Five ways David Lynch made his mark on electronic music

Few filmmakers have managed to intertwine their visual and sonic worlds quite like David Lynch. It’s no surprise then, that news of the legendary filmmaker's death at age 73 this month has elicited an outpouring of dedications from both movies and music. There are few artforms that haven’t been touched by Lynch’s impact in the close to five decades since his first feature film, Eraserhead, was released in 1977 — from fashion to architecture, theatre to literature. Dance and electronic music is no different, and Lynch’s impact can be felt across the spectrum — he inspired some of your favourite musicians, his work informed the design of some of your favourite nightlife spaces, samples from Twin Peaks, Dune, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Wild At Heart and more can be heard in some of your favourite club bangers.

David Lynch’s self-created universe had a trademark quality of being simultaneously surreal and unfamiliar, while constantly nodding to, and being inspired by, the real world; his relationship with electronic and experimental music was a mutually beneficial one — allowing newfangled sounds to inform his work, while having had a profound impact on modern music himself. To pay tribute to the seminal filmmaker, we have put together a list of five ways David Lynch left his mark on electronic music — from Burial sampling Inland Empire on ‘Untrue’ to making his Club Silencio vision come to life.

It’s no surprise that the score of David Lynch’s seminal TV series Twin Peaks, as well as its 2017 revival series, have been regarded as the “summit of TV soundtracks”, known for their otherworldly soundscapes and atmospheric production. Made in collaboration with composer Angelo Badalamenti, with additional vocals across some of its most well-known tracks from Julee Cruise (who also appeared in both the series and 1992 prequel film), Twin Peaks has left a lasting legacy that transcends cinema itself. Over 30 years since the original series was released, the score of Twin Peaks has been lifted time and time again by musicians – particularly within electronic music – where they’ve been reshaped into new iterations. While the show’s main theme song has been adapted in tracks by the likes of The KLF, Actress, Nookie, and Flying Lotus – who collaborated with Lynch on numerous occasions – other tracks from the series including ‘Laura Palmer’s Theme’ and ‘I Float Alone’ have also sampled by dance music artists including ATB, Moby, Noisia, DJ Shadow, and Dean Blunt.

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Though many musicians have picked up on the sonic genius of Lynch’s Twin Peaks series over the decades, his other work also garnered notable attention within the dance music world, too. Take his 2006 thriller Inland Empire, for example, which was sampled in the opening track of Burial’s debut album ‘Untrue’, released just a year later and today regarded as one of the most influential electronic albums of all time. The soundtrack of Lynch’s 1984 space opera Dune, which featured Brian Eno, also earned samples in multiple tracks from French electronic band Air, while a snippet from the film can also be heard in Fatboy Slim’s famed 2000-released single ‘Weapon Of Choice’. David Lynch is known to have inspired countless producers and bands throughout the years, including the likes of Aphex Twin, Nicolas Jaar, The Knife, and Cabaret Voltaire, but Lynch himself was constantly finding inspiration from the world of music.

David Lynch’s deep appreciation for music came through in his filmmaking; a number of his most evocative scenes are rooted in the art form. Who could forget the haunting ‘In Heaven’ performance in Eraserhead, or the lip syncing in Blue Velvet juxtaposing Roy Orbison’s sweet tones with ensuing brutality. Two that stand out the most are set in nightclubs. There’s the descent into ‘The Pink Room’ in Twin Peaks feature film Fire Walk With Me, a smoky, red-tinged sequence that’s both seductive and nightmarish, seen through Donna’s drugged-up perspective as she spirals amid the confusion of a bad trip. And then there’s Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive, perhaps the most affecting of all. “No hay banda!” barks a menacing compère, as an uncanny atmosphere seeps in. Long, droning chords are peppered with sharp clarinet notes. “It! Is! An illusion!” he sneers, as indoor thunder and lightning crash down and Naomi Watts’ character shakes uncontrollably. Then the vibe shifts, a magnificent singer brings her to tears, until the performer collapses and is dragged limp and lifeless from the stage while her vocals distrubingly continue. The Hollywood dream is eviscerated.

The gripping scene meant news of Lynch designing an IRL Silencio in Paris was received eagerly in 2011. This is clearly a man who understands the potent blend of psychedelia and sordidness that permeates the best nightlife spaces. “I enjoy how architecture and design create mood,” he told The New York TImes. The space opening its doors revealed everything hoped for. Directly inspired by the titular dream space from his 2001 classic, there’s flowing red velvet curtains, gold leaf adorned tunnels, dimly coloured lighting washing the coiling rooms in an ambient throb. “Looking at what we have done, I feel myself almost immortal,” he remarked to L'Express. “I have the feeling that I have coaxed out some of the atmosphere and the characters from my films, and even from my music.”

From horror to crime drama to romance; Lynchian filmmaking is signified by its marrying together of the ominous and dream-like. While all may not have co-existed simultaneously within his work, David Lynch's world was often one of glistening Americana, surreal optimism and otherworldly unease. Though his own music tastes, and the genres he platformed and explored, are less easy to categorise — having demonstrated an eclectic taste across his career that never really sat in one bracket. A connoisseur of alternative rock and electronic in equal measure, he was known to be a fan of Björk, David Bowie, Jimmy Hendrix, Depeche Mode and Bob Dylan; in 2022, seminal experimental duo Autechre revealed that he had asked them "via a handwritten letter" to play at a fundraiser for his David Lynch Foundation, his charity that focuses on the benefits of transcendental meditation.

While he consistently worked with a wide-range of musicians to create music for his films, such as enlisting Toto to create the soundtrack for Dune and his regular collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti — he would often platform experimental artists such as The KLF, Chromatics and Devo. The Lynch-verse was so intricately connected to the buoyant world of experimental music that Hudson Mohawke was invited to perform his track 'Human' at The Bang Bang Bar as part of a cameo on Twin Peaks: The Return, in the same episode as indie pop band Au Revoir Simone and Sky Ferreira, while other episodes included performances from industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and electronic-pop outfit Chromatics.

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Perhaps as the ultimate prop, he also leant his skills to creating a number of music videos for some of his favourite musicians, most of whom had featured within his on-screen work. In 1995 he created the visual for 'Rammstein' by the German NDH band of the same name, going on to craft a video for Moby's 'Shot In The Back of the Head', Nine Inch Nails 'Came Back Haunted' and more. In a 2017 interview with Pitchfork, Lynch said that there were “so many millions of songs and bands” that he wanted to collaborate with in his work, and he did so until the very end – championing musicians from all over the world.

Lynch was central in the curation and creation of the scores that flooded his idiosyncratic filmography. He collaborated with a wide array of composers throughout his career to produce six soundtrack albums. The first came in the shape of the avant-garde industrial sounds of his debut feature film, 1977’s Eraserhead, which he wrote alongside sound designer Alan Splet. Lynch also acted as lyricist for the movie’s unsettling tune ‘In Heaven’ performed by – in true Lynchian fashion – a tiny woman living in a radiator. Pixies, Modest Mouse, Bauhaus and Devo would all go on to cover the song, while Kanye West sampled it for A$AP Rocky on the unreleased track ‘Ladi Radi’. And while the director’s frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, is credited for Twin Peaks’ chimeric soundtrack, Lynch wrote lyrics and produced on songs including ‘Audrey’s Dance’, ‘Rockin' Back Inside My Heart’ and ‘Falling’. He also gave his first vocal performance in the 2006 film Inland Empire’s for ‘Ghost of Love’ and ‘Imaginary Girl’.

The director was quick to reject the label “musician”, but it’s clear that he really was one in his own right. He collaborated with a host of artists to create projects including ‘Lux Vivens’ (1998), ‘BlueBOB’ (2001), ‘Polish Night Music’ (2007), ‘Thought Gang’ (2018), ‘This Train’ (2011) and ‘Cellophane Memories’ (2024). He also released two solo albums in later life including ‘Crazy Clown Time’ (2011) and ‘The Big Dream’ (2013), collaborating with Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O on ‘Pinky’s Dream’ for the former and Lykke Li on ‘I'm Waiting Here’ for the latter. 2011's ‘Crazy Clown Time’ was famously Lynch’s first solo foray into electronica, a characteristically tense and mysterious record on the most part — but tracks such as the robotic dance-pop tune ‘Good Day Today’ and the rhythmic ‘Stone’s Gone Up’ divulge the surrealist auteur’s appreciation for more club-friendly sounds. To accompany what would be his final studio album, 'The Big Dream’ in 2013, Lynch released a remix EP featuring tracks from electronic artists Moby, Hot Since 82 and Venetian Snares. He was also partial to a remix himself, reworking Moby’s ‘The Poison Tree’, Mylène Farmer’s ‘Je te rends ton amour’ and Agnes Obel’s ‘Fuel To Fire’.

Beyond the screen, Lynch’s work pushed forth a movement of surrealism that by many has been directly translated into music. The already abstract world of dance music has frequently crossed over into Lynch’s repertoire including some artists naming him as the main inspiration for their work. For instance, electro-pop duo Goldfrapp incorporated Lynchian themes and styles to inspire their 2013 album ‘Tales of Us’ with dreamlike soundscapes and a sense of escapism. Even the music videos from the album, directed by Lisa Gunning evoke a feeling of distortion commonly found in Lynch’s works. Another artist unmistakably inspired by Lynch’s distinctive style is DJ and producer Flying Lotus, particularly with the single ‘Fire is Coming’ — the eerie spoken work track runs parallel with the famed "red room" from Twin Peaks alongside Lynch's own vocals featuring on the release. Lotus paid tribute to the director on news of his passing, writing: “My hero. And one of the world’s greatest artists of any era…. He knew.”

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Many in the electronic field shared their tributes including DJ Lucrecia Dalt who says that Twin Peak is “one of the most inspiring, mind-bending, unexpected pieces of art made for TV.” While Daniel Avery also posted that Lynch is “an eternal inspiration”. Glasgow duo Optimo shared a picture with the seminal filmmaker, with the caption: "One of greats has moved on. David Lynch RIP. Let’s focus on what he gave us though, not what is gone, or as he used to say…'Keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole'." Paul Woolford wrote: "Colossal all-time inspiration there’s nobody else quite like him, there never will be way beyond the films it was the attitude he taught so many of us how to live as artists." In a post on Instagram, Skream said: An absolute serious g lost today….. Fell in love when I see ‘Blue Velvet’ and was absolutely blown away in 2011 when I was asked to remix him… An absolute visionary and an absolute icon for doing what the fuck you want it you believe in it!" His long-time collaborator Moby also paid tribute on Instagram, writing simply "Just heartbroken. Rest in peace, dear friend."

Speaking on the subject of inspiration David Lynch shared to The Guardian in 2018: “It’s a feeling, more of an intuition. It’s the idea that you’ve fallen in love with, and you try to stay true to that. You see the way that cinema can say that idea, and it’s thrilling to you.”