Cody Carpenter’s Ludrium project returns this month with Reflections, a nostalgia-minded album that shows Carpenter’s emotive vocal chops and his preternatural ability to write catchy, melodic synthwave/synth-pop songs. Today, Vehlinggo premieres the beautiful single “An Intimate Relation.”
The nine-song Reflections, due Aug. 31 on digital and CD formats from Lakeshore Records, is a departure from Carpenter’s prog-laden instrumental works.
Specifically, Ludrium is Carpenter’s alter ego. The music is vocal synth-pop fused with nostalgic feelings and contemplative lyrics. A profound retro sensibility colors the keyboard-driven songs, combining Carpenter’s love of the past with a tight melodic structure.
“I decided to use the name Ludrium to differentiate my music with vocals from my instrumental music, which I release under the name Cody Carpenter,” Carpenter said in a statement. “It’s still just me writing all the music and lyrics, but I wanted to make it a separate entity from my instrumental progressive rock and fusion stuff.”
A Talented and Prolific Musician
Carpenter, whom Vehlinggo interviewed in early 2017, has released a host of excellent music over the past several years. From 2012 to 2017, he put out five instrumental progressive rock albums and one synthwave vocal album exclusively on Bandcamp. January 2018 saw the release of his first non-Bandcamp-exclusive album, Cody Carpenter’s Interdependence, featuring awesome guests such as Jimmy Haslip and Virgil Donati.
Carpenter has been busy this year in the scoring realm, too. He’s been working with his father, the legendary John Carpenter, and longtime collaborator and friend Daniel Davies on the score for the new Halloween film. (Together, the trio have recorded both editions of Lost Themes and Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998, all for which they’ve been touring the world together since 2016.) He also worked with composer Mark Day, releasing Shadow Spirits Vol. 1, a chiptune video game soundtrack to a game that never was.
Cody Carpenter’s most notable composing works include “Cigarette Burns” and “Pro-Life” as part of Showtime’s Masters of Horror movie series.
Carpenter is a third-generation musician. His father is a director and composer and his mother, Adrienne Barbeau, is a star of film, television, and the Broadway stage. His grandfather, Howard Carpenter, was a founding member of the Nashville Strings.
Reflections: Release Information
Reflections, which was written and performed by Cody Carpenter and co-produced by Carpenter and John Spiker (Tenacious D, Beck), who also provides backing vocals, will be released on Aug. 31 via Lakeshore Records.
Reflections Track List:
- “Lost in Mirrors”
- “Some Confusion”
- “An Intimate Relation”
- “Bring Us Home”
- “Casual Fate Chain”
- “That Moment You Gave to Me”
- “Drawn Into Motion”
- “Slave to Consequence”
- “Misunderstanding”
For more information on Carpenter or Ludrium, check out his website.
