One of the highlights for me from Twin Peaks on Showtime was discovering the music of Johnny Jewel. His 2017 album “Windswept” was on heavy rotation leading up to the start of season 3 last spring. So imagine my delight when I learned on May 21, 2018 he was releasing a follow up album of Twin Peaks-inspired tunes titled “Themes for Television.”
According to Pitchfork, the double LP contained 56-minutes of music, “allegedly meant for David Lynch and Mark Frost’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” on Showtime. Jewel reportedly composed 20 hours of music for the show and submitted somewhere between five and seven hours to Lynch for potential use.”
Wow! More music from a place both wonderful and strange. I immediately ordered the double album and CD from Italians Do It Better, Johnny’s own record label. Here is a breakdown of what arrived in the mail today.
The album and CD arrived in a heavy cardboard box marked “Fragile.” There was an image of Johnny Jewel sporting the ring first seen in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. His version of the ring was made specifically for Twin Peaks Season 3 on Showtime.
Upon opening the box, I removed the double-LP which was wrapped in plastic (of course!!). This first edition album was produced and mixed by Johnny Jewel.
It was mastered by Mike Bozzi at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Mike has been nominated for four Grammy awards including Kendrick Lamar’s album “Damn.”
The album was cut by Bernie Grundman, an award winning audio engineer, in Hollywood, California. Grundman was a 1978 Grammy Award Winner for Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording which was Steely Dan’s “Aja.”
Artwork was created by Johnny Jewel with photographs by Rene and Radka. Rene is from Cologne, Germany and Radio is from Prague, Czech Republic. These photographers reside in Los Angeles and work between New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Their work is stunning!
The double-LP was divided into two “Dreams.” The Dream One album sleeve contains more photography from Rene and Radka.
Each album was pressed on 180 Gram Cherry Pie (!!) vinyl.
Dream Two album sleeve has a haunting, monochromatic image of a woman taken by Rene and Radka.
I also ordered the Compact Disc of this album because I’m a completist.
Unlike the double-LP, there was only one CD that contained all musical tracks from this release.
A real treat was discovering wonderful folded posters packaged with the LP. One featured artwork from the cover of “Themes for Television,” while the was created in 2017 and contains an image of Laura Palmer in a smashed glass frame.
Italians Do It Better also included Johnny Jewel’s 2014 release, “The Other Side of Midnight” in the package. It was a nice surprise to find a bonus CD.
Finally, there was a postcard advertising Carla Dal Forno.
This release is a fantastic addition to my ever growing Twin Peaks music collection, especially for the price. The double-LP was only $20 while the CD was an additional $3. It’s worth every penny! Visit the Italians Do It Better online store to place your order.
