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Musicians on Mark Hollis: 'He found hooks in places I'm still trying to fathom'

Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Charlotte Church, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and others on his songs, enigmatic spirit and musical vision

• Alexis Petridis: ‘The reluctant pop star who redefined rock’
• Annie Zaleski: ‘Talk Talk’s visionary: Mark’s ambition co-existed with commercial success’

Margaret Pollock, bassoonist on Mark Hollis’s self-titled solo album
Although it was 20 years ago, I clearly remember the session. I was curious to find out how the sound of a bassoon would fit in to an indie-rock band. Mark had written short ‘sequences’ of music that he planned to insert between tracks to link the whole album together, or to use as a backing for parts of the tracks. He knew exactly the sounds he wanted, so we recorded different versions of each section to make it sound happy, angry, lost … And even though we went over some parts at length, there was a lovely, friendly atmosphere in the room.

He wanted one track to sound tentative, so we imagined we were drops of water that had waited thousands of years until, at last, we were to fall from a stalactite. Unusual strategy! When I heard the resulting album, I loved the result. He had a unique gift for blending different sounds to create an entirely new effect, and it all flowed together seamlessly. It is a great pity that he didn’t compose many more albums. I am shocked to hear of his death. He was a unique musician with a gentle manner and a wonderful musical imagination.

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