Scott Walker, hero of experimental pop, dies at the age of 76 | The music



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Scott Walker, one of the most innovative and sustainable songwriters of the twentieth century, died at the age of 76 years.

The news was announced by its label, 4AD. "For half a century, human-born Christmas genius Scott Engel has enriched the lives of thousands of people," reads a statement. The cause of death has not been announced.

Thom Yorke, leader of Radiohead, was among those who paid homage, calling him "a great influence on Radiohead and myself, showing me how to use my voice and my words".

Walker first made his name known in the mid-1960s in the Walker Brothers group, before creating a series of acclaimed solo albums – from Scott I to Scott IV – which are considered to be the # 1 drama 39, one of the most adventurous and ambitious pop albums of the time. .

He then went further to the periphery of the music scene, with increasingly experimental albums, including Tilt (1995) and The Drift (2006), which reflected the mistress of Mussolini, Srebrenica and 9/11.

His most recent work was music composed for Natalie Portman's Vox Lux.

Walker was born in Hamilton (Ohio) in 1943, Noah Scott Engel, and grew up in California. In 1964, he teamed up with John Maus – who called himself John Walker – and became the duo of The Walker Brothers. Their drummer, Gary Leeds, was a veteran of the emerging swinging London music scene. He persuaded them to move to London, where Walker has been based ever since.

Make it Easy On Yourself and The Sun do not stand out (Anymore), and their dapper, shaggy image has earned them the status of crazy-hearted – their fan club once had more members than the Beatles. While these top hits were cover versions, Walker was also writing his own material – this pressure in part prompting the break-up of the band. "Everyone was counting on me, and it took me to the top. I think I'm just irritated by all this, "he said. They were dissolved in 1967.

Walker went solo and continued to make symphonic pop of the 1960s, but with an epic, psychedelic and ambitious tone – Scott 4's The Seventh Seal reflected the existential fantasies of Ingmar Bergman's film of the same name.

In the 1970s, he took the versions of several albums, then meets with the Walker Brothers. Among their albums are Nite Flights (1978), a highly reputed album that contains four songs written by Walker, featuring dark moods and the use of electronics: it foreshadowed the work he would do. At the end of his career.

Walker, for his part, felt that he was continually improving his work. "I can note them, the albums, as and when," he told the Guardian in 2018. "Not the first, because I have no idea, but I can say the rate of Success of, say, Tilt, was about – what I wanted to get – 65%. And then the next album was 75%, and so on until I hit Soused, which was pretty good. "

More soon…

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