# The Art of Sound (in the book 'Lynch on Lynch')



## fractile (Mar 15, 2009)

I just finished reading this book, after finding it on the sidewalk, Monday; I couldn't put it down :reading:
It covers the history of David Lynch (Blue Velvet, etc.) and covers mainly the development, writing and directing of his work from the beginning, up to _Lost Highway_, 1996; well, I see the revised edition includes The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive; but there are some great anecdotes about sound design and music for film, some of the techniques used and the aesthetic of integrating sound and music with film, plus working with musicians technically and personally.

This was written when non-linear editing and digital electronics were just beginning to go mainstream, so it also gives a snapshot of Lynch's view of how this technology fit into his style of production.

Lynch is primarily an independent maker of 'art films', yet has worked with Hollywood (eg., Dune) on movies, TV (Twin Peaks), commercials (Armani,etc.) and music-video (Michael Jackson).

'thought I'd share the discovery...

Here's a link: Amazon.com: Lynch on Lynch, Revised Edition (9780571220182): Chris Rodley: [email protected]@[email protected]@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/[email protected]@[email protected]@41a-xLBAxBL


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## ngarjuna (Mar 29, 2010)

I've always been a huge fan (Twin Peaks might be my favorite TV production ever). Although I have to admit, while I generally enjoy even the more esoteric Lynch films, I didn't understand "Inland Empire" well enough to enjoy it much. Having sat through it twice I still couldn't tell you what is going on in that one.


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## maikol (Nov 7, 2008)

Thank you for that great info.

Twin Peaks still is for me the best thing that happened on TV!


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## fractile (Mar 15, 2009)

I've seen a number of Lynch's works over the years, but never applied a 'This is David Lynch' stamp until seeing a documentary on him that featured his painting. The nature of his paintings put me off as being too 'dark' (I began as a painter, as he did), and in a 'politically correct' reflex began to reject his work. And reading the book I see that there have been strong reactions to his work; it mentions that in a test screening 300 out of 350 walked out of the theater after one scene (that scene was cut out of the film).

He covers various aspects of the issues around his aesthetic in the book, describing a sort of naively abstract approach that he takes, so this accounts for things being 'logically' unintelligible at times. Despite my trepidation toward his tone I intend to review as much of his complete works as possible, to hopefully gain some insight to his visual language and also the qualities of the dialog and sound-track in relation to this. His sensory-perceptual approach to dialog and sound sounds intriguing to me.

Lynch's first grant (funding) was in the second wave of a National Endowment for the Arts/American Film Institute program. The first wave went to Bruce Connor and Stan Brackhage, two legendary avant-garde filmmakers.

Brackhage is essentially my mentor, on the pure art side of film-making. I think every one of his films is devoid of a sound-track, except for the occasional recording of the clack of a projector. I think the only one approaching a 'narrative' is _Dogstar Man_; it can be glimpsed on YouTube. The two other main mentors for me are Robert Altman and Werner Herzog (not to mention all the Goddard, Fellini, Bunuel...; editor of the book, Chris Rodley describes Lynch as "...a surrealist in the tradition of the great Spanish film-maker, Luis Bunuel."). These studies are an attempt to retrieve my own sense of aesthetic from the techniques, methods and products of these artists. Lynch has delineated for me a lucid theory of film-making while flatly avoiding explicit labels, descriptions and analyses.

p.s. One thing I had wanted to mention is an attempt to interpret a rational basis for the aesthetic David Lynch discusses in this book. This being that he's attempting to retrieve some of the, what we would these days call primitive, connection with nature and its organic and animal processes, which can seem brutal or dirty in our modern sterilized environments. And with his favor of working with neighborhood settings, a sense of family and community often lost in our increasingly disconnected societies. Maybe getting off-topic, but, whether I'm correct or not, plays into the general sight and sound aesthetic of Lynch.


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