With so much of Showtime’s return to Twin Peaks next year still appropriately shrouded in mystery, even to the cast members who are ostensibly part of it, fans have been left to hang on every drib and drab of casting information, tweet, or wordless preview—clinging to the tiniest evocation of the show’s distinctive atmosphere solely for the familiar feelings they stir, regardless of whether they offer anything new or, frankly, substantive to merit the attention.
Anyway, here’s a clip of Angelo Badalamenti playing a synthesizer.
Billed as an “extended tease” (a phrase that’s probably far sexier than it delivers—though your mileage may vary), it finds the show’s original composer hunched over his keyboard, eyes closed in musical ecstasy, plucking out the swooning, melodramatic strains of “Laura Palmer’s Theme.” Badalamenti’s head floats through the shadows of the Pacific Northwest forest, bringing to mind a wandering, omniscient spirit or a Yanni video. The photo of Sheryl Lee’s Laura that once appeared in the end credits floats into view like an old, dead, cokehead friend. We are moved. We are reminded of what we lost and how it may return to us still. We recall that the Twin Peaks soundtrack just got a vinyl reissue and is available on Amazon.
We see, hear, and feel these things that we remember, but we are no closer to understanding. And yet… Is this not Twin Peaks? Is this not the story that Twin Peaks is returning to tell?
Fuck if we know. Song’s still good, though.