Eraserhead

Description

Eraserhead stands firmly at the top of that canon of American underground culture for which there is no genre. An essential element of the dark underbelly of popular cinema that, originally, could only be viewed in art-house theaters or as a Midnight movie, Eraserhead is a film without artifice, and much of its sensation goes beyond the purely visual realm. Eraserhead is a narrative made up of two intertwined strands: one of dark and beautiful images, elegantly painted in gray and black, and the other of layers of sublime, enveloping noise and static, with the tinkling of Fats Waller’s organs in the background. It is no exaggeration to regard this soundtrack as an early experimental and industrial masterpiece. The individual passion and personal tone of Eraserhead come through even in the thickest moments of fierce static, an audio undertaking that David Lynch and sound engineer Alan Splet took years to perfect. The most famous track from Eraserhead is undoubtedly Peter Ivers’ unforgettable, haunting ballad “In Heaven,” often covered, and the most exciting feature of this soundtrack reissue is undoubtedly its expansion, and it is included here, along with “Pete's Boogie,” a recording by Ivers that was previously only available on a long-out-of-print limited edition.