Assault on Precinct 13

All photographs: © CKK Corporation
Mastered at Translab, Paris/France

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TO: SINCLAIR
FROM: JOHN CARPENTER
RE: ASSAULT LINER NOTES

It is interesting (but not surprising) that the soundtrack for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is only 26 minutes long. In my own defense, it was all the time I could afford in the recording studio. I had to compose and perform a few mood pieces that I could use again and again through the movie. This was 1976 - the days of ultra-low-budget movie-making. The entire cost of Assault was $100,000. You can imagine how much we spent on the score.

Before recording ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13's music, I thought of Bernard Hermann and his ability to achieve maximum impact from minimum means. As I recall, I had about 3 days to complete the score. I remember having great difficulty with a quiet piano sequence to be played over the death of Nancy Loomis' character Julie. The main title theme was relatively easy after we established the beat. Ice Cube told me 25 years later that the beat always comes first.

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is a truly minimalist score. I never imagined that anyone anywhere at any time would listen to the music on its own away from the images and narrative. I'm grateful for this CD. I hope you enjoy it.

John Carpenter
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Distributed by Chronowax
(p) & (c) 1977 CCK Corporation under exclusive license to Record Makers
(c) Sony TV music publishing, ltd.