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Mark Hollis from Talk Talk: A Life (1955 – 2019)
The singer would be dead at 64
February 25, 2019
The death of Mark Hollis was very much like the last part of his life, shrouded in mystery. When Talk Talk's lead singer and songwriter quietly withdrew from music in 1998, he barely heard of him. Like other reclusive geniuses, such as JD Salinger, Harper Lee and Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, Hollis created a deep work and then, at a relatively young age, completely disappeared. The news today about the death of Hollis at the age of 64 did not manifest itself by an official announcement, but by a tweet from his step-cousin. Anthony Costello, professor at University College London, tweeted: "RIP Mark Hollis, Cousin-en-droit, wonderful husband and father, fascinating and principled man, retired from the music industry 20 years ago, he was an indefinable musical icon."
Hollis is not a household name. Yet his influence on modern music is, to say the least, considerable.
Few groups had the curious artistic trajectory of Talk Talk. In the early 80s, this British band apparently began in the same league as New Wave synthesizer groups such as Spandau Ballet and Flock of Seagulls. Ok, not quite. Singer / songwriter Mark Hollis has always had a depth that already distinguishes the group. He was aided and abetted by the excellent musicality of bassist Paul Webb and drummer Lee Harris. Producer Tim Friese-Green was as important in Talk Talk as George Martin in The Beatles. Fourth unofficial member, he co-wrote songs with Hollis and played keyboards in the studio and sometimes during some tours of the group.
The first Talk Talk discs are pretty disposable, but they have given hits such as "Such a Shame," "Dum Dum Girl," "Today," and, better still, "It's My Life." This song was not really a hit when it was released in 1984. It peaked at 46 on the British singles chart. Like seemingly everything Talk Talk did, its brilliance was only fully appreciated years later. In 1990, it was reissued as a single of Natural History: The best of Talk Talk. Second chance, "It's My Life" reached 13th place in the UK charts. And then, his third iteration became an even bigger hit, this time as a cover version released by No Doubt in 2003. (Gwen Stefani's catchy voice lacks the liveliness of the original, but we imagine that Hollis appreciated the royalty checks in retirement.)
With each successive album, Talk Talk began to strip synths for a more organic sound. In interviews, Hollis cited the musical inspiration of Erik Satie, King Crimson, Pharoah Saunders, John Lee Hooker, Pink Floyd and Shostakovich. The turning point was the artistic and commercial breakthrough of 1986, Spring color. He even gave a hit, "Life is what you do," whose insistent piano figure has lost nothing of his seizing power decades later. Spring color was a big step forward for the band and guests such as David Rhodes (Peter Gabriel) on guitar and Steven Winwood on organ. The tour of the group for his album would be the last (a performance in Montreux is then released on DVD).
In a 2018 interview for Mojo Musician Steven Wilson commented, "I think the first time I connected with the Spring color was the video of "Life What You Do" on a children's show on Saturday morning. I've responded to the extraordinarily Gilmour-esque guitar range, which was not expected from a synth pop band … I loved the music of the 80s but she had a very elaborate artificial quality. It was a very natural sound, almost something that could have been recorded in the late '60s and early' 70s, with this musical palace that I recognized, with Hammond organs, a very organic drum production and bass, acoustic guitars, very hot analog reverbs. It was surprising but also exactly the kind of music I was looking for. "
Two years later, Spirit of Eden completed the transformation of the group. All synths had been replaced by instruments such as guitar, piano, drums, clarinets, harmonium, bassoon, oboe, trumpet and violins. The recording sessions, designed by Phill Brown (brother of Rush's producer, Terry), allowed to spend a lot of money in the studio. It was indeed an experimental creation in which each musician entered the darkened studio, sometimes lit by stroboscopic lights and improvising on a theme. Hollis, Brown and Friese-Green have put together a variety of songs to create a record that is as much inspired by the world of jazz, ambient music and classical music as rock. Hollis, with his singularly unique and sad voice, gave the impression that he would be better off on the couch of a psychiatrist than in a recording studio.
This is a masterpiece.
You can not say that Spirit of Eden was recorded in 1988. It is so timeless that you would not know it was not recorded yesterday. Some have called the first album "post rock".
"It's definitely a reaction to the music that currently exists, because it's largely crap," Hollis told Q magazine. He described Spirit of Eden as the best experienced "in a quiet atmosphere, without distractions … you must pay all your attention to it.You should never listen to music as background music.Never."
