Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence

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The band began at first as part of the popular synth-pop movement of the 80s but garnered more art-house influences as they experimented and improvised with a range of diverse styles and instrumentation. What led Hollis to reject fame in favour of music so esoteric and fastidious? And is Creation Records founder Alan McGee’s claim that Hollis’ is a “story of one man against the system in a bid to maintain creative control” accurate, or is his actually a tale of artistic indulgence, summarised in unusually candid fashion by former manager Keith Aspden’s remark in 2011 that “Mark had his cake and ate it all himself”? It’s unlikely we’ll ever know. Like Ditcham says: “Unanswered mysteries always have legs!” In the absence of any direct communication from the man himself his admirers sought answers to these riddles and intrigues in his opaque, quasi-mystical lyrics or in interviews he’d given years before. But every music writer who set off “in search of Mark Hollis” soon reached a dead end – or rather slammed into the high protective wall he’d built around his life and work. Beaumont, Mark (26 February 2019). "Talk Talk's Mark Hollis: 2019 is full of the notes he isn't playing". NME . Retrieved 1 March 2019.

Musicians on Mark Hollis: 'He found hooks in places I'm still trying to fathom'", The Guardian, 26 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019 Consciously lo-fi, it sees Breës unstitching some of the myths behind the band’s transformation and transformative recordings, with talking heads ranging from youthful acquaintances like Eddie & The Hot Rods’ singer Barrie Masters, who recalls Hollis’ work as a roadie, to musicians, engineers and even random strangers, including, bizarrely, Frank Bruno’s former sparring partner. As for that pivotal third album, Hollis declared it only came about because he had a bigger budget. Previously, he claimed, electronic instruments were employed purely because he couldn’t afford real musicians, but with It’s My Life producer Tim Friese-Greene established as his co-writer and Brenner gone, he now adopted a defiantly organic sound, populated by contributions from the renowned likes of Traffic’s Steve Winwood, The Pretenders’ Robbie McIntosh and Pentangle’s Danny Thompson. Minimalism was now manna to Hollis, and after the (by then notional) band’s split, his self-titled 1998 solo album (originally mooted for release under the band name) inched towards intimacy. That year he came close to describing his ethos: “Before you play two notes, learn how to play one. And don’t play one unless you’ve got a reason to play it.”Furthermore, aside from a handful of collaborations – the last in 2001 on Norwegian-Polish singer-songwriter Anja Garbarek’s beguiling Smiling & Waving – Hollis’ only music since 1998 is less than a minute long: a quasi-baroque instrumental, ARB Section 1, from a 2012 episode of Kelsey Grammar’s poorly performing TV show, Boss. Beyond that, he maintained a watertight public silence. One could be excused for not knowing who Hollis was.

Ben Wardle’s Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence is the first full-length biography about the reclusive figure, while Breës’ aforementioned documentary explores the Belgian director’s relationship with Hollis’ records – he calls later ones “life companions” – as well as their making. Mark Hollis captured so many of us with his haunting approach to song and the compelling ways he presented simplistic mountains of sound. He was an educator of emotion and a voice for the blood throat shadows of tomorrow. This is a loss amongst many. Thomson, Graeme (26 February 2019). "A sacred voice: Mark Hollis sang the English gospel". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 27 September 2019. Mark Hollis: The sound of silence". www.newstatesman.com. 26 February 2019 . Retrieved 27 September 2019.

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Still, after Hollis had met keyboardist Simon Brenner, Webb and Harris – the latter two joining from ska band Eskalator, who’d caught Ed’s ear while he produced their demo – Talk Talk launched themselves in spotless white suits with songs that arguably sat comfortably under the New Romantic banner.