As celebrities and people worldwide continue to mourn the loss of one of music’s greats, one artist in particular was left haunted by David Bowie’s last message. Brian Eno, one of the world’s most renowned experimental musicians, revealed that he had been in touch with Bowie as recently as last week.
Eno told BBC News that he and Bowie had been in talks to revisit 1995’s Outside in a new project altogether.
“About a year ago we started talking about Outside – the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.”
Bowie’s latest album, Blackstar, was released just two days prior to his death, a seven-song set viewed by many as parting gift to the world. Eno, like many, are still reeling from the shock of his sudden exit.
“David’s death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.”
“We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud. Over the last few years — with him living in New York and me in London — our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were mr showbiz, milton keynes, rhoda borrocks and the duke of ear.”
“I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: ‘Thank you for our good times, brian. they will never rot’. And it was signed ‘Dawn’.
Eno finishes on a solemn note. “I realise now he was saying goodbye.”
Bowie and Eno worked together on Bowie’s legendary Berlin Trilogy in the mid-1970s, when Bowie was sharing an apartment with Eno and Iggy Pop, a period of three albums that came to be characterised by minimalist and ambient themes. Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979) all reached the top 5 in the UK charts.
“His death was no different from his life – a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift,” said Bowie’s producer, Tony Visconti, in a Facebook post on Monday. “I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn’t, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry.”
Visconti added: “He sang with powerful energy and determination, his performances were brilliant. He will live forever in our hearts, mine especially.”
Bowie succumbed to cancer at the age of 69 on Sunday after a silent battle with the disease. Read our editor’s touching tribute to the Ziggy Stardust.