Escape from New York (soundtrack)

1981 film score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

Escape from New York: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Film score by

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

Released| 1981 (1981)
Studio| Pi West Studios, Glendale, California
Genre|

* Electronic
* film score

Length| 37:22
Label| Varèse Sarabande
Producer| John Carpenter, Alan Howarth
John Carpenter chronology
| Dark Star
(1980)  | Escape from New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(1981)  | Halloween II
(1981)

|
|

Alan Howarth chronology
|  | Escape from New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(1981)  | Halloween II
(1981)

|
|

Alternative cover

2000 remastered edition

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [1]

Escape from New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is a soundtrack album composed and performed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, featuring the score to the 1981 film of the same name.[1]

## Recording

[edit]

Sound designer Alan Howarth was introduced to John Carpenter by the picture editor of the film, Todd Ramsay, who had worked with Howarth on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Howarth used equipment including ARP and Prophet-5 synthesizers and a Linn LM-1 drum machine, as well as an acoustic piano and Fender guitars, to create the palette of sounds used in the score, while Carpenter composed the melodies on the synthesizer keyboards. As the MIDI standard had yet to be invented, Howarth manually synchronized the equipment to picture while listening to a copy of the film's dialogue. Initial inspirational directions which Carpenter shared with Howarth included albums.

## Release

[edit]

The original release included a contractual obligation to provide a written musical score, which Howarth manually transcribed after recording was completed. The soundtrack was released in 1981 through Varèse Sarabande (originally on vinyl, then CD in 1982); a remastered and remixed edition was reissued in 2000 through Silva Screen Records, containing an extra fifteen tracks not included on the original version (eight of them being short extracts of dialogue from the film), as well as expanded liner notes.

## Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, except where noted.

No.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Main Title"| 3:51
2.| "Up the Wall/Airforce #1"| 2:27
3.| "Orientation #2"| 1:47
4.| "Engulfed Cathedral" (Claude Debussy)| 3:32
5.| "Back to the Pod/The Crazies Come Out"| 3:01
6.| "Arrival at the Library"| 1:05
7.| "Everyone's Coming to New York" (Nick Castle)| 2:52
8.| "The Duke Arrives/The Barricade"| 3:35
9.| "Police State/Romero and the President"| 3:21
10.| "The President at the Train"| 2:53
11.| "The President Is Gone"| 2:30
12.| "Chase Across the 69th Street Bridge"| 2:46
13.| "Over the Wall"| 3:42
Total length:| 37:22

### 2000 remastered edition

[edit]

No.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Main Title"| 3:53
2.| "The Bank Robbery"| 3:30
3.| ""Prison Introduction"" (dialogue)| 0:20
4.| "Over the Wall/Airforce One"| 2:23
5.| "He's Still Alive/Romero"| 2:12
6.| ""'Snake' Plissken"" (dialogue)| 1:41
7.| "Orientation"| 1:47
8.| ""Tell Him"" (dialogue)| 1:46
9.| "Engulfed Cathedral" (writer: Claude Debussy)| 3:33
10.| "Across the Roof"| 1:17
11.| "Descent into New York"| 3:37
12.| "Back to the Pod – Version #1"| 1:34
13.| "Everyone's Coming to New York" (writer: Nick Castle)| 2:24
14.| ""Don't Go Down There!"" (dialogue)| 0:19
15.| "Back To The Pod – Version #2/The Crazies Come Out"| 2:09
16.| ""I Heard You Were Dead!"" (dialogue)| 0:08
17.| "Arrival at the Library"| 1:06
18.| ""You Are the Duke of New York"" (dialogue)| 0:16
19.| "The Duke Arrives/Barricade"| 3:35
20.| "President at the Train"| 2:28
21.| ""Who Are You?"" (dialogue)| 0:27
22.| "Police Action"| 2:27
23.| "Romero and the President"| 1:43
24.| "The President Is Gone"| 1:53
25.| "69th Street Bridge"| 2:44
26.| "Over the Wall"| 3:42
27.| ""The Name Is Plissken"" (dialogue)| 0:25
28.| Untitled| 3:58
Total length:| 57:17

## Personnel

[edit]

* John Carpenter – piano, synthesizers, composition, production
* Alan Howarth – synthesizers, guitar, bass guitar, sequencing, programming, composition, engineering, production
* Tommy Lee Wallace – guitar
* Pamela Smith – piano

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. "Escape from New York [Original Film Soundtrack] - John Carpenter, Alan Howarth". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved July 10, 2017.

## External links

[edit]

* Escape from New York Soundtrack at The Official John Carpenter
* How the Escape From New York music was made (feat. Alan Howarth)

* v
* t
* e

Escape from New York

Films|

* Escape from New York (1981)
* Escape from L.A. (1996)

Soundtrack|

* Escape from New York (1981)

Book|

* Escape from New York: The Official Story of the Film (2021)

Characters|

* Snake Plissken

* v
* t
* e

John Carpenter

Filmography|

| Directed|

* Captain Voyeur (1969, short)
* Dark Star (1974)
* Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
* Halloween (1978)
* Someone's Watching Me! (1978, TV)
* Elvis (1979, TV)
* The Fog (1980)
* Escape from New York (1981)
* The Thing (1982)
* Christine (1983)
* Starman (1984)
* Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
* Prince of Darkness (1987)
* They Live (1988)
* Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
* Body Bags (1993, TV)
* In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
* Village of the Damned (1995)
* Escape from L.A. (1996)
* Vampires (1998)
* Ghosts of Mars (2001)
* "Cigarette Burns" (2005, TV)
* "Pro-Life" (2006, TV)
* The Ward (2010)

|

Written only|

* The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970, short)
* Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
* Zuma Beach (1978, TV)
* Better Late Than Never (1979, TV)
* Halloween II (1981)
* Black Moon Rising (1986)
* El Diablo (1990, TV)
* Blood River (1991, TV)
* Silent Predators (1999, TV)

Produced only|

* Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
* The Fog (2005)

Discography|

| Albums|

* Lost Themes (2015)
* Lost Themes Remixed (2015)
* Lost Themes II (2016)
* Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998 (2017)
* Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (2021)

|

EPs|

* Classic Themes Redux EP (2016)
* Lost Cues: The Thing (2020)

Scores and
soundtracks|

* Halloween (1979)
* Dark Star (1980)
* Escape from New York (1981)
* Halloween II (1981)
* Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
* The Fog (1984)
* Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
* Prince of Darkness (1987)
* They Live (1988)
* Christine (1989)
* Body Bags (1993)
* In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
* Village of the Damned (1995)
* Escape from L.A. (1996)
* Vampires (1998)
* Ghosts of Mars (2001)
* Assault on Precinct 13 (2003)
* Halloween (2018)
* Halloween Kills (2021)
* Firestarter (2022)
* Halloween Ends (2022)

Related|

* Unrealized projects
* Cody Carpenter (son)
* Daniel Davies (godson)

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