Scott Walker, experimental pop hero, dies aged 76

Scott Walker, one of the most innovative and enduring songwriters of the 20th century, has died aged 76.

“For half a century, the genius of the man born Noel Scott Engel has enriched the lives of thousands,” said his label 4AD. The cause of death has not been announced.

Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead, was among those paying tribute, calling him “a huge influence”.

Walker first came to fame in the mid-1960s in the group the Walker Brothers, before creating a string of solo albums – Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3 and Scott 4 – that are regarded as some of the most adventurous and boundary-pushing pop albums of the era.

He then moved further out to the periphery of the music scene, with an increasingly experimental run of albums, including 1995’s Tilt and 2006’s The Drift, which reflected on Mussolini’s lover, the Srebrenica massacre, and September 11.

His most recent work was music for the Natalie Portman film Vox Lux .

Walker was born Noah Scott Engel in Hamilton, Ohio in 1943, and grew up in California. In 1964, he teamed up with John Maus – who was naming himself John Walker – and became the duo the Walker Brothers. Their drummer Gary Leeds was a veteran of the “swinging London” music scene and persuaded them to move to the UK, where Walker has been based ever since.

They scored two No 1 hits with Make It Easy on Yourself and The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore), and their dapper, hirsute image earned them heartthrob status – their fan club once had more members than that of the Beatles.

“We would be on stage sometimes for a minute, and this whole gig would be over,” Walker once said of the screaming mania that surrounded them.

While their hits were covers, Walker was writing his own material, the pressure of which partly prompted the band to break-up.

“Everyone relied on me, and it just got on top of me. I think I just got irritated with it all,” he said – they disbanded in 1967. “Initially, it was fantastic,” he said in 2018. “I got to work with huge orchestras and good budgets. But after a while, the formula – they still wanted the same thing … And it wore itself out.”

Walker went solo, and still made symphonic 1960s pop, albeit epic and psychedelic toned, high-minded tone – The Seventh Seal, from Scott 4, reflected on the existential fantasies in Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name.

In the 1970s, he reverted to cover versions for a string of albums, but then reunited with the Walker Brothers. Their albums included the highly regarded Nite Flights (1978) featured four Walker-penned songs with shadowy moods and electronics: foreshadowing work he would do later in his career, where he used the same crooning voice to darken and subvert pop.

Releases became more intermittent, but were often landmark works. 1984’s Climate of Hunter saw him update his sound to match the digital pop of the decade, creating atmospheric soft rock; 1995’s Tilt was filled with sweeping, experimental ballads. 2006’s The Drift – which infamously featured the sound of meat being punched – began a late surge of work, including a 2014 collaboration with avant-metal band Sunn O))), Soused.

He also wrote a number of scores, including two recent films by Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux. 30 Century Man, a 2006 documentary about Walker produced by David Bowie, included testimonies from Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and Brian Eno.

“Who knows anything about Scott Walker?” Bowie pondered during the film, a reference to Walker’s reclusive lifestyle.

Other artists have paid tribute. Cosey Fanni Tutti said it was “unbelievably sad”, while producer Nigel Godrich tweeted that he was “truly one of the greats”.

4AD’s statement said: “From teen idol to cultural icon, Scott leaves to future generations a legacy of extraordinary music; a brilliant lyricist with a haunting singing voice, he has been one of the most revered innovators at the sharp end of creative music, whose influence on many artists has been freely acknowledged.”

Marc Almond wrote on Instagram that he was “absolutely saddened shocked” by the news. “He was enigmatic, mysterious and with some of his latter recordings, to me, infuriating. An absolute musical genius, existential and intellectual and a star right from the days of the Walker Brothers.”

Walker is survived by his partner Beverley, his daughter Lee, and his granddaughter Emmi-Lee.