SPIRIT OF EDEN

Sprit of Eden is the fourth studio album from experimental rock band Talk Talk. Talk Talk started their career being a synth pop band on their first two albums The Party´s Over and It´s My Life but shifted towards a more experiental yet still commercial pop/ rock style on their third album The Colour of Spring. With this their fourth album the transformation from commercial pop/ rock band into an experimental and sometimes avant garde rock band is complete. Talk Talk had enjoyed considerable success with The Colour of Spring and the financial freedom that followed with good record sales ment that Mark Hollis and Co. made an album that many consider to be a commercial suicide. The record label was probably furious but for us prog heads it´s such a great move.

The music is as mentioned experimental rock with great emphasis on dynamics. Main composer Mark Hollis said in an interview I saw on television a few years back that he emphasised silence as much as sound in music. Sometimes the unsaid is more powerful than the spoken word. The music is a times very subtle and the volume is very low while at other times we´re assaulted with a full on attack of noisy guitar and Mark Hollis singing more powerfully than his usual subtle approach. If you look at the session musicians playing on the album you´ll see that there are used many different instruments on this recording. Intruments like Trumpet, Harmonica, violin, Shozgs ( Whatever that is?), basoon, oboe and clarinet in addition to the more ordinary instruments played by the band like guitar, bass, drums, piano, organ, Harmonium and percussion. That load of different sounds makes Spirit of Eden a very special experience.

The musicianship is astonishing to say the least. Mark Hollis fragile and subtle vocal approach that suddenly turns into a loud, expressive and emotional performance has to be mentioned. But everyone are at the top of their game here.

The production is extremely well done by Tim Friese-Greene. A very organic sound that it warm and full.

This is not an album I embraced on initial listen. It´s taken me a couple of years to really appreciate but patience was rewarded in this case. I think a big 4 star rating for this original album is well deserved. If you want to hear something very different Spirit of Eden should please you. I forgot to mention that the mood on the album is extremely melancholic, so don´t expect happy tunes here.