Clive Barker‘s Kickstarter campaign for Library of the Dead keeps growing. After backers pushed the crowdfunding total past $1.75 million, the campaign unlocked a new stretch goal reward: an original horror soundtrack titled Compositions of the Dead, composed as companion listening for Barker’s upcoming three volume anthology series.
Library of the Dead, published through Clive Barker Ink and Ensata Press and available exclusively through the Kickstarter campaign, bills itself as a spiritual successor to Barker’s Books of Blood. The trilogy, Fear Eternal, Pyres of Bedlam, and Dark Descents, is edited by Phil and Sarah Stokes and gathers new and previously out of print stories alongside black and white illustrations and poems from Barker himself.
Compositions of the Dead extends that world into sound. The album was written specifically as companion media for the books, with the goal of reaching backers digitally before the first volume arrives in early 2027. A composer roster has not been finalized; the campaign says it intends to mix established horror film composers with emerging artists chosen personally by Barker, though no names have been confirmed yet. Every backer of the campaign receives the digital album for free, and a limited vinyl pressing is also planned, with backers getting first access to purchase it once the campaign closes. No release date has been set for the vinyl edition.
Barker, who has spent the campaign treating backers as partners in the project rather than customers, framed the soundtrack as a natural extension of the anthology’s reach rather than a bonus tacked on for its own sake.
The stories in Library of the Dead do not resemble each other at all.
Clive Barker
He also noted that companion media of this kind helps expand on the themes of the stories themselves, calling the idea wonderfully exciting.
The Library of the Dead campaign has now drawn more than 7,000 backers, with late pledges still open through Kickstarter. The Compositions of the Dead reveal follows a string of previously announced stretch goals, including a remastered two volume Books of Blood omnibus and an Art of Clive Barker portfolio.
Backers can still join the campaign through Kickstarter’s late pledge page.
