Behind the Albums: Inside David Bowie’s Famed Berlin Trilogy

The 1970s were a great decade for music, and it was a particularly prolific era for David Bowie. Some of his most acclaimed music was made in the 70s, including his famed Berlin Trilogy.

Inside the Berlin Trilogy

The Berlin Trilogy, also sometimes called the Berlin Triptych, is a series of three albums recorded in the late ’70s—Low and “Heroes”, both released in 1977, and Lodger, released in 1979, and all in collaboration with musician Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti. Although the trilogy is named for Berlin, it refers to a specific creative period.

In 1975, Bowie moved to Los Angeles to work on the sci-fi movie The Man Who Fell To Earth—a project he eventually abandoned—but it proved to be a difficult time for him, spurred by an addiction to cocaine. He became obsessed with the occult and would stay awake for days, behaving erratically, and he eventually overdosed. On top of that, his famous onstage personas began to blur the line between performance and reality.

“It was a dangerous period for me,” he said in a 2001 interview. “I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity.”

In an attempt to get clean and get out of the public eye, Bowie—along with his wife and Iggy Pop, who was fighting a heroin addiction—moved to Europe. After spending some time in France, they ultimately settled in Berlin, at the suggestion of Lou Reed.

“For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary-like situation,” Bowie said. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn’t care. Well, not about an English rock singer, anyway.”

The trilogy was the result of that time in Berlin, starting with Low, which marked Bowie’s experimentation with new influences and styles, particularly art rock, ambient, and electronic. He also repurposed some of his work on The Man Who Fell To Earth for the album. “Heroes” followed that same year, with musical similarities to Low, including one side of almost entirely instrumental music.

After heading on tour in 1978, Bowie recorded Lodger, the final album. Although it was recorded in Switzerland and New York rather than Berlin, it’s considered part of the trilogy because of its similarity in style to its two predecessors.

The time spent in Europe also benefited Iggy Pop, who recorded his debut solo album, The Idiot. Both musicians’ output proves the time in Berlin was well spent, and it’s had a lasting effect on not only their careers but also music history as a whole.

Photo by ARTCO-Berlin/ullstein bild via Getty Images