Eraserhead (soundtrack)

The mood and tone of Eraserhead and its soundtrack were influenced by Philadelphia's post-industrial history. Lynch lived in the city while studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 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."[8][9][1] Lynch and Splet used avant-garde 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.[10] Lynch and Splet worked "9 hours a day for 63 days" to produce the soundtrack and all of the sound effects 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.[11] Splet had worked with Lynch since his short film The Grandmother. 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-esque pipe organ 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."[11]

The original soundtrack for Eraserhead was released via I.R.S. Records 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", the song performed by Laurel Near's character the Lady in the Radiator in the original film.

It was reissued in 2012 by Sacred Bones Records in the form of a deluxe LP box set with additional 7" and as a deluxe CD. Tracklistings vary heavily throughout the numerous variations of the album.