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.

Ed was many things to many people, but most importantly, Ed’s love and knowledge of music and his eclectic music collection would be the spark that fired up Hollis. He resented public performances but by the time he gave up touring in 1986 Talk Talk had become a formidable and compelling live act. 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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. From the beginning, Talk Talk was a rocket with a clear trajectory – discarding elements, parts, and (lunar) modules along its way as it moved through the spheres.

The final album was spare and minimal and recorded entirely with acoustic instruments, and at times Hollis’ voice is scarcely audible.

In Mark Hollis a perfect silence author Ben Wardle tells the full, fascinating story of one of the UK’s most enigmatic musicians from his earliest beginnings through to his untimely end. 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. All the while, take after take, Hollis relentlessly listened after that elusive feel and didn’t stop before it was there.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.

A Perfect Silence includes interviews with many people who worked closely with Mark and helps us get as close as possible to understanding the man who walked away from music (and public life) almost 25 years ago and never resurfaced.After that, a seven year gap before his last work, a self titled solo effort originally intended to be a Talk Talk album titled Mountains of the Moon, and that was that – twenty years of silence was its only follow up. An extremely good read though, and surely as close to the final word on this subject as we’re ever going to get. ICYMI there’s a new instrumental album out by Held By Trees which is new music made by musicians who played on latter day Talk Talk albums and Hollis’ solo album. Ben Wardle knows the music industry’s intricacies - he was a talent spotter for Warner and the creator of indie label Indolent.

Interestingly, the album was initially intended as a Talk Talk album and had the title Mountains of the Moon. We learn Mark was into golf and motorcycles, but never strayed from that fiercely independent streak. Indeed, Phill Brown likened Hollis’s unforgiving standards to attempting to “bottle the spirit of improvised magic”. 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. The final two Talk Talk albums, as well as his solo work, take the listener on a long journey, the ultimate destination of which is a form of post-rock minimalism, with echoes of Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie and Olivier Messiaen.He was legendised as a misunderstood visionary, or post-rock pioneer, or as an uncompromising innovator persecuted by treacherous music industry executives. Talking of Talk Talk, I notice that they have started to release the original singles onto digital / streaming / hi-res platforms – Mirror Man / Strike Up The Band came out in Feb and Talk Talk / ? The fact that Talk Talk started as a New Wave band and opened for Duran Duran on tour was more a case of mismarketing than an expression of intent by the band. As the critic Richard Williams wrote of Hollis at the time of his death, “he was one of the great originals of English music. This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees.