The tune is the title track to a new album by Bowie, which he'll release on his 69th birthday on January 8 and a longer snippet of the track can be heard over a new trailer for the program, which is set to premiere November 12 on Sky Atlantic. Bowie hooked up with director Johan Renck to discuss the series while it was still in the early stages of production.

"I showed Mr. Bowie the two first episodes in the rough state they were at the time, and he liked what he saw very much," says Renck. "We discussed the various aspects of the show; naturally the plot line, but also the underlying currents of guilt and personality flaws.

"We talked about the dark heart of Europe. We talked about the biblical aspects of human nature. He asked if there was anything else to see, so I showed him the first concept board I had just made for the title sequence - images from the show laced with chimaeras and demons from the worlds of Bosch and Grunewald.