As Alan McGee (who signed Oasis and Primal Scream in his creation Records) says it this way The Guardian: "Spirit of Eden has not dated; it's remarkable to see how contemporary it sounds, anticipating post-rock, The Verve and Radiohead. It is the sound of an artist who receives the keys to the kingdom and who returns with art. However, in the end, it was perceived as a commercial suicide, as if Duran Duran had released an album of Krautrock, free jazz, gospel after Popular. "
As Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater described his first listening of the album in a contribution to the book Spirit of talking talk"It was in the depths that attracted me." On one of our first tours, I slept on a hardwood floor at a friend's house in Chicago, a wool coat thrown at me, a pillow of sofa under the head, and I woke up to the smell of burning coffee and the sound of a needle falling on a vinyl record.And then the first muted trumpet note and the violin sound "The Rainbow I opened my eyes, I squinted in the light, and I was just beginning to remember where I was.A beautiful crystal guitar figurine was broken by a flamboyant harmonica. this? The lost psychedelic record of Charlie Musselwhite? And then, there was that voice – an introspective Anglican hubbub, cut, mysterious, humble but laced with anguished confidence and hard won. "
In an interview, Guy Garvey of Elbow said in 2011: "I went back to Spirit of Eden recently. I know every note and every beep on this record. I do not doubt that I know this album better than the people who did it. Know what I know now about how to make money as a group and about the importance of staying financially afloat and about the temptation to just make commercial records … J & # 39; appreciate the courage of Spirit of Eden more than anything. There is a group that basically formed as a Duran Duran copy group. Then there was the bizarre and responsible use of synthesizers in Spring color. And then, all of a sudden, get out of it to make it an organic whole and make such a beautiful record in Spirit of Eden. It was a real moment of genius. "
But unfortunately, Spirit of Eden was ahead of his time. Talk Talk made the album for a big label when it cost thousands of pounds a day to use a studio. The record company did not understand the record–they did not hear a single–and Hollis and co. had a difficult divorce with EMI in the middle of several lawsuits. The battle between the group and EMI set a precedent, so that future record contracts included a clause stating that the recordings "would be commercially satisfactory". Q magazine awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars, but the critics did not seem to understand how revolutionary it was at the time.
Talk Talk has released another album, titled Laughing stock for Verve Records in 1991. (The cover depicting exotic birds nesting in a tree is a continuation of Talk Talk's collaboration with surrealist designer James Marsh.) Perhaps the new record company was hoping for a success similar to that recently reissued "C & rsquo; is my life." But if something Laughing stock was even less commercial. Laughing stock pushed even beyond the considerable external limits established on Spirit of Eden. They spent seven months inside the studio and barely emerged whether it was for a break.
"We broke the unspoken rules," Hollis told an interviewer. Once again, the group had to sort out tangles of experiences to find the album in the editing room.
"It's often the mistakes that are the best things, and that's why it would be so hard to recreate such a part of the album," Hollis said in another interview at the time. Mirror of recording. "The most important thing with which you can work is the silence … I always thought that one note was better than two, two notes were better than three: so it's not difficult to choose because you are looking for small fragments a solo guitar note on the third track–we wanted to get to this point with this album and it was one of the most important achievements for us. "
This time, Q Magazine's reviewer has clearly understood that "the same qualities will ensure that even if Laughing stock If Hollis loses some of his recently found friends, he will be appreciated long after the forgetfulness of these superficial sensations. "
This would be the last studio recording of Talk Talk. (A live album, London 1986 Hollis shared the same manager, Keith Aspden, as No-Man, a duet consisting of Steven Wilson and singer-songwriter Tim Bowness. The latter recommended to Aspden that Hollis tries to collaborate with Kate Bush. On paper, this would seem to be a sublime meeting of the talents of two pioneers of avant-garde music. Alas, the partnership has never been perfectly gelled and their brief stint together in the studio in the mid-90s did not help.
In 1998, Hollis released an eponymous solo album on Polydor Records. Although the album retained Talk Talk's usual guest harmonica player, Mark Feltham, the affair was more discreet. It featured classical chamber instrumentation as well as Robbie McIntosh's acoustic guitar playing of the Pretenders and Sting's longtime sideman, Dominic Miller. Mark Hollis Distilled The sound of Talk Talk in its purely acoustic, chamber music, is recorded live in a studio without overlay. Although this album lacks the melodic strengths of his previous work, Hollis is an exquisite recording.–you can hear the smear of the fingers on the frets–and "A Life (1895 – 1915)" is one of his finest compositions.
