Music
R.I.P. Frequent John Carpenter Sound Editor David Yewdall
It’s a bummer that we tend to only recognize one or a small handful of people for bringing our favorite movies to life, because the reality is that it requires a behind-the-scenes army to make any given movie.
Take The Thing, for example. You of course know it was directed by John Carpenter, but do you know who was responsible for the incredible sound effects?
That’d be the Emmy-nominated David Lewis Yewdall, who we’re honoring under the saddest of circumstances today. Deadline just reported that Yewdall died this past Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. He was 66 years old.
David Yewdall’s career as a sound editor/designer began way back in the late 1970s, working alongside the legendary Roger Corman. Yewdall was the sound effects editor for 1978’s Piranha, and he went on to become a frequent collaborator with John Carpenter. Yewdall’s work can be heard in Escape from New York, The Thing and Christine, and he also served as sound editor for both Halloween 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
Fellow sound man Steve Lee stressed to Deadline the importance of Yewdall’s contributions to Carpenter’s films, particularly highlighting The Thing.
“The Thing is arguably his masterpiece,” Lee told the site. “All those frightening creature sounds he created are just fantastic, and just as scary today as they were when the film opened 35 years ago — almost to the week.”
Other horror films that David Yewdall worked on include April Fool’s Day, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Evil Dead 2, Near Dark, Predator 2, and Return of the Living Dead 3. An impressive resume, to say the very least.
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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