David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted was a nonsensical, non sequitur musical play directed by Lynch, featuring singer Julee Cruise.

It begins with a filmed sequence with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, who were then filming Wild at Heart with Lynch. Cage’s character dumps Dern’s who then somehow turns into Cruise who floats over typically Lynchian industrial dreamscapes. Michael J. Anderson, the mysterious dwarf in the red room from Twin Peaks saws wood and repeats Dern and Cage’s break-up conversation, mocking them.

Industrial Symphony No. 1 was staged for two performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the “New Music America Festival” in November of 1989. I actually saw one of the performances. Although I was massively into David Lynch at the time, to be honest, I thought it was pretty—and very well-staged (everything is well-staged at BAM)—but a bit… boring. I’ve read that they only had two weeks to put it together and that seems plausible!

The video is probably something that you can dip in and out of, if you know what I mean.