Hollis promoted the album with interviews on the radio and the press, but it was another commercial failure. The next step for Hollis was to produce half of Anja Garbarek's 2001 record. Smile and shake. Then, without even an announcement, he withdrew.
"Mark Hollis just left at the end," Robert Plant told me in an interview. He said "I can not do that anymore." And yet, what he was doing was spectacular. Spring color was great, but Laughing stock, my god, it was so good … "
Guy Garvey, of Elbow, said: "I have some good friends who have abandoned the music and it's not always because they have problems or because that they are tortured.Sometimes they are running out of things to say The groups do not break up publicly most of the time.They just stop writing.And then one day you say, "Wow, What happened to them? You must think, "Poor Mark Hollis, what's upset him?" Why does not he write more? But maybe he just decided to do something else. "
Hollis's music is so deeply mysterious that it's no wonder that his public absence only reinforces his mystique. And all the while, the influence of Talk Talk on other musicians seemed to grow exponentially. Among the many Talk Talk acolytes are (deep breathing): Doves, Radiohead, Sarah McLachlan, Olafur Arnalds, Sigur Rós, Saint Vincent, Matt Johnson of The Field Music, Steve Mason of Beta, Nils Frahm, David Torn and Alan . Depeche Mode's Wilder, Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew, Toad the Wet Sprocket's Glenn Phillips, Duncan's Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, Orbital's Paul Hartnoll and Pink Floyd's Rick Wright. Good Iver and Shearwater performed Talk Talk songs in their sets. Music critics have also re-evaluated the work of Talk Talk and Hollis. For example, Fork reward Spirit of Eden an exceptionally rare score of 10/10 during a reissue. He also ranked Laughing stock as the 11th record of the 1990s. In 2012, Chris Roberts, the music journalist who first made his mark at Melody Maker, co-wrote the aforementioned biography, Spirit of speaking, with Toby Benjamin and James Marsh.
Fans were hoping that the late recognition of Talk Talk's genius would prompt Hollis to come back solo or for a group meeting. After all, the other members of Talk Talk had remained musically active. Drummer Lee Harris and bassist Paul Webb then formed the band .O.rang. Webb (who records under the pseudonym Rustin Man) has released a collaboration album with Beth Gibbons of Portishead titled Out of season (2002). After an interruption of 17 years, Rustin Man has continued with the excellent work of this year. Drift code (which stars Harris on drums and has distinct echoes from his former band). And Friese-Green has released several albums under the name of Heligoland. In 2012, it seemed briefly that Hollis had not thought the best of retirement. Responsible for filming the television series Kelsey Grammar Boss, cComposer Brian Reitzell has formed a team of collaborators including Meiburg of Shearwater, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, the duo Air and Oneohtrix Point Never. Reitzell's blow had persuaded Hollis to contribute to one of the episodes of a short piece of instrumental classical music, "ARB Section 1".
Yet, despite Reitzell's wish that the new composition announces a new album, Hollis retires again. Even his former group companions lost contact with him. Webb wrote today in an article on Facebook: "I am very shocked and saddened to hear the news of the death of Mark Hollis.Music, he was a genius and it was an honor and a privilege to be a part From a group I have not seen Mark for many years, but like many musicians of our generation, I've been deeply influenced by his pioneering musical ideas. depth of sensation with sound and incomparable space, if not the greatest. "
Hollis's disengagement from public life was so complete that it became a musical never photographed and rarely spotted. Only a brief indication of the kind of privacy Hollis has led appeared on Twitter today following the announcement of his death. Adrian Butcher, motorcycle enthusiast (@adebika) tweeted the following: "dismayed, a good friend riding with him and a bunch of others only last March … seemed well and pleased with his recent move, huge condolences to the family. laughing when I say his music would be played at my funeral … Blue skies Mark. "
Hollis is survived by a wife, two children and a work that will remain timeless.
As Garvey said several years ago: "I hope that wherever he is, he knows how much he has enriched my life. I really relied on these records at different moments, there was a moment in my life where Spirit of Eden was the only thing I could count on in my life. You can not know how important this record was to me. "
Read our appreciation of Spirit of Eden in honor of his 30th birthday last year.
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