A Peak Experience, As Maslow (Or, Indeed, Colin Wilson) Might Put It

As I've probably written a number of times before, Twin Peaks is very probably my favourite TV series of all time. In fact, you're lucky that I haven't posted about it at great length, but it's probably for the best, as the most rabid fans of something are rarely the best adverts for the item in question (don't believe that assertion? Three words: Rocky, Horror, and Show. Now I think you see my point).

Anyway, although TP was cancelled over 15 years ago, it's still quite well-regarded, and I guess the difficulty of getting hold of it on video (long-deleted) and DVD (a full release has only happened this year, though not yet in the UK) has probably added to the mystique, so it's gone but not forgotten. As I say, the complete series has just been released on DVD, and I guess it's for this reason that they've just released the item illustrated above, which is a soundtrack CD from the show.

I've just got my copy, and have given it a quick skim-listen, and it looks as if I'll pleased with it, but it does occur to me how odd it is that 'Volume 2' should be released over a decade after the first CD. It's probably rather telling that the original release was on a major record label (WEA, if memory serves) and that the new CD appears to be on a small independent label.

Still, I may just be getting a bit giddy because I'm almost unreasonably excited about the CD (as I am about the DVD box set, though it's currently only in Region 1 format) - after all, 'long time after the event' releases aren't so uncommon now; the Beatles Anthology stuff and the restored versions of Blade Runner are obvious examples which spring to mind, and in the classical world there's a tradition of 'restored works' or items pieced together in some form, such as Beethoven's Tenth Symphony and (my father would be appalled if I didn't mention this one) Deryck Cooke's performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.

All that said, though, I still felt a tingle down my spine as the CD started playing, and it reminded me of the show I like so much, and of the time when I first saw it (BBC2 in the early 90s on Tuesday nights); music has a worrying power to drag me back in time, it seems - the opening bars of all too many dodgy 1980s pop hits seem capable of making me feel like a teenager in mere seconds...