''The Air Is on Fire'' is a

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

by the American director and musician

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

. It was released on March 15, 2007 on Strange World Music. The soundtrack was composed by Lynch and collaborator

Dean Hurley Dean Hurley is an American composer, sound designer, and re-recording mixer. He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award two times for the series, ''Twin Peaks (season 3)''. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with director Davi ...

and accompanied Lynch's exhibition of paintings, photographs and drawings of the same name at

Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, known simply as the Fondation Cartier, is a contemporary art museum located at 261 boulevard Raspail in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, 14th arrondissement of the France, French capital, Paris. H ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France, in 2007. Originally issued on CD, a limited-edition LP of ''The Air Is on Fire'' was released in April 2014 on

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, Blanck Mass, Crystal Stilts, Marissa ...

as part of

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

. The LP was limited to 2,000 copies.

Composition

In an interview on Arte Radio in 2007, Dean Hurley used various phrases to describe ''The Air Is on Fire''s sound, including "a large flashbulb paparazzi sound", "short drum machine phrases", "brief phrases of machines working", "dubbed

industrial hip hop Industrial hip hop is a fusion genre of industrial music and hip hop. History 1980s The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood. In 1985, former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart releas ...

", "characteristic winds", "punch-presses pitched down", "train mechanisms and large steel-factory samples" and "metal structures that were welded together."

Reception

Writing for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', critic Marc Masters gave ''The Air Is on Fire'' a positive review. Masters drew comparisons between the album's sound and the styles of

Demdike Stare Demdike Stare is an English dark ambient and electronic music duo formed by DJ Sean Canty and producer Miles Whittaker. The project was conceived in 2009 and is based in Manchester. History Demdike Stare was formed in 2009 by Sean Canty and Mi ...

and

the Haxan Cloak Bobby Krlic (born 20 December 1985), known by his stage name The Haxan Cloak, is a British composer, artist, music producer and musician. The Haxan Cloak has released two full-length albums (2011's ''The Haxan Cloak'' and 2013's '' Excavation' ...

and said that "even at its densest, ''The Air Is on Fire'' is pretty simple sonically, which gives it a universal tone. It's not about cutting-edge techniques or never-heard-before concoctions. It's about using sound to tell a wordless story and evoke undefined emotions. On those counts, it succeeds thoroughly."

Track listing

2014 LP track listing

Personnel

All personnel credits adapted from ''The Air Is on Fire''s album notes. *

– instrumentation, arrangement,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

, editing, mixing *

– instrumentation,

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

, recording, design, cover art *Sacred Bones Design – additional design

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Air Is on Fire, the 2007 soundtrack albums David Lynch albums Instrumental soundtracks Sacred Bones Records soundtracks Ambient soundtracks