Berlin Trilogy UK top five. Bowie would later call the music of the trilogy his "DNA". "Consequence of Sound" characterized the trilogy as an "art rock trifecta", while "Rolling Stone" wrote that the Berlin Trilogy "stands as some of the most innovative music in the artist's influential canon". Following Bowie's Thin White Duke period and the commercial success of the singles "Fame" and "Golden Years" in 1976, he was eager to escape the drug culture of Los Angeles, where he had developed a cocaine addiction. He had also become embroiled in controversy regarding comments he made seemingly in favour of fascism. He
Berlin Trilogy was in Paris attending court hearings against his former manager. Partly influenced by the Krautrock sound of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Neu!, "Low" evinced a move away from narration in Bowie's songwriting to a more abstract musical form in which lyrics were sporadic and optional. "Low" and "The Idiot" were mostly recorded in France, and of Bowie's trilogy only "Low" and ""Heroes"" were recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin, nicknamed "Hansa by the Wall" for its proximity to the imposing structure that divided West from East Berlin. Although he completed the album in November 1976, it took his unsettled record