Angelo Badalamenti (born March 22, 1937) is a music composer, best known for his movie soundtrack work for surrealist movie director David Lynch.

Background

He was born in Brooklyn, New York to an American mother and an Italian father and spent a lot of his childhood listening to opera and classical music. He studied at the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music where he learned to compose music. He made scores for films such as Gordon's War , and Law and Disorder , but his big break came when he was brought in to be Isabella Rossellini's acting coach for David Lynch's film Blue Velvet. Rossellini was supposed to sing "Song of the Siren ", but unfortunately, Lynch was unable to secure the rights to use it. Badalamenti offered one of his own works to replace it, "Mysteries of Love", which Lynch gratefully accepted, and asking him to appear in the film as the piano player in the club where Rossellini's character performs. This film would be the first of many projects they would work together on.

After scoring a variety of mainstream films, including Nightmare on Elmstreet 3 and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, he scored Lynch's cult television show, Twin Peaks, which featured the vocals of Julee Cruise. Many of the songs from the series were released on Cruise's album Floating into the Night . Other Lynch projects he worked on include the movies Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Dr. (where he cameos as a gangster with a finicky taste for espresso), as well as the television shows On the Air and Hotel Room. Other projects he has worked in include the telefilm Witch Hunt, and the films Naked in New York , The City of Lost Children and A Very Long Engagement.

Collaborations

In 1990, he lent his services to British pop act Pet Shop Boys, arranging the strings on various tracks on the Behaviour album.

In 1996, Badalamenti teamed up with Tim Booth of the British rock band James. As Booth And The Bad Angel , they released an eponymous album on the Mercury label.

In 2000, he worked with Orbital on the Beached single for the movie of the same name.

Quotes

• "My (musical) world is a little bit dark... a little bit off-center. I think of it as tragically beautiful. That is how I would describe what I love best: tragically beautiful."

External links

• Angelo Badalamenti - a peak for David Lynch
• Yahoo Movies Biography of David Lynch
• Fansite Biography of David Lynch