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Music

Watch 'Twin Peaks' Composer Angelo Badalamenti's Eerie Video for "Mysteries Of Love" with Kid Moxie

What is gestating in that tree trunk? Is this all in their heads? What is going on here!?

You know Angelo Badalamenti. No, he's not a hot new Italian pop star who made a splash at Sanremo Music Festival, he's an esteemed film composer from Brooklyn who has soundtracked some truly excellent silver (and small) screen moments. And the partnership that has defined his storied career has been his work with David Lynch—perhaps most memorably on the opening credits for Twin Peaks which manages to sound both romantic and forebodingly atmospheric. But the union of Lynch and Badalamenti first began back in 1986 with Blue Velvet.

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And it all started like this: "David Lynch sent me an abstract lyric scratched out on yellow paper—and when Isabella Rosselini handed it to me at my studio I was perplexed—this wasn't a typical song lyric," recalls Badalamenti. "Later, he told me on the phone, when I asked him what he wanted from the music, that it should "float like the tides of the ocean," it should be "timeless, endless." So, I wrote the tune using David's lyric; I didn't change a single word. And we found Julee Cruise to sing it, which was crucial. And so, the song ended up being featured in the film Blue Velvet, and took the place of the pop tune "Song to the Siren" by This Mortal Coil. 'Mysteries of Love,' is quite special to me, because it represents the start of a great lifelong friendship and collaboration with David Lynch."

But that was then and this is now, 20 plus years later, and "Mysteries of Love" has had a little rework: Cruise is out and LA-based synth-pop singer Kid Moxie has stepped up to the plate. "I am very happy that Kid Moxie has taken on 'Mysteries of Love' and she's bringing to a new audience today," says the composer. "She's a great talent that brings her own voice and artistry to the song, which I appreciate very much."

This new version of "Mysteries of Love" dropped online six months ago and the ethereal slowburning beauty of a track was performed at the Music of David Lynch tribute concert, which took place in LA earlier this month, alongside performances from Duran Duran, Moby, Sky Ferreira, and Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O. (The concert was thrown in order to not only celebrate the awesomeness of Lynch, but also to raise money for the non-profit David Lynch Foundation, which promotes transcendental meditation as a means of healing for at-risk youth.)

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In any case above is the video for said rework which stars Kid Moxie and chiseled French actor Guillaume Campanacci. "I think (and hope) people are going to find this video both beautiful and disturbing," says Kid Moxie. "Our intention was to explore love in terms of light and darkness. Exhilarating yet frightening."

It is certainly unsettling, raising more questions than providing answers like, what is gestating in that tree trunk? Where is the door to that sweet empty movie theater and can we go? Is this all in their heads? And just generally: what did I just watch? But hey, would you expect anything less from a piece of Lynch-affiliated work?

Watch the video above and check out some behind the scenes snaps below.

"Mysteries Of Love" is lifted from Kid Moxie's album 1888