At the end of October 1971, Nick Drake recorded his third and final album entirely on his own in just two days at Sound Techniques in London, in stark contrast to Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter. Pink Moon was released in late February 1972, once again on Island Records, and features only him, his guitar and a little piano on the title track, with virtually no studio production. He dispensed with the orchestra and other studio musicians, and did not want any excessive instrumentation. As shy and withdrawn as he was, he now began to withdraw dramatically into himself. Out of this isolation and depression emerged this melancholic LP, featuring his greatest and final work.

Together with his experienced production duo, Joe Boyd and John Wood, he used the pared-back instrumentation to create beautiful, melancholic, captivating songs with profound lyrics that evoke a unique atmosphere, making the album an exceptionally haunting listening experience. Combined with his brilliant guitar playing – which is extremely complex, nuanced and incredibly precise – this album possesses a quality and intensity found in no other folk album.

Nevertheless, this, his final LP, went completely unnoticed, just like the two previous albums. Following the release of his masterpiece, stripped back to the essentials, he withdrew from the public eye for good, suffered from depression and never performed in public again. His tragic death occurred just over two years after this publication, at his parents’ house in the countryside south of Birmingham.