Music
Jerry Goldsmith’s ‘Psycho II’ Score Released
Available now for purchase is a deluxe soundtrack for the 1983 horror thriller Psycho II, which saw Anthony Perkins reprise his role as Norman Bates. Composed by Jerry Goldsmith, the CD features 31 tracks, including six bonus tracks and is released via Intrada. You can order your copy here.
Below is the trailer, cover, and full description courtesy of Intrada.
Intrada proudly presents eerie, terrifying original soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith from Richard Franklin follow-up to famed Alfred Hitchcock thriller about Norman Bates and those twelve vacancies at his Bates Motel. Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles reprise their iconic roles with newcomers Meg Tilly, Dennis Franz adding to suspense, chills.
Goldsmith takes sensational approach to horror tale by anchoring entire score not with scary theme but with incredibly gentle, minor key idea that generates significant amount of sympathy for Norman, his attempts to go straight after years in prison. That said, horrific events follow and composer launches riveting action material in kind. Orchestration is unique: requisite strings in tribute to classic Bernard Herrmann original play key role but composer adds array of colors courtesy piano, large woodwind section, synthesizer. Goldsmith tacets all brass save French horns, allowing the expressive instruments to rip, tear and bray through numerous frightening passages. An unusually intense additional color comes from wild “knife slashes” written into score. With all these sizeable shadings of sound, resulting music ranges from gently beautiful, hauntingly sad to wildly aggressive, strikingly intense.
Complete score presented in dynamic stereo courtesy multi-track session masters vaulted in pristine condition at Universal. For original 1982 album, Goldsmith did considerable editing within cues, dropped major sequences entirely to keep duration at a half hour. In some cases he also attached names of certain cues to others instead. Scoring session paperwork and cue sheets allowed us to properly identify everything for the first time.
Fun to discover Goldsmith wrote two separate sequences titled “Mothers Room”, “Mother’s Room #2” plus two additional alternate versions featuring different bells, chimes, electronic effects within. All four appear on our CD. Also fun to discover haunting “End Title” was originally scored with striking pizzicato strings that plucked rhythmic accompaniment to introduction of gentle theme. This unused alternate also appears on our CD in “extras” section.
Goldsmith also recorded two Beethoven piano excerpts at his sessions to be heard as Bates plays piano onscreen. Both also appear as extras, as does alternate version of “Peep Hole #2”. Highlights of new music are many but deserving spotlight are intense “Toomy’s Death”, stark two-part voicings of French horns during “Expected Guest”. Flipper cover allows listeners to select new artwork or original MCA album cover. Jerry Goldsmith conducts. Intrada Special Collection release available while quantities and interest remain!
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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