“Don’t you wonder sometimes, ‘Bout sound and vision”. On this day 40 years ago, David Bowie released ‘Low’.
Low is the eleventh studio album by David Bowie, released through RCA Records on 14th January 1977. Recorded following Bowie’s move to West Berlin and after a period of drug addiction and personal instability, Low became the first of three collaborations with musician Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti who later termed the “Berlin Trilogy”. The album was in fact recorded largely in France, and marked a shift in Bowie’s musical style towards an Electronic approach that would be further explored on the subsequent albums “Heroes” and “Lodger”.
Though it was initially met with mixed critical reviews, Low has since become widely acclaimed as one of Bowie’s best and most influential works.
Low lies in the foundations by Bowie’s previous album “Station To Station” and in the music he recorded for the soundtrack to The Man Who Fell To Earth . Bowie presented his material for the film to Nick Roeg, but the director decided that it would not be suitable. Roeg preferred a more folksy sound. Elements from these pieces were incorporated into Low instead. The album’s cover, like Station to Station, is a still from the movie.
Following Bowie’s Thin White Duke period, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles where he had developed a cocaine drug habit, He blamed his erratic behaviour around his Thin White Duke period on his addictions and precarious mental state, Bowie would move to Switzerland in the second half of 1976. Later that year, he, along with friend and singer Iggy Pop would retreat to the city of Berlin in a further attempt to kick his drug habit and escape the spotlight.
While sharing an apartment with Pop, Bowie would become interested in the German music scene, including acts like Kraftwerk and Neu . During the months of his recovery, he had also become interested in the minimal style of Brian Eno eventually meeting with him in 1976.
The Fat Angel Sings 