‘Sublime eternal love exists within each one of us’: David Lynch on music, friendship and life’s biggest mystery

The director, along with his collaborator Chrystabell explain – or try to – their new album Cellophane Memories and the magical marriage of music and film

‘Where we’re from,” says The Man from the Other Place in David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks, “there’s always music in the air.” The line concerns a terrifying alternate reality called the Black Lodge, but could apply to the whole of Lynch’s surrealist cinematic universe. From industrial drones to soaring ballads, it has always been filled with music: think of Roy Orbison songs shattering reality in Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, or Julee Cruise’s spectral singing in Twin Peaks. “Cinema is sound and picture both – 50/50 really,” Lynch says. “I don’t know why everyone doesn’t think this way.”

Lynch has long made his own music, dating back to 1977 with his soundtrack for his debut feature film Eraserhead, composed with sound designer Alan Splet. Lynch gave his first vocal performance on Ghost of Love, a song for 2006’s Inland Empire in a spine-chilling croon, and has since released two solo LPs. Now, his new album Cellophane Memories, made with longtime collaborator Chrystabell, is another strange adventure in sound: an album of ghosts, fed by several of the long, devoted creative partnerships that have shaped Lynch’s remarkable 78 years.