9 January 1943 – 22 March 2019Artangel’s co-director on the great experimental musician, a witty and charming man who freed himself from the trappings of fame – and liked to take the bus• Lyra McKee remembered by Sara Canning• Read the Observer’s obituaries of 2019 in full
I first encountered Scott Walker in 1995, when Artangel was presenting a new work by Robert Wilson, a vast installation called HG, at the Clink Street Vaults on the south shore of the Thames. I was told by a mutual friend that Scott was coming to see it, and when we met, he described HG as “immersive” – which I’d never heard applied to an art experience before, even though it’s overused now. When I listened to his new album, Tilt, soon afterwards, “immersive” was also the word that came to mind. The songs were like miniature operas; sonic worlds that took root in the visual imagination of the listener.
A few years later, as part of an ambitious project we were producing in Margate loosely based on the story of Exodus, I invited Scott to contribute to a sequence of plague songs, and he agreed to do the ninth plague, Darkness. I’d never really expected to work with Scott Walker, partly because I’d read about him being reclusive, uncommunicative and humourless. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. He was absolutely charming. I found him witty, easy to work with and enthusiastically open to collaboration.