Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, and the Sound of Silence

Valencia.in the promotional text for the latest album of talk talk, Mark Hollis I have written: “I like sound and I like silence.But sometimes I prefer silence”. This happened to him in 1991. laughing man And it had little to do with what we understand as pop music. It was a solemn, melancholic piece, with instruments and voices that seemed to do everything possible to reach the listener’s most intimate folds. There was nothing on that album that could propel him to the top of the charts: one of his songs reached seven minutes in length and two others exceeded nine minutes. The music approached tranquility, blended into the void, and made it nothing but pure and simple emotions. He broke only once in 18 years when he released his first solo album in 1998, shortly after the group ceased to exist and Hollis began to retire. Mark Hollis, another extreme practice of sound asceticism. When his relatives announced his death on Twitter in February 2019, silence had already become his great work.

A journalist fascinated by an obsession with reaching for the intangible Ben Wardle he wrote complete silence, a biography of an artist who gradually turned himself into a mystery. He sought tranquility and plunged into it forever. Hollis is one of the Bartlebys who live in some of pop music’s secret sanctuaries, and when he saw what he believed to be his dream come true, he set out on the road. I was a creator who preferred to give up. Talk Talk was his overwhelming success in 1984. Songs like ‘It’s my life’ and ‘Such ashaw’ emerged in the heyday of synthesizer music, and techno-pop was dominating the UK charts – and Valencia’s disco couldn’t escape its wrath – , established a new breed of dyed-haired, stark-white shirted star who was an ambassador for the restructuring of notions of masculinity defined by image and music. Two years after he grew up, Lee Harris, Paul Webb and Hollis chose to take a more complicated path. Still, they gave the general public one last timeless song, “Life’s what you make it.” spring colorsAfter that, a process unusual in the music industry at the time began. This was a pilgrimage to creative perfection tantamount to commercial suicide.By then, it is very likely that Hollis had already internalized the maxim Seneca Popular oscar wilde: Ordinary people have an insatiable desire to know everything but anything of value.

when spring colors was published, Anglo-Saxon pop music was beginning to reach formal saturation. Hollis chose the opposite route. Recording his second-to-last album for Talk Talk, his sessions proved to be a formidable challenge. Over 50 musicians visited the studio to record their contributions, meticulously selected, cut and edited. sampledOnce the music was completed, Hollis, already retired and living in the middle of the country, began writing the lyrics.He is his father and his older brother Ed was the former manager of a punk group eddie and the hot rodHaving also worked for the group Mark was in, he became addicted to heroin and eventually killed him.Defined by the band’s collaborators when it debuts Spirit of Eden Like a record made by an individual who decided to escape from our world and make music with complete autonomy. None of the songs could be released asIn a promotional film he directed Tim PopeHollis was barely visible.The pop star was fading into her music. Spirit of Eden, Talk Talk and EMI have terminated their contractual relationship. He was then hired by Polydor, the label he recorded with. laughing manThe group no longer existed when it went public. Hollis was left alone. It is said that he disbanded Talk Talk in order to live with his family.

Thanks to the royalties from his early hits, Hollis was banished from the music industry and the world. In his book, Wardle sought to unravel the mystery into which he ultimately fell. Hollis was just a normal guy who liked to watch football games. fish chips And he took a break in the recording session so as not to miss the broadcast of the new chapter. EastEnders, a series that has captivated millions of Britons. He had been away from music for years when he died. No one, not even his former groupmates, knew anything about him. his last album Mark Hollis Conceived as such, it was one of the works that only a few could like. Like the last two Talk albums, it designed an approach to silence through sound. . Its author finished it and never made music again. Of all the rebels we can compare him to –Scott Walker, David Sylvian-, he was the one who made his decision on the final result. bartleby from the story of hermann melville, Hollis chose not to do what he should have done. In this story, when her boss asks the mysterious clerk why she refuses to continue working, Bartleby simply replies:I don’t understand why?”. The reason, inexplicably, has hovered over each song Hollis has recorded either solo or on his talk over the past three years. It’s too much like silence to say anything.