'' (2019) – (As 'Ludrium') *''Alternate Universe Reimagined'' (2021 remastered from 2017)

Soundtrack albums

*''The Legend of Ludrium'' (2020)

Collaboration albums

*''Shadow Spirits Vol 1. 影なる霊魂'' (2018) – (With Mark Day) *''The Last Flight SHMUP Tribute Song'' (2019) – (With Brandon Klopp)

TV, film, and video games

*''

'' (1998) – (As contributor/musician) *''

'' (2001) – (As contributor/musician) *''

'' (2005) *''

'' (2006) *'' Condemned'' (2015) – (As contributor/musician) *''Tap Track Heroes'' (2016) *''

'' (2018) *''Astro Aqua Kitty'' (2021) – (As contributor/musician) *''

Halloween Kills ''Halloween Kills'' is a 2021 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, and co-written by Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems. It is the sequel to ''Halloween'' (2018) and the twelfth installment in the ''Halloween'' franchise. ...

'' (2021) *'' Firestarter'' (2022) *''

Halloween Ends ''Halloween Ends'' is a 2022 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, and co-written by Green, Danny McBride, Paul Brad Logan, and Chris Bernier. It is the sequel to ''Halloween Kills'' (2021), the thirteenth installment in the Hal ...

'' (2022)

Other artist collaborations

Simulakrum Lab Simulakrum Lab is an Italian synthwave/ retrowave music project created by composer and sound designer Paolo Prevosto. Guests who collaborated in the first album "''Simulakrum Lab''" (2013) were: * Claudio Simonetti (composer, together with Gobl ...

*Confrontational *Ultraboss *PJ D'Atri *Dance With The Dead *Beckett *Powernerd *Scythe Saga *Oceanside85 *Penix *Diamond Field *Keith Horn

References

External links

* *
Cody Carpenter
on Discogs {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Chris 1984 births Living people American film score composers American keyboardists American male film score composers American television composers American male television composers American video game composers Musicians from Los Angeles