Low is the eleventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. The first of three collaborations with the producer Tony Visconti and the musician Brian Eno that became known as the Berlin Trilogy, the project originated following Bowie's move to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of their drug addictions. There, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut solo studio album, The Idiot, featuring sounds the former would explore on his next record. After completing The Idiot, sessions for Low began at Hérouville's Château d'Hérouville in September 1976 and ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had relocated.
An art rock record influenced by German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk, Low features Bowie's first explorations in electronic and ambient styles. Side one consists primarily of short, direct avant-pop song-fragments, with mostly downbeat lyrics reflecting Bowie's state of mind, and side two comprises longer, mostly instrumental tracks, conveying musical observations of Berlin. Visconti created the distinctive drum sound using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer, a pitch-shifting device. The cover artwork, a profile of Bowie from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), was intended as a visual pun, meaning "low profile".
RCA refused to issue Low for three months, fearing it would be a commercial failure. Upon release, it divided critical opinion and received little promotion from RCA or Bowie, who opted to tour as Pop's keyboardist. Nevertheless, it reached number 2 in the UK and number 11 in the US. Two singles were released: "Sound and Vision", a UK top five hit, and "Be My Wife". The success prompted RCA to release The Idiot in March 1977. In mid-1977, Bowie performed on Pop's follow-up album Lust for Life before recording his next album, "Heroes", which expanded on Lows musical approach and features a similar mix of songs and instrumentals.
In later decades, critics have rated Low one of Bowie's best works, and it has appeared on several lists of the greatest albums of all time. It influenced numerous post-punk bands and its drum sound has been widely imitated. A forerunner in the development of the post-rock genre of the 1990s, Low has been reissued several times and was remastered in 2017 as part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set.
Background and inspiration In 1974, David Bowie developed a cocaine addiction. It worsened over the next two years, affecting his physical and mental state. He recorded Young Americans (1975) and Station to Station (1976), and filmed The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), while under the drug's influence. Bowie attributed his growing addiction to Los Angeles, where he moved from New York City in early 1975. His drug intake escalated to the point where, decades later, he recalled almost nothing of the recording of Station to Station.
After completing Station to Station in December 1975, Bowie began work on a soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth with Paul Buckmaster, who worked with Bowie on the 1969 album Space Oddity. Bowie expected to be wholly responsible for the music, but withdrew his work when he was invited to submit it along with the work of other composers: "I just said, 'Shit, you're not getting any of it.' I was so furious, I'd put so much work into it." Station to Station co-producer Harry Maslin argued Bowie was "burned out" and could not complete the work. Bowie later sent the film's director Nicolas Roeg a copy of Low with a note that read, "This is what I wanted to do for the soundtrack. It would have been a wonderful score."
With the soundtrack abandoned, Bowie decided he was ready to free himself from the Los Angeles drug culture and move back to Europe. He began rehearsals for the Isolar tour to promote Station to Station in January 1976; the tour began on 2 February. Though it was critically acclaimed, Bowie became a controversial figure during the tour. Speaking as his persona the Thin White Duke, he made statements about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany that some interpreted as expressing sympathy for or promoting fascism. Bowie later blamed his erratic behaviour during this period on his addictions and precarious mental state, stating: "It was a dangerous period for me. I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity."
After a London show in May 1976, Bowie caught up with Roxy Music's former keyboardist and conceptualist Brian Eno backstage. The two had met occasionally since 1973. After leaving Roxy Music, Eno had released two ambient solo albums in 1975: Another Green World and Discreet Music. Bowie listened to the latter regularly on the American leg of the tour. The biographers Marc Spitz and Hugo Wilcken later recognised Another Green World in particular as a major influence on the sound Bowie aimed to create for Low. Bowie and Eno became infatuated with the German musical movement known as krautrock, including the acts Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Kraftwerk and Harmonia. Eno had worked with Harmonia in the studio and on stage, and Bowie exhibited a krautrock influence on Station to Station, particularly its title track. After meeting, the pair agreed to stay in touch.
Development
At the conclusion of the Isolar tour in May 1976, Bowie and his wife Angie moved to Switzerland, although the two rarely spent time there. David booked studio time later in the summer at the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, where he made plans to write and produce an album for his old friend, the singer Iggy Pop. The two had been friends for many years, but had not worked together professionally since 1973. By 1976, Pop was also ready to rid himself of his own drug addiction and accepted Bowie's invitation to accompany him on tour, and moved to Europe with him.
Bowie and Pop recorded what became Pop's debut solo studio album, The Idiot, from July to August 1976. Bowie composed most of the music, and Pop wrote most of the lyrics, often in response to the tunes Bowie was creating. During the album's recording, Bowie developed a new process whereby the backing tracks were recorded first, followed by overdubs, with the lyrics and vocals written and recorded last. He heavily favoured this "three-phase" process, which he used for the rest of his career. Because The Idiot was recorded before Low, it has been referred to as the unofficial beginning of Bowie's Berlin period, as its music features a sound reminiscent of that which Bowie would explore in the Berlin Trilogy.
Bowie and Pop mixed The Idiot at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, with assistance from Tony Visconti, who was already in line to co-produce Bowie's next album; Bowie called on him to help mix the record to familiarise himself with his new way of working. Bowie and Pop fell in love with the city, finding it a place for a great escape, and decided to move there in a further attempt to erase their drug habits and escape the spotlight. The Idiot was completed by August 1976, but Bowie wanted to be sure he had his own album in stores before its release. Laurent Thibault, the Château's owner and The Idiot bassist, opined that "[Bowie] didn't want people to think he'd been inspired by Iggy's album, when in fact it was all the same thing".
Recording and production History and personnel
The Low sessions began on 1 September 1976. The album had the working title New Music: Night and Day. Although Low is considered the first of Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, most of it was recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in France. Returning from the Station to Station sessions were Carlos Alomar (guitar), George Murray (bass) and Dennis Davis (drums). Along with Eno, new members included Roy Young, the former keyboardist for the Rebel Rousers, and Ricky Gardiner, the former guitarist of Beggars Opera. A guest during the Château sessions was Visconti's then-wife Mary Hopkin, credited as Mary Visconti. She contributed backing vocals to "Sound and Vision".
Bowie and Visconti co-produced the album, with contributions from Eno. Visconti, who was absent for the recording of Station to Station because of conflicting schedules, was brought back to co-produce after mixing The Idiot. In 2000, Bowie stressed Visconti's importance as co-producer, stating that "the actual sound and texture, the feel of everything from the drums to the way that my voice is recorded," was due to Visconti. Eno was not a co-producer, despite being widely perceived as such. Visconti said: "Brian is a great musician, and was very integral to the making of those three albums [Low, "Heroes" and Lodger]. But he was not the producer." Benoît Clerc says that Eno was responsible for the "sound textures" used by Bowie.
Like The Idiot, the Low sessions began with Bowie and the rhythm players running through the backing tracks quickly, beginning in the evening and continuing into the night, which the biographer Thomas Jerome Seabrook believes fit the mood of the music perfectly. As he had done on Station to Station, Bowie left Alomar in charge of the guitar, bass and percussion arrangements, with instructions about how they should sound. Bowie brought many song ideas he had in Switzerland to the sessions; some, including "What in the World", were brought back from The Idiot.
According to the biographer Paul Trynka, Eno arrived after the backing tracks for side one were "essentially" finished. He and Bowie sat down with the musicians and informed them of the next stage in the recording process. According to Young, they played tapes of the Man Who Fell to Earth soundtrack for the musicians and said they planned something similar. Young and some of the other musicians were not fond of the idea, as it was outside their experiences. Bowie thought RCA would feel the same way, warning: "We don't know if this will ever be released, but I have to do this." Visconti insisted on completing the project, telling Bowie and Eno: "Wasting a month of my time with David Bowie and Brian Eno is not wasting a month of my time." Two weeks into the project, Visconti compiled a tape and played it for Bowie, who was surprised and enthusiastic that they had an album.
Drum sound
Low is noted for its unusual drum sound, described by the biographer David Buckley as "brutal" and "mechanistic". Davis played drums, which Visconti processed using an Eventide H910 Harmonizer. The Harmonizer was the first commercially available pitch-shifting device, which could alter the pitch of a sound without changing the speed. When Bowie asked what it did, Visconti replied, "It fucks with the fabric of time."
Visconti rigged the Harmonizer to Davis's snare drum and monitored the results through his headphones. Speaking to Buckley, Visconti said: "My brain nearly exploded when I found what I could do with drums." He fed the pitch-altered sound back into the device, creating "an infinite dropping of [the] pitch, ever renewing itself".
Buckley describes the sound, particularly evident on "Speed of Life", "Breaking Glass" and "Sound and Vision", as "revolutionary" and "stunning". Davis said it sounded "as big as a house". Bud Scoppa of Phonograph Record compares the sound to "cherry bombs exploding under tin cans". Trynka writes that Davis's "spirit and energy" propel the album's first side "onward". On its release, ZigZag Kris Needs called the drum sound one of the best sounds he had ever heard, while Rolling Stone Rob Sheffield later described it as "one of rock's all-time most imitated drum sounds".
Studio atmosphere