David Bowie’s 1980 hit ‘Ashes to Ashes’ marked a successful balance between the experimentation of his Berlin Trilogy and commercially accessible songwriting. The article argues that the song’s distinctive sound was the result of inventive production choices, rather than unusual keyboard playing alone.

Andy Clark played the Minimoog and Yamaha CS-80 synthesisers, while Chuck Hammer added guitar-synthesiser parts using his layered ‘guitarchitecture’ technique. The piano was performed by Roy Bittan, but producer Tony Visconti ran a grand piano through a flanger after failing to obtain a Wurlitzer, creating the strange sound many listeners mistake for a keyboard.