Julee Cruise, who has taken her own life at the age of 65 after a long period of illness and depression, was famed for the spectral calmness of her voice, as demonstrated on the four solo albums she made between 1989 and 2011 and by her many collaborations with a variety of other artists.
She was launched into the spotlight through her partnership with the composer Angelo Badalamenti and the film director David Lynch, with whom she first worked on Lynch’s film Blue Velvet (1986). Lynch and Badalamenti conceived the song Mysteries of Love for the soundtrack when they were unable to afford the rights for This Mortal Coil’s version of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren. The result was a mesmerising, slow-motion masterpiece, its tapestry of strings and synthesisers hanging in space as Cruise’s voice haunted the arrangement like a distant ghost.
