John Carpenter (USA) for Electronic

As far as the legend goes, Carpenter ran out of a meager budget when producing "Assault on Precint 13" in 1976 and was unable to hire a proper soundtrack as planned. Having developed a taste and talent for electronic music, Carpenter took matters in his own hands. The result was such that for his next picture, "Halloween", Carpenter purposely composed the soundtrack himself. An iconic main theme song underscored the influence of the Berliner school in Carpenter's music. In the subsequent decades Carpenter would compose the soundtracks of many of his most acclaimed pictures, including "The Fog", "Escape from New York", "Christine", "Big Trouble in Little China", "They Live" and all the "Halloween" sequels. In time Carpenter ended up adding electric guitars and other human played instruments (in tandem with the Berliner luminaries at the time). Carpenter's music would influence many subsequent musicians and groups such as Portished, Zombi, Majeure or Umberto.

In 2015 Carpenter released an LP titled "Lost Themes" gathering a series of scores he never used for motion pictures. A collection of short but dense songs that echo much of the tension and mystery Carpenter often manages on screen. "Lost Themes II" followed in 2016 and five years later "Lost Themes III" further enriched his discography. This LP trilogy is a unique set of works that beg for consideration into the progressive realm.

"Night" from "Lost Themes"

"Utopian Facade" from "Lost Themes II"

Thank you for considering.

One wonders indeed if TD and Klaus Schulze would have ever recorded motion picture soundtracks without Carpenter. Or if Kraftwerk would have made a soundtrack for the Tour de France.

Carpenter's songs are mostly short, but are dense and dynamic enough to grant consideration, imho. Not very different from what groups like Ash Ra Temple or Cluster were doing by the late 1970s. I hope someone at the Electronic team can lend some time to this.

Thanks.

Seems like the question is, do we evaluate film score composers, either as a subgenre of prog or as individual artists, for inclusion in this database?-- .    Not sure but I think the answer is 'No not really' .

^That's fair, the OP's post does merit a bit more consideration.  The fact , as you point out, that there are far more film composers with no prog in their music than those who do would suggest Carpenter's lack of prog credibility, but at this point in his compositional career maybe he deserves another look.   He's not rock by any means and that kinda counts when you're talking a prog rock database, even the prog-related section of it.   If a team were to eval and reject Carpenter, I believe a Collab would then have to ask the Admin Team to vote on inclusion for Prog-related.   That would be a higher hurdle to pass.