Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden

    Talk Talk ‎- Spirit of Eden

    26 Jan

    By

    Label: Parlophone ‎(EMI) – PCSD 105, Parlophone ‎– 74 6977 1
    Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
    Country: UK
    Released: 1988
    Genre: Rock, New Wave
    Style: Abstract, Post Rock, Ambient
    Length: 41:30
    Producer: Tim Friese-Greene

    Happiness is Easy when the lights are out and everyone has stopped talking

    There are groupings of albums that can be sequenced into a serious extended listening session.

    Spirit of Eden is the middle album of my favourite trilogy of albums (well one of my favourite trilogies – another being the Tangerine Dream – Exit, White Eagle, Logos sequence).

    These albums need absolute silence and a reduction of all non-essential stimuli – yes that means sight, smell, touch (but I will admit it’s nigh on impossible to not leave a little room for a taste of some well-aged Lagavullin to help create a colourful synethesia for musical exploration).

    Spirit of Eden is the fourth studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in 1988 on Parlophone Records. The songs were written by vocalist Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Greene and the album was compiled from a lengthy recording process at London’s Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988. I like all their albums including the early Synth Britannia style they used to earn enough money to make their real art, but Spirit of Eden holds a special place in my collection as a desert island disc.

    Did I say everyone shut up and listen? You know those sessions where one person has to keep talking over the music when everyone else is trying to get the groove. Give them a dig in the ribs and if need be, banish them to the TV room until the session is complete.

    When is the session complete?

    Well if you really understand the genius of Hollis then you will have primed the evening with Colours of Spring album which hinted at where Spirit of Eden gets to. Each album should be played in a silent space and if possible, in sequence. At Colours of Spring dimming the lights is a good idea.
    Colours of Spring is the entry to the world of Hollis. Once the Colours of Spring album sides are complete and the listeners are ready for the arrival of Spirit of Eden then go for complete blackout session which will get you into that semi-comatose state halfway between dream and wakefulness. This is a plateau of blissful musical existence.

    If the table operator has the duties of the nominated safe driver then quietly (without turning on any lights) get them to swap the album to the final album in the sequence – Laughing Stock – to commence the final ascent to musical nirvana.

    Depending on when you started you will finish around 1am with the assembled listeners slowly coming to. Many will declare this is one of the ‘most transformative musical experiences’ they’ve had.

    Why listen in darkness?

    This album was often recorded by the musicians working in darkness. The band recorded many hours of improvised performances that drew on elements of jazz, ambient, blues, classical music, and dub. These long-form recordings were then heavily edited and re-arranged into an album in mostly digital format.

    What will you hear?

    For a post-rock album you will hear Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Béla Bartók and Claude Debussy as major influences. There are gospel sounds of organs, spinning tops playing on wooden floors, kids playing outside the window, there’s stuff buried in the mix that you notice different elements in the layers at each listen (doesn’t matter which friend’s system you hear it on from humble to humungous). You can get totally disorientated in this mix losing space and time.

    The recording sessions took place in a blacked-out studio, with an oil projector and strobe lighting. Engineer Phil Brown said that the album, along with its successor, was “recorded by chance, accident, and hours of trying every possible overdub idea.” According to Brown, “twelve hours a day in the dark listening to the same six songs for eight months became pretty intense. There was very little communication with musicians who came in to play. They were led to a studio in darkness and a track would be played down the headphones.”

    Although the album uses silent passages as an instrument in itself there are explosive moments of intensity and dynamic contrasts. It can jar and soothe at the same time.

    Mark Hollis’ lyrics reflect his religious and spiritual outlook but he has commented they are not based on a specific creed, preferring to think of them as “humanitarian”. Ultimately, I find it is an upbuilding piece, able to heal.

    Spirit of Eden’s moody, experimental nature is not for everyone. However, the neural networks it lays down between the reptilian brain and the higher functioning neurons and synapses (long term memory storage arrays where music lives in our lives), mean once listened to its not easy to give up a regular replay.

    The band did not tour in support of the album. Hollis explained, “There is no way that I could ever play again a lot of the stuff I played on this album because I just wouldn’t know how to. So, to play it live, to take a part that was done in spontaneity, to write it down and then get someone to play it, would lose the whole point, lose the whole purity of what it was in the first place.” The band would never tour again.

    Track listing

    All tracks are written by Tim Friese-Greene and Mark Hollis.

    No. Title Length
    1. “The Rainbow” 9:05
    2. “Eden” 6:37
    3. “Desire” 7:08
    4. “Inheritance” 5:16
    5. “I Believe in You” 6:24
    6. “Wealth” 6:35

    Personnel

    Talk Talk

    Mark Hollis – vocals, piano, organ, guitar, melodica and Variophon (uncredited)
    Lee Harris – drums
    Paul Webb – electric bass guitar

    Additional personnel

    Tim Friese-Greene – harmonium, piano, organ, guitar
    Martin Ditcham – percussion
    Robbie McIntosh – dobro, twelve-string guitar
    Mark Feltham – harmonica
    Simon Edwards – Mexican bass

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