When Mark Hollis, passed recently he wasn’t someone who moved me to write an obituary. The iPod has “Spirit of Eden” and a Talk Talk best of called “Natural History” which get played occasionally, but it became obvious reading and listening to others talking about him that I had missed the point.
Talk Talk were bracketed early on with the Synth Pop crowd of the early 80s, but there was an organic quality to the sounds even then. The repeating piano motif on Life’s What You Make It” pointed the way to the more acoustic feel to follow, all well and good but too much music, too little time…
When I read Nick Zanca’s post over at the Listen to This blog I found someone who could articulate what Hollis had meant to him. You can read the whole piece HERE but I will take the liberty of quoting part of it.
‘A little over twenty years later, [after the release of the album “Mark Hollis”] the music industry has eaten itself. As a discovery platform, streaming services reduce even the most unorthodox music down to exclusive, rudimentary listening contexts– dinner parties, “mood boosters,” “lo-fi beats to study to”–as if it wasn’t bad enough that they barely compensate. Young artists online hardly thrive, if ever, on transparency and instant validation–to keep your work close to the chest is somehow to become estranged; we assume the role of “wearing” our music beyond simply letting it sing for itself… I’m forever indebted to the standard Mark Hollis set and am inspired to stay true to all of the grey areas. I only hope the people introduced to his work for the first time this week will stumble upon a similar solace.‘ 
Zanca also talks about Hollis in relation to Susan Sontag’s essay “The Aesthetics Of Silence” which Robert Fripp has also discussed with regard to his approach to Soundscapes. So, needless to say the very next thing I did was buy the “Mark Hollis” album. I would endorse Nick Zanca’s final comment in his piece.
‘If this is your first listen, wait for a quiet moment to press play. In his [Hollis’s] words, “You should never listen to music as background music.’
I suspect I will be playing this many times in future, it’s one of those records that makes you feel that listening to the ephemeral fluff that comprises most of popular music is a waste of time. If you don’t know this record listen to it soon.
