This is most evident in the differences between the album’s two sides: the catchy art-rock style and lyrical emphasis on Bowie’s private life in Side 1 versus Side 2’s depictions of atmospheres, locations, and other people’s lives through the use of ambient music. Regardless of how much of it was actually produced in Berlin, Low represents in multiple ways the artistic transformation that Bowie sought to achieve in moving to Berlin. Critical success, on the other hand, was harder to achieve: although some praised the album’s novelty, innovation, and resulting beauty, others criticized the seemingly boring and weak musical material on Side 2. RCA’s worries were not to be, however: Low peaked at No. Low was released on January 14, 1977, by RCA Records, which had held off the release for three months for fear of poor commercial performance. The Eventide Harmonizer, which contributed to Low’s influential sound. Visconti brought along a new toy to the Low recordings: the new Eventide Harmonizer, which, in Visconti’s words, “ with the fabric of time.” Much of Low‘s signature sound, which would be emulated by bands for decades to come, was put together thanks to this machine, especially on the drums and on the vocals on Side 2. The first of these, Low, was largely not even recorded in Berlin itself-much of it was recorded at Hérouville as a collaboration with co-producer Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, the latter of whom would inform much of the ambient music present on Side 2 of the album. It was during this late-1970s sojourn in Berlin that Bowie released some of his most innovative and influential work: the so-called “Berlin Trilogy” of Low, “Heroes” (both 1977), and Lodger (1979). Before long, they were off again, this time to Berlin: the city divided, the frontline of the Cold War, and where an English rock star could thrive without passers-by stopping and screaming, “Hey, it’s David Bowie!”
He then met up with his buddy Iggy Pop-who also wanted to get away from LA and cocaine-and they moved to the Château d’Hérouville in France, where Bowie had previously recorded 1973’s Pin Ups and where they now worked on Iggy’s album The Idiot.
(Wikimedia Commons/Flickr user Jean-Luc)Īnd so, seeking an escape from the drug-fueled decadence of Los Angeles, Bowie fell to Earth (Europe, specifically) in the summer of 1976 and took refuge in Switzerland. David Bowie in 1976, while in his Thin White Duke persona from the Station to Station era.
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