Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence

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We met in a pub of his choosing in Wimbledon and, as we talked over an afternoon pint, I found him awkward, often inarticulate and evasive. Using only acoustic instrumentation and recorded with just two microphones, the album is an exercise in how low you can go without amplification, how subtle you can play and sing.

The mysterious long final period of retreat occupies less than 20 pages during which we are informed that Hollis was friends with the head of music at his sons’ school, played golf occasionally and enjoyed riding a motorbike. Hollis’ musical and spiritual quest could never have happened if it wasn’t for the collaborators around him. The first complete, in-depth biography of the Talk Talk leader draws on scores of new and original interviews with Mark Hollis’s friends, musicians, collaborators and record company personnel to create this important and substantial biography. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.

In a mere eight years and five albums, Talk Talk undertook a transformation unprecedented in popular music history.

Wardle gives an honest account of the musician’s all-out determination to innovate, which he often did to the exasperation of collaborators, bandmates, producers and managers. The book is available in two distinct editions, both featuring a cover design created by long-time Talk Talk collaborator James Marsh.Growing up amid the Punk movement, Hollis would take their modus operandi of DIY to heart, follow the sounds in his head, and form Talk Talk in 1981.

He was never spectacularly rich, but he evidently did not need to work and royalties from Talk Talk songs eased and enabled his retreat. In his first interviews, Hollis references jazz greats and classical music immortals behind Talk Talk’s inspiration and ambition. There is nothing bombastic or overstated about this music in which the silences and long pauses are as important as the sound. Wardle takes no particular side in his biography; instead, he sides on the collective, presenting to the reader all the myriad voices of those affected by Hollis, from the closest collaborators to people sweeping the recording studio floor. For the first time A Perfect Silence explains the realities and explodes the myths surrounding Hollis and Talk Talk's career, and in doing so reveals the working patterns, sense of humour and desire for privacy of the man himself.The ‘New Wave synth band package’ was only transitory, and it was just a matter of honing their composing skills and getting a hold of the right instruments. Mark Hollis was so much more than the hits ‘It’s My Life’ or ‘Life’s What You Make It’, and A Perfect Silence enjoyably and meticulously gives us that insight. The progression from the naïve charm of the New Wave debut The Party’s Over (1982), the sophistication in the songwriting craft of the sophomore It’s My Life (1984), to the rhythmic exploration that found its way on their third album, The Color of Spring (1986), each album was a natural evolutionary step – a refinement of vision – not a revolutionary leap. Additionally make sure your User-Agent is not empty and is something unique and descriptive and try again.

Ben Wardle knows the music industry’s intricacies - he was a talent spotter for Warner and the creator of indie label Indolent. For the first time A Perfect Silence explains the realities and explodes the myths surrounding Hollis and Talk Talk's career, and in doing so reveals the working patterns, sense of humour and desire for privacy of the man himself. Hollis was close to his brother, who became addicted to heroin and died in his thirties, and in those early interviews he cited the influence of John Coltrane and Miles Davis as well as the classical composers Béla Bartók and Claude Debussy and experimental rock and blues bands.A Life (1895 – 1915), which has been referred to as “the album’s epic centrepiece” refers to Roland Leighton (1895–1915), a British soldier and poet who was the fiancé of Vera Brittain at the time of his death in World War I. It’s the expectation that must have been in existence at the turn of the century, the patriotism that must’ve existed at the start of the war and the disillusionment that must’ve come immediately afterwards. I’m tempted, but hesitent because I’m too flighty and would probably lose interest (or forget) before I got to the end. Wardle’s biography addresses and clarifies all these sources, but the book’s aim is not so much on who Hollis was. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.