Fire Walk With Us: The Music of Twin Peaks is an incredible live reworking of the music from the early seasons of the Twin Peaks television series, as well as the subsequent film/prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
I last saw Musical Director, James Lees, in Melbourne in 2016 when he and his assembled artists, called Electric Moon, gave a glorious performance of the entirety of David Bowie’s masterpiece, Ziggy Stardust (in a nice tangent, Bowie has a wonderful (if somewhat combustible) cameo in Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me).
It’s a slightly different line-up this time around, but no less talented: James Lees (drums/percussion), Sam Maguire (double bass), Rohan Seekers (piano/keys), SS.Sebastian (vocals/keys/guitar), Andrew Saragossi (flute/clarinet/sax), Mia Goodwin (vocals), Lucinda Shaw (vocals/keys), and Tylea (vocals/keys).
Composed by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, these tracks navigate a beautiful line between quaint nostalgia for an imagined wholesome past and the unsettling dark fears and truths lying just underneath that shiny idealised surface. It’s a theme explored – visually and musically – across many of his films, such as Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, or Blue Velvet.
Electric Moon preserve the haunting quality and sonic brooding of the original Twin Peaks music, but more than that they succeed in making the exercise something other than Rock Band-type karaoke. Part of the theatre came from their demeanour, almost all still and considered regardless of what sounds were being made.
Andrew Saragossi was an anti-Fred Madison, foregoing frenetic jazz movements for an unstirring physicality instead. This aspect of stillness was something embodied by all the performers.
Framed by a beguiling lighting design, the audience was able to be immersed in the genius of Badalamenti and Lynch without the risk of being taken out of the mood by any inadvertent on-stage antics. Fire Walk With Us was aural mesmerism at its finest.
Fire Walk With Us: The Music of Twin Peaks
Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran
Performance: Tuesday 26 June 2018 – 8.30pm
Information and Bookings: www.melbournecabaret.com
Image: Electric Moon present Fire Walk With Us – The Music of Twin Peaks (supplied)
Review: David Collins