Mark Hollis CD - Import

Solo Project Of Former Talk Talk Member.

Personnel includes: Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar); Andy Penayi (flute); Tim Holmes (clarinet); Julie Andrews, Maggie Pollock (bassoon); Mark Feltham (harmonica); Henry Lowther (trumpet); Chris Laurence (bass); Martin Ditcham (drums, percussion).
Personnel: Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar); Dominic Miller, Robbie McIntosh (guitar); Andy Penayi (flute); Mark Feltham (harmonica); Tim Holmes , Iain Dixon (clarinet); Julie Andrews (bassoon); Henry Lowther (trumpet); Laurence Pendrous (piano, harmonium); Martin Ditcham (drums, percussion).
Photographer: Stephen Lovell-Davis.
Arrangers: Mark Hollis; Warne Livesey.
Achingly gorgeous and hauntingly stark, Mark Hollis' self-titled debut picks up where he left off with Talk Talk's Laughing Stock seven years earlier, re-emerging at the nexus point where jazz, ambient, and folk music collide. It's quite possibly the most quiet and intimate record ever made, each song cut to the bone for maximum emotional impact and every note carrying enormous meaning. Hollis paints his music in fine, exquisite strokes, with an uncanny mastery of atmosphere that's frequently devastating. And if anything, his singularly resonant voice has grown even more plaintive with the passage of time, which -- combined with the understated artistry and minimalist beauty of tracks like "The Colour of Spring" and "Watershed" -- makes Mark Hollis a truly unique and indelible listening experience. His obvious understanding of the power of silence aside, one prays he doesn't again wait for the seven-year itch to strike before returning. ~ Jason Ankeny
Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis took his sweet time in releasing his 1998 solo debut. Then again, this is the man who said, "Before you play two notes, learn how to play one note--and don't play one note unless you've got a reason to play it." That spirit of minimalism certainly informs MARK HOLLIS, a masterpiece of reflection and restraint.
MARK HOLLIS revisits the holy, haunted realm of LAUGHING STOCK, Talk Talk's 1991 swan song. Hollis's tremulous tenor sounds as fragile and self-contained as ever, his Samuel Beckett-like lyric fragments illuminating the deliberate spaces left in the sensitive arrangements. Each of these eight songs is a revelation. Henry Lowther's brassy, braying trumpet suddenly ripples the reflective "Watershed." Woodwinds, harmonica, piano, guitar, and harmonium catch Hollis' words within a tilting kaleidoscope of instrumental color on "A Life (1895-1915)" and "A New Jerusalem," much in the manner of Morton Feldman. "The Gift" and "The Daily Planet" are moments of pure pop-jazz epiphany, swaying in elegant, unhurried rhythms. Other highlights include the folky, dustbowl yearning of "Westward Bound," and the pensive grace of "Inside Looking Out" and "The Colour of Spring."

Q (4/00, p.117) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...sparse, elliptical pieces which reflect his ongoing fascination with Miles Davis, Claude Debussy, Nick Drake and 'the geography of sound'..."
Magnet (p.115) - "He weaves elegant, minimalist tapestries in which his lyrics pit fate against faith and his ice-water vocals scale the heights to disrupt the stillness that surrounds it."
Melody Maker (3/14/00, p.53) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[A] minimalist album full of arty hushedness..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/01/04, p.56) - Included in Mojo's The 67 Lost Albums You Must Own! - "[S]o understated it almost vanished into thin air...[A] collision of folk, chamber music, and jazz... "