Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence

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Despite being released as a solo album by Hollis, it was originally intended to be credited to Talk Talk, under the name ‘Mountains of the Moon’. 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. 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. 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.

First edition hardback in slipcased, signed by Ben Wardle and Talk Talk album illustrator James marsh to title page. This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees. 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. The Green Transition Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team.

He takes his subject as far as it can possibly go with all the resources available and the result is well balanced He debunks the myths and disproves old falsehoods, but all this only seems to add to Hollis’ complexity and heighten his allure. They formed in 1981 and in their early years were ridiculed in the music press and dismissed as poseurs and lightweights. Uneasy with his fame and fiercely private, the post-rock pioneer left behind a musical legacy of extraordinary beauty. After retirement Hollis lived quietly with his wife Felicity Costello (“Flick”) and their two sons in Wimbledon, declining all interviews, releasing no more records. Afterward, everyone involved dispersed, even Hollis’ trusted producer and collaborator, Tim Friese-Greene.

Everything begins with Hollis’ older brother, Ed Hollis – a Dj, producer, manager, and manic inspirator. In his ruthlessly honest pursuit of a musical vision that held no compromise, this biography is a testament to the gifts and costs of this artistic pursuit. Interestingly, the album was initially intended as a Talk Talk album and had the title Mountains of the Moon. As the critic Richard Williams wrote of Hollis at the time of his death, “he was one of the great originals of English music.An extremely good read though, and surely as close to the final word on this subject as we’re ever going to get. Ben Wardle knows the music industry’s intricacies - he was a talent spotter for Warner and the creator of indie label Indolent. He was never spectacularly rich, but he evidently did not need to work and royalties from Talk Talk songs eased and enabled his retreat.

Yet over the years, Hollis, working in intense and rewarding collaboration with Friese-Greene, confounded his critics – as well as EMI, with whom he was often mired in bitter legal disputes – by going entirely his own way. Hollis’ musical and spiritual quest could never have happened if it wasn’t for the collaborators around him. They help him fill in some of the gaps in the story: where Hollis was living at certain times; how the albums were recorded and in what circumstances (rumours about opium-laced sessions during the recording of Spirit of Eden are shown to be nonsense); and what it was like to be around Hollis – sometimes fun and sometimes maddening.

In his first interviews, Hollis references jazz greats and classical music immortals behind Talk Talk’s inspiration and ambition. Wardle’s biography addresses and clarifies all these sources, but the book’s aim is not so much on who Hollis was. Talk Talk may be the visionary sound of one extraordinary mind, but it came about through collective effort – the sounds didn’t come from Hollis, and Hollis couldn’t create it alone.