In 1990 David Lynch created Twin Peaks and changed modern television. You can read about all of that here, here, here and here and, well you get the idea.
If this wasn’t enough of a cultural cachet, the smoke-filled slow motion jazz heard on the show has inspired a lot of great music as well as the genre of music called dark jazz, which I explore in this week’s playlist that celebrates music from and inspired by Twin Peaks.
Soundtrack from Twin Peaks by Angelo Badalamenti
American composer Angelo Badalamenti’s Soundtrack from Twin Peaks cracked the charts around the world and was sampled by many artists including Moby who famously used Laura Palmer’s Theme in his breakout hit Go (woodtick mix).
The TV series’s theatrical prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was released a couple of years later and the music by Badalamenti is just as influential.
Decades later, Lynch put out Twin Peaks Season 3 aka Twin Peaks: The Return. In addition to featuring some of Badalamenti’s music written for the original series, it includes several tracks from Johnny Jewel’s Windswept.
Inspired by Twin Peaks
The Dale Cooper Quartet using the investigative agent’s namesake are obviously inspired by the show and its music.
Germany’s Bohren Club de Gore have built a career that spans decades out of fusing slowed down metal with Badalamenti’s noir-filled jazz. Bohren Club de Gore have a lot of great albums such as Delores, Sunset Mission and Black Earth, but lucky for you, they just put out a new compilation that seems like a very smart place to start.
Bohren For Beginners by Bohren Club de Gore
Deaf Centre’s The Day I Would Never Have may not have such an overt connection to Twin Peaks, but manage to find beauty in the darkness and slot right into the dread-filled vibes.
Badalamenti’s Inspiration
And because everything is in turn inspired by something else, the playlist winds down with a couple of tracks by Chet Baker and Miles Davis that may have in turn inspired Badalamenti.
Chet Baker Sings by Chet Baker
L'ascenseur Pour L'echafaud by Miles Davis
I watched Twin Peaks (when it originally aired!) and all I could think when I heard the music was Henry Mancini’s Theme from Pink Panther. Perhaps, the OG of dark jazz songs.
For those of you wishing this post would keep going on, in the immortal words of Laura Palmer, “Quit trying to hold on so tight. I’m gone. Long gone. Like a turkey in the corn.”
Thanks for reading and listening!
Now we're cooking. Love the Twin Peaks theme. It's too bad it go so freaking confusing and weird that I never finished the first time it aired, or in a later rewatch where I lasted 2 episodes in. I still would like to stay at that hotel lodge one day tho. Still looking good: https://www.salishlodge.com/
Twin Peaks!!!!!