As the tributes to David Bowie continue to pour in, some of the late singer’s closest friends and collaborators have begun to share