David Lynch

From his cult classic television series Twin Peaks to his most recent film Inland Empire (2006), David Lynch is best known for his unorthodox narrative style. An award-winning director, producer, and writer, Lynch distorts and disrupts traditional storylines and offers viewers a surreal, often nightmarish perspective. His unique approach to filmmaking has made his work familiar to critics and audiences worldwide, and he earned Academy Award nominations for Best Director for The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and Mulholland Drive (2001)…

This master release groups versions of the sound installation created for the David Lynch exhibition "The Air Is On Fire" held at Fondation Cartier Pour L'Art Contemporain, Paris, in 2007.
Part of what makes it so cinematic is the way it balances the narrative and the abstract, much like Lynch’s films. There are clear steps and turns, obvious moves forward and significant retreats. But there are also moments of pure texture, in which creating an indefinite feeling is more important than painting a specific picture. There are points in between, too, and those are the most fascinating: a section that sounds like a slowed-down show tune underwater, a rumble that could either be the echo of a cave or the ghosts of human voices, a dramatic turn that’s like a symphonic string section shot into space…

An astonishing, peerless masterpiece, the soundtrack to David Lynch's debut labor of love creates a world of haunting mechanics and sexual distress in such a bizarre layer of sonic fog that any record collection is simply poorer without it. The enormity of the aural experimentation is extraordinary. With renowned sound designer Alan Splet, Lynch developed any technique he could conjure up - from recording with pieces of glass tubing, pneumatic engines, or water-based pieces of machinery - to produce sounds never heard before (or since) in any medium. Pieces of Fats Waller filter in through the unsettling haze. The sounds of the unimaginably horrific baby are nothing less than ghastly. Few directors could have realized such a potent vision only a first time out. Disturbing, haunting, and - decades later - still one of the most compelling sonic creations in the history of film.