One of the most iconic series tunes ever comes from him: “Twin Peaks” composer Angelo Badalamenti is dead

“Twin Peaks” is cult – for which (not without reason, of course) co-creator and director David Lynch gets the laurels. The melancholy, voluptuous and at times almost hypnotic tapestries of sound by Angelo Badalamenti, who received the Grammy for this, also contributed decisively to the very special atmosphere of the groundbreaking mystery series.

Above all, the signature main theme, which rings out in the closing credits of the series, is one of those TV tunes that should be familiar to even those who have never seen “Twin Peaks” – and which, for some sad reason, now is even more should lead to heart: as American trade journals report, Angelo Badalamenti died on December 11, 2022 at the age of 85.

Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch

Even before their close collaboration on “Twin Peaks”, Angelo Badalementi and David Lynch had sought and found each other. After the American composer of Italian descent wrote the soundtracks for lesser-known films such as “The Hunt for Left Brothers” (then under his stage name Andy Badale) in the 1970s and worked for a while as a music producer (for the “Pet Shop Boys”, Lynch eventually helped him get his big break as a film music composer.

Lynch brought the music expert on board for his unsettling 1986 thriller masterpiece Blue Velvet, first as vocal coach to lead actress Isabella Rossellini – and eventually hiring him as composer. From there, Badalamenti contributed the often dark music to nearly every Lynch project – from the aforementioned Twin Peaks (including the prequel film) to Wild At Heart and Lost Highway to The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive. He also made cameo appearances on camera in two of the works: as a pianist in “Blue Velvet” and as gangster Luigi Castigliane in “Mulholland Drive”.

David Lynch has now said goodbye to Angelo Badalementi in his own subtle way. In the Dec. 12 issue of his erratic weather forecast videos, which he posts daily to YouTube, he talked about the fact that there was no music today — which, of course, was quickly identified by many as a reference to the loss of his old friend:

Diverse music genius

Already during his repeated collaborations with David Lynch, but even more so beyond, Angelo Badalementi has repeatedly shown his musical diversity. For example, the scores for various films such as “Nightmare On Elm Street 3”, “Nice Mess”, “Arlington Road” and “The Beach” come from the composer. And with the infectious music for the video game hit “Fahrenheit” in 2005, he even made a detour into the gaming sector.

His latest works now include the music for the fantasy novel “After this‘ from 2020 and the masterful revival season of ‘Twin Peaks’ from 2017, whose 18 episodes were again all enriched by the sounds of Badalementi.

Incidentally, Angelo Badalamenti’s second cousin said goodbye to his famous relative in a little more detail than David Lynch in an Instagram post, which again gives a nice impression of the composer’s work and performance: