Listen to David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s long-lost 1990s album
Angelo Badalamenti, the iconic composer best known for his work on the Mark Frost and David Lynch TV series Twin Peaks, has died aged 85. The news was confirmed by members of Badalamenti’s family members on Monday, August 12th.
“My great uncle Angelo Badalamenti has crossed the barrier onto another plane of existence,” a statement reads. “Between his work on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Cabin Fever, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and a plethora of others, plus his relationships and collaborations with David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Nina Simone, Julee Cruise, Isabella Rosselini, Dolores O’Riordan, Anthrax, Dokken, Eli Roth and especially David Lynch, he has always been the most interesting man in the world to me”.
The statement adds: “A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. Not to mention the casual but mind blowing true stories from his life he never ran out of. He will truly be missed by many”.
Badalamenti, who received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his Twin Peaks theme in 1990, was one of David Lynch’s closest collaborators, working with the surrealist director on projects such as Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and more. However, it is his work on Twin Peaks that will be forever etched into the memories of his biggest supporters.
Despite their work together on the big screen, both Lynch and Badalamenti would often lock themselves away, bounce ideas off one another and allow whichever medium worked best to come to the fore. During the 1990s, that form of creative expression resulted in Thought Gang, a long-lost jazz album that was finally given a release in November 2018.
The record, which was said to have been created from 1992 to 1993, was released via Sacred Bones and consists of 12 tracks and features bassist Reggie Hamilton. “[Lynch] said imagine you’re a chicken with your head cut off running around with a thousand bennies shoved down your throat,” the press statement said at the time.
Lynch and Badalamenti formed a creative jazz project together in the ’90s and called themselves ‘Thought Gang’, hence the name of the record that eventually saw the light of day. The music, although never officially released at the time, did go on to create two songs that later appeared on the soundtrack for Lynch’s 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, according to a press release.
“It was energetic, inspiring, creative, exciting and a heck of a lot of experimental fun,” Badalamenti told Rolling Stone. “Working and collaborating with David through all these years has been warm and tied together with true, brotherly love. Regarding our Thought Gang project, we had some of the best studio musicians who eagerly shared this unusual musical experience. There were no arrangements or preset orchestrations. We simply gave a tempo and an initial key to get started and asked them to play what they felt, rhythmically and harmonically.”
Adding his thoughts to the project, Lynch said: “It was kind of a grand experiment,” which should come as little surprise. “I call it ‘modern music,’ but modern music could mean almost anything,” Lynch added. “I really do love it, but I know the reality is that it’s not exactly what people are going to flock to,” he continued.
Stream the record in full below.
