In conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the film The Elephant Man, Crunch Pod & Auricle Media proudly present, GARMONBOZIA: A Tribute To David Lynch. Enter a dark world, filled with surreal, absurdist, and dream-like atmospheres inspired by the musical works of writer, director, painter, musician, and craftsman David Lynch.
GARMONBOZIA, Crunch Pod’s tribute compilation to Lynch, is released free of charge. “It is a love letter, straight from our heart!” says the label, quoting the line from Blue Velvet.
Although Lynch found fame primarily as a film director, his extensive musical work over the last 44 years is equally jaw-dropping. His time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts birthed the idea of creating a more dynamic visual experience with his stop motion film Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times), a short film that repeated the horrible sound of sirens as his paintings vomited. He transformed his Philadelphia house into a set and featured his then-wife Peggy and the cries of infant daughter Jennifer in The Alphabet. Later, Lynch worked with sound designer Alan Splet on the eerie, atmospheric musique concrete soundscapes for his debut masterpiece, Eraserhead. They recorded rattling objects in a bathtub and sculpted the bleak aural experience of protagonist Henry’s dreamlike existence. Lynch has used this approach to his cinematic visuals ever since; his films all burned into the collective precisely because of this use of sound; sometimes sound directs his visuals. Had Bobby Vinton not piqued his senses, there would be no Blue Velvet. Twin Peaks would have been another feeling entirely without his collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti. What would that parallel universe look like?
Lynch’s relationship to sound is equally important to his visual cues. His lyrics, culled from the deep waters of the collective psyche, collaborations with other musicians, and arrangements have left an indelible mark on modern music. Underground music, pop, film scoring and sound engineers owe Lynch a tip of the hat.
Featuring unusual, weird, strange and intriguing versions and inspirations of some of Lynch’s vast catalogue of work, the compilation spans Post-Punk, Industrial, Darkwave, Dark Ambient, Dark Techno, to IDM and experimental music. The compilation includes artists such as RECON, THEODORE THE BLACKSMITH, MELLOW CODE, W.A.S.T.E., DEFINE.HUMAN, EERIE FAMILY, ZEITMAHL, DREAMSCAPE INVOCATION, PYROCLASTIC, THLAAFLAA, EYELESS SIGHT, STRANGER DREAMS, NDSTRY, ZY_GOTE, BROKEN FABIOLA & MANUFACTURA.
Interestingly enough, the collection also pays homage to Lynch’s own diverse musical tastes. Known for being a massive Rammstein fan, for instance, David Lynch has featured music in all of these genres in his work…indeed, this is someone who could believably transplant Trent Reznor into the world of Twin Peaks as “THE Nine Inch Nails.” What a beautiful concept.
Lynch’s wonderful book Catching The Big Fish describes the concept of ideas as a body of water filled with fish: some big, some small, some ready for catching and some that need throwing back. If you sit quietly, you might get lucky and catch the big one. These artists, in turn, happily found their own catches while sitting quietly in Lynch Lake.
Take a musical ride into a world that’s wild at heart and weird on top.
