''Eraserhead: Original Soundtrack'' (sometimes referred to as ''Eraserhead: Original Soundtrack Recording'' or just ''Eraserhead'') is a 1982 soundtrack album composed by

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...

and

Alan Splet Alan Splet (December 31, 1939 – December 2, 1994) was an American sound designer and sound editor known for his collaborations with director David Lynch on '' Eraserhead'', ''The Elephant Man'', ''Dune'', and '' Blue Velvet''. Due to being leg ...

as the soundtrack for Lynch's 1977 film ''

Eraserhead ''Eraserhead'' is a 1977 American independent surrealist body horror film written, directed, produced, and edited by David Lynch. Lynch also created its score and sound design, which included pieces by a variety of other musicians. Shot in bl ...

.''

Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Spellling, Blanck Mass, Crystal S ...

remastered and reissued the album in 2012.

Recording

The mood and tone of ''Eraserhead'' and its soundtrack were influenced by

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

's post-industrial history. Lynch lived in the city while studying painting at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

, and was fascinated by its feeling of constant danger; describing it both as a "sick, twisted, violent, fear-ridden, decaying place" and "beautiful, if you see it the right way." Lynch and Splet used

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

approaches to recording on the soundtrack; including crafting almost every sound in the soundtrack from scratch using bizarre methods. The ambiance of the love scene in the movie, for example, was produced by recording air blown through a microphone as it sat inside a bottle floating in a bathtub. Lynch and Splet worked "9 hours a day for 63 days" to produce the soundtrack and all of the

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

in the film. Splet recalls the sound effects Lynch called on him to produce for ''Eraserhead'' as "snapping, humming, buzzing, banging, like lightning, shrieking, squealing" over the five years it took to produce the film and its soundtrack. Splet had worked with Lynch since his short film ''

The Grandmother ''The Grandmother'' () is a novella written by Czech writer Božena Němcová in 1853–1854 and first published in 1855. It is her most popular work and is regarded as a classic piece of Czech literature. This most frequently read book of the ...

''. Also during the production of the soundtrack, Lynch drew two telephone wires for Splet, each line indicating between four and five pitches he wanted to be represented in the movie's music and sound effects. When Splet played Lynch

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star ...

-esque

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

numbers as soundtrack material, Lynch was immediately confident in the pipe-organ style, stating that he had "never listened to any other kind of music for (''Eraserhead''). I knew that was it."

Release

The original soundtrack for ''Eraserhead'' was released via

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

on LP in the United States on June 15, 1982, with 5 tracks. Side A consists of three songs written by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Side B consists of "

In Heaven "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" (often referred to as simply "In Heaven") is a song performed by Laurel Near, composed by Peter Ivers, with lyrics by David Lynch. The song is featured in Lynch's 1977 film '' Eraserhead'', and was subsequ ...

", the song performed by Laurel Near's character the Lady in the Radiator in the original film. It was reissued in 2012 by

in the form of a deluxe LP box set with additional 7" and as a deluxe CD, including the previously unreleased track "Pete's Boogie".

Track listing

Original 1982 I.R.S. LP

Absurda 2001 CD

Sacred Bones 2012 deluxe reissue CD and LP

References

{{David Lynch 1970s film soundtrack albums 1982 soundtrack albums David Lynch albums Horror film soundtracks