Every October since 2002, I\u2019ve spent the month delving into horror films. Some years have leaned more into familiar choices that I have come to love over the years, often by virtue of what else I had going on that month. In its earlier incarnations, however, I leaned into films I was not familiar with in the genre, from classic offerings to modern movies I\u2019ve missed. Each year, I find myself immersed in the atmosphere, the haunting narratives, and the unsettling music. In 2004, the creative bug hit, and manifested into compositions inspired by those viewings. This is a compilation of all of the pieces those October viewings have inspired to date.<\/p>\n
In 2013, four of these pieces found their way onto my album, \u201cStorytelling\u201d<\/b>, but by offering them here, I think you will be able to greater appreciate the context in which they have been composed. My 7th album, “The Cold Wind of Horror”<\/b> is not a chronological experience, but one structured in a way to place each piece as part of the whole of these creative experiences.<\/p>\n
One of the things I love about the cover art for this album, by Alex Filacchione, is that it evokes the feeling of watching some of the great silent masterpieces of the genre, whether it’s “Nosferatu”<\/i><\/a>, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”<\/i><\/a> or “Haxan”<\/i><\/a>, which uses the iconography of horror to look at modern psychological struggles, and how science has often been mistaken for witchcraft. In a way, that might be a film that means most to me in considering this collection of horror-inspired pieces, one of which- “Labyrinth of Terror”<\/i>– was used as the underscore for a psychological horror film in its own right several years ago.<\/p>\n