A couple of years ago, I wrote at length about how David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE was proof that his relationship to music was deepening rather profoundly, but even then I could not have imagined "Dark Night of the Soul," the darkly gorgeous album recently released in collaboration with musical visionary Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse).
The album was supposed to have been released with this book of photographs by Lynch, which would have served as a visual accompaniment to the music, but some typical label bullshit from EMI is holding up an official release. You can nevertheless hear the album in its entirety on the NPR site, right here, and it's been reverse engineered so that it's possible to download the individual MP3 files directly. (The album has also appeared on torrent, we hear).
My personal favorite is "Jaykub" featuring Jason Lytle, but I also love "Star Eyes" and the atmospheric title track, "Dark Night of the Soul" is a perfect little postcard from the edge...a wonderfully psych-surf sounding Vic Chesnutt and Burton's lilting loops. Other contributors include a dream team-like array of artists including the Flaming Lips, Frank Black, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans), and Iggy Pop, yet little traces of Lynch's signature sound design remain a constant throughout the album. The quietly manic radio waves in Mark Linkous' "Daddy's Gone," for instance, are exactly the kind of touch Lynch would use to add tension to a scene and "Insane Lullaby" brings to mind the dense and demonic "Walkin' on the Sky" from INLAND EMPIRE: thick, unhinged rhythms slathered atop James Mercer's tenor like so much cadmium on canvas. It's all further evidence of Lynch's continued influence on music, as well as how thoroughly he means to explore the relationship between image and sound. Highly recommended.
Other contributers to "Dark Night of the Soul" include Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals, Susanne Vega, and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.
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