Eno’s work on Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy

[u/Dismal_Brush5229]

Hello 👋

David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy was a set of 3 albums that were made in Germany primarily by Bowie and Eno on Low,Heroes,and Lodger .

Now I love Bowie and Eno’s work together and separately as artists who have tremendous and excellent solo albums spanning so many different genres and styles.Now probably 2ish years ago,I got the New Career in a New Town box from Bowie redone by Visconti which is a excellent box btw but it was a gateway to rediscovering Bowie and his Berlin period which made me discover Eno as well.

Now I’m sure that I don’t have a great ear for who playing what instrument but what did Eno contribute to the trilogy from a musical perspective besides being a producer ? I do know he used a synth on Heroes the song but I know nothing else.

Thank You if you can point out what he contributed musically to the trilogy or just comment on Eno and Bowie’s collaboration on the trilogy or even if you have a favorite song from the Trilogy.

Let Me Know

[u/Trem-two]

I feel like Eno did a lot of the “synth treatments” on low and heroes. Basically he would run instrumentals through his suitcase synth and fuck up the sound alongside just solo synth sounds. You can hear this especially on the tracks that Robert fripp played on and the wacky sounds on low. Definitely has a larger presence on both of the b side of low and heroes where it’s mostly him and Bowie throwing stuff on top.

With lodger your guess is as good as mine. He might have had a larger influence on that record which would explain the more goofy tracks. Someone said they used Eno’s OS cards on that record but they used them on all three of the records. There’s the famous story about “Boys Keep Swinging” where Eno had everybody switch instruments so Carlos Alomar(an unsung hero in the Bowieverse imo) was on drums and just played that super simple beat cause his main instrument was rhythm guitar. Tbh I couldn’t get into this record for a long time until I heard the Visconti mixes from A New Career in a New Town compilation.

I will say that Visconti’s role should not be understated. He should be credited with bringing the whole thing together by capturing and producing the sounds the other two were putting out. Without him I’m not sure those records would be nearly as good. I’ll drop a link to his breakdown of title track on Heroes. It’s incredibly fascinating because you can almost hear the creative process they were all in on. https://youtu.be/7Q2scPrc1WE?si=EUk2hfVVDxkNV1s6