Twin Peaks

by Angelo Badalamenti


Original Release Date: 1990-09-11

Twin Peaks
Artist Angelo Badalamenti
Genre Electronic
Genre Jazz
Genre Stage & Screen
Style Soundtrack
Style Score
Style Ambient

Likely the most influential and beloved television soundtrack of all time, Angelo Badalamenti’s dark jazz mood piece for Twin Peaks moves with a distinctly slow, sinister, sensual elegance. It was the second collaboration between the composer and director David Lynch, following 1986’s landmark Blue Velvet. At an initial meeting, Lynch, who didn’t yet have a script, described the feel of the show: a girl alone in the woods while the sycamore trees sway in the wind. With Lynch in his ear demanding it be slower, Badalamenti improvised the haunting, iconic “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” The rest of the Twin Peaks score moves in similar shadows, stalking between noir moods and romantic swoon, cool jazz and warm dream pop. It’s a musical universe befitting Twin Peaks, Washington itself: slow-motion tempos, velvety synths, gently brushed drums, vibraphones, twangy guitar, simple melodies, dissonance, and a liberal coating of reverb. In three tracks—“The Nightingale,” “Into the Night,” and “Falling”—you can also hear the croon of Julee Cruise, who set the red-curtained stage for generations of drifting, melancholy vocals, including those of Lana Del Rey, Beach House, Chromatics, and Sky Ferreira. Badalamenti’s uncanny world and evocative textures would have wide-ranging impact, in indie gloom bands like Cigarettes After Sex, “doom jazz” bands like Bohren & Der Club of Gore, and the austere film soundtracks of Cliff Martinez.

Tracklisting

  1. Twin Peaks Theme
  2. Laura Palmer’s Theme
  3. Audrey’s Dance
  4. The Nightingale
  5. Freshly Squeezed
  6. The Bookhouse Boys
  7. Into The Night
  8. Night Life In Twin Peaks
  9. Dance Of The Dream Man
  10. Love Theme From Twin Peaks
  11. Falling

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Release Information

Key Value
Format Vinyl LP Album Reissue Remastered (Brown Marbled [Damn Fine Coffee], 180g)
Label Death Waltz Recording Company
Catalog Number DW50
Notes Director approved artwork, on 180 gram damn fine coffee colour vinyl with a 425 gram gatefold sleeve housed inside a bespoke white die-cut outer jacket with white spot varnish finish, complete with obi. The [url=https://www.discogs.com/release/15764513-Angelo-Badalamenti-Twin-Peaks]reissue[/url] is missing the obi and has an additional catalogue number. Tracks listed sequentially on gatefold jacket and center labels. Tracks A4, B7, B11 also available on the Warner Bros. album “[m=5103]”. All songs © 1989. © & ℗ 1990 & 2016 Warner Bros. Records Inc. © Death Waltz Records. Recorded and mixed at Excalibur Sound. Except tracks A4, B7 & B11 mixed at The Hit Factory. Originally mastered at Masterdisk. All music published by Anlon Music Co. (ASCAP) / Bobkind Music (ASCAP). Anlon Music Co. and Bobkind Music are administered worldwide by Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP). Available directly from Mondotees website beginning on August 10, 2016, and in retail stores worldwide on September 9, 2016. A different Rainbo Records ID has been scratched out in runout of side B. The original numbers are unreadable, see picture.
Discogs URL Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks