Cody Carpenter

Multi-instrumentalist Cody Carpenter makes jazz fusion and prog rock under his own name, electronic music and synthwave as Ludrium, and film scores with his father, horror master John Carpenter. Cody began contributing to the famed director’s films at a young age, and the two later worked with Daniel Davies on the Lost Themes series of albums and on the scores for the 21st century remakes of Halloween and Firestarter. He also ventured into piano improvisations with 2020′s The Major Arcana, and scored video games with Mark Day. He continued revisiting his father’s classic film scores with the 2023 release Anthology II (Movie Themes 1976-1988).
Born John Cody Carpenter in 1984 in Los Angeles, he is a third-generation musician. His grandfather, violinist Howard Carpenter, was a founding member of the Nashville Strings, and his father, John Carpenter, a renowned filmmaker, was notable as one of the few who also composed and performed the scores to his own films. His mother was actress Adrienne Barbeau. Growing up surrounded by music, Cody began to play the piano at an early age and started composing in his teens, influenced initially by film composer Vince DiCola and his father, and later by prog rock, jazz fusion, and video game music. His first published musical efforts were on the scores for his father’s Vampires (1998) and Ghosts of Mars (2001), where he played keyboards. He went on to compose the music for his father’s two episodes of the anthology television series Masters of Horror.
Carpenter began releasing solo music online, later compiling his synth pop material as Neon Sludge 2014-18 and his prog rock work as the two-volume Mind Over Matter 2014-2018. He first came to wide notice with the release of the Lost Themes and Anthology albums, on which he and Daniel Davies (son of Ray Davies of the Kinks and John Carpenter’s godson) helped his father re-record his classic themes and unused musical ideas. The trio later took the music on tour, the first time that John Carpenter had ever played live.
Meanwhile, Cody signed to Blue Canoe Records for a series of instrumental prog rock- and jazz fusion-influenced albums, recorded with a full band — beginning with 2018′s Interdependence. Ludrium, his alias for vocal synthwave/synth pop, released Reflections on Lakeshore Records the same year. Remaining active with several albums under these projects, Carpenter collaborated with composer Mark Day on the 2018 game soundtrack Shadow Spirits, Vol. 1, and then on 2021′s Astro Aqua Kitty. Carpenter’s first album of solo piano improvisations, The Major Arcana, appeared in 2020.
Along with John Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Cody composed and performed the music for the 21st century sequels to John’s own Halloween and its two sequels (Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends), and the 2022 remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter. A second revisit of John’s film scores, Anthology II (Movie Themes 1976-1988), appeared in 2023. ~ John D. Buchanan & Paul Simpson