Cancelled Pieces – Playground Martyrs (reprise)

Injecting creativity

Anja Garbarek’s 2001 album Smiling & Waving is notable for a number of reasons. Firstly, two tracks are produced by Mark Hollis of Talk Talk: an extremely rare foray into music after his self-titled album, released in 1998, signalled a retreat from public to private life. That album had been playing in a London record store when Anja visited whilst preparing for the recording of Smiling & Waving. ‘I heard the most beautiful music,’ she told Anil Prasad in an interview for his Innerviews site. ‘It had the same spirit I wanted to achieve with the music I was currently working on. It turned out to be Mark Hollis’ solo album. I went straight home and called the record company and asked them what my chances were of working with Mark. I presumed he was still active, but they told me that he had retired from the music industry after releasing his solo album. Somehow, they managed to set up a meeting with him and we got on really well.’ (2019)

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Atom and Cell

‘a small seed that burrowed its way into my mind’

Manhattan, 10th September 2001. ‘That’s where the story starts,’ David Sylvian confirmed to the host of BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It programme. ‘That’s because I was in New York the night before the attack took place. I was there with my wife and family, and Ingrid turned around to me and said, “There’s a really ominous feel in the city tonight, you know, that something awful is going to happen.”’

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