Nico is an extremely odd figure. Guided by her desire for independence, her career as a singer-songwriter is the opposite of her smooth cover girl image. With her fourth album, The End… the German artist concludes a fascinating and unique trilogy.

The fourth album by Nico, the former Warhol superstar who was briefly associated with The Velvet Underground, precedes a long break. It marks the end of a cycle for the German singer, a renewed tribute to her friend Jim Morrison of The Doors. John Cale, a multi-instrumentalist and virtuoso with a solid classical and avant garde training, was entrusted with committing the undulating course of Nico’s songs to tape. It was with these songs that the Welshman truly tested himself as an arranger. Each in their own way, Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera would come to haunt Nico’s timeless elegies.