Sunday 31 October 2021

John Carpenter And Jim Lang – In The Mouth Of Madness (1995)


Composers: John Carpenter And Jim Lang

Tracklist
1. In The Mouth Of Madness 05:28
2. Robby's Office 02:30
3. Axe Man 02:04
4. Bookstore Creep 00:52
5. The Alley Nightmare 00:59
6. Trent Makes The Map 02:14
7. A Boy And His Bike 03:06
8. Don't Look Down 01:16
9. Hobb's End 02:18
10. Pickman Hotel 01:11
11. The Picture Changes 02:20
12. The Black Church 04:50
13. You're Wrong, Trent 01:42
14. Mommy's Day 03:04
15. Do You Like My Ending? 02:05
16. I'm Losing Me 03:09
17. Main Street 04:37
18. Hobb's End Escape 02:23
19. The Portal Opens 03:06
20. The Old Ones Return 02:30
21. The Book Comes Back 04:03
22. Madness Outside 00:34
23. Just A Bedtime Story 03:44

"In The Mouth Of Madness" is a 1994 horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca.
It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston.
Neill stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who visits a small town
while looking into the disappearance of a successful author of horror novels,
and begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur.
The film is the third installment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy",
preceded by "The Thing" (1982) and "Prince of Darkness" (1987).
"In The Mouth Of Madness" pays tribute to the works of author H. P. Lovecraft in its exploration of insanity and its title,
the latter being derived from the Lovecraft novella "At The Mountains Of Madness".
The opening scene depicts Trent's confinement to an asylum,
with the bulk of the story told in flashback, a common technique of Lovecraft.
Reference is made to Lovecraftian settings and details (like a character that shares the name of Lovecraft's Pickman family).
Sutter Cane's novels have similar titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories:
"The Whisperer Of The Dark" (The Whisperer In Darkness), "The Thing In The Basement" (The Thing On The Doorstep), "Haunter Out Of Time" (The Haunter Of The Dark/The Shadow Out Of Time),
and "The Hobbs End Horror" (The Dunwich Horror), the latter also referencing Hobbs End underground station
from Nigel Kneale's "Quatermass And The Pit".
The film also referencing Stephen King, who, like Lovecraft, writes horror fiction set in New England hamlets.
In fact, the characters even directly compare King (unfavorably) to Sutter Kane within the film itself.
The soundtrack of the movie was co-written by John Carpenter and Jim Lang.
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor and composer. 
Although Carpenter has worked with various film genres, he is associated most commonly with horror, action,
and science fiction films of the 70s and 80s while he is recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre.
Most films of Carpenter's career were initially commercial and critical failures,
with the notable exceptions of "Halloween" (1978), "The Fog" (1980), "Escape From New York" (1981), and "Starman" (1984).
However, many of Carpenter's films have come to be considered as cult classics,
and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker, movies like "Dark Star" (1974),
"Assault On Precinct 13" (1976), "The Thing" (1982), "Christine" (1983), "Big Trouble In Little China" (1986),
"Prince Of Darkness" (1987), "They Live" (1988), and "In The Mouth Of Madness" (1994).
Carpenter composed or co-composed most of his films and has released four studio albums, titled "Lost Themes" (2015),
"Lost Themes II" (2016), "Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998" (2017) and "Lost Themes III: Alive After Death" (2021).
In an interview he stated that it was his father's work as a music teacher, that first sparked an interest in him to make music.
Carpenter was an early adopter of synthesizers, since his film debut "Dark Star", when he used an EMS VCS3 synth.
His soundtracks went on to influence electronic artists who followed, but Carpenter himself admitted 
he had no particular interest in synthesizers other than that they provided a means to "sound big with just a keyboard".
For many years he worked in partnership with musician Alan Howarth, who would realize his vision
by working on the more technical aspects of recording, allowing Carpenter to focus on writing the music.
Carpenter is also narrator on the 2019 documentary film "The Rise Of The Synths" which explores the origins and growth
of the synthwave genre, and features numerous interviews with synthwave artists who cite Carpenter 
(alongside other early pioneers such as Vangelis, Giorgio Moroder and Tangerine Dream) as a significant influence.
James Volker Langknecht (born November 22, 1950), better known as Jim Lang, is an American composer
that worked with John Carpenter on the soundtracks of the films "Body Bags" (1993) and "In The Mouth Of Madness" (1994).
He is mostly known for scoring the Nickelodeon series "Hey Arnold!" (1996–2004),
its feature film, "Hey Arnold!: The Movie" (2002), and the television film, "Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie" (2017).

Tuesday 26 October 2021

Mercantan – IX (1993)


Country: Germany

Tracklist
1. Alte Fahrt 03:39
2. Moor Leidtzten 11:04
3. Upstream 05:33
4. Five Degrees Centigrade 04:34
5. Meridian 05:04
6. Ramstein 03:31
7. Triterium 05:17
8. Gnomon 04:24
9. Block IV 06:22

German dark ambient / industrial project created (possibly) by Oliver Krause.
Mercantan self released in 1993 their debut album "IX" on cassette format, as a limited edition of 100 copies.
Two years later "IX" was re-released on CD by the German label Drag & Drop Industrial.
The track listing of the CD version was different from the cassette, with some songs been removed
and some others re-worked or having a longer duration.
The last appearance of the project was on the cassette release "At MST Concert 1"
that was a live recording of their performance on 16.12.1995 at the AZ Aachen
together with Salt, Pineal Gland Zirbeldruese and Q-Rare.
The Memory Link features both the CD and Cassette versions
and also three bonus tracks that were taken from Mercanta's participation on the compilations
"Auf Abwegen Kompilation" (1994) and "In Stahlgewittern - I Kapitel" (1995).

Sunday 24 October 2021

Abyssmal Nocturne – The Gates Beyond The Stars (Demo 1999)


Country: United States

Tracklist
1. Summoning The Infernal Storm 03:03
2. When Coldness Reigns The Earth 03:35
3. Through The Mist Of Battle 03:02
4. The Gates Beyond The Stars 04:49

Abyssmal Nocturne was formed in California in 1999
and was mostly known at the time for the participation of Nocturnal Overlord (ex-Crimson Moon).
The same year they released their demo "The Gates Beyond The Stars"
that featured four compositions of atmospheric occult black metal.
After a long hiatus the band released their debut album "From The Astral Abyss" in 2005
through the American label Spectral Arts Productions that was founded by their vocalist Blackstorm (aka Joe Walker).
Their last work was the EP "Death Gate Funeral" in 2010.
Since then the status of the band remains unknown.