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Pink Floyd Celebrates 40th Anniversary Of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ With Tom Stoppard Play ‘Darkside’

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11 years ago

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On August 26th, BBC Radio 2 aired Darkside, a radio play written by Academy Award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, which incorporates the music of Pink Floyd‘s classic, iconic album The Dark Side Of The Moon. The play was an original commission to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album’s release and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It will be released November 26th worldwide. An animated trailer can be seen below.

Stoppard comments, “When The Dark Side of the Moon was a new album in 1973, a friend of mine walked into my room where I was working with a copy in his hand and said ‘You really have to do a play about this album.’ So, when, roughly 39-and-a-half years later, Jeff Smith from Radio 2 asked me if I’d like to do some kind of play around the 40th birthday of the Pink Floyd album, it really wasn’t a very difficult decision.”

The play follows Emily, a philosophy student, through a series of thought experiments, which are vividly brought to life by a cast of characters portrayed by Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell and others.

David Gilmour: “I found the script of Tom’s play fascinating; I can’t think of a better way to celebrate The Dark Side of The Moon’s 40 year anniversary.”

Nick Mason: “I love it. If anyone is going to mess with the crown jewel of albums, Tom is a very good choice.”

Bill Nighy: “To get a combination of Tom Stoppard and Pink Floyd…is a massive deal, a marriage made in radio heaven.”

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

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2 weeks ago

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April 9, 2024

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John Carpenter music

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…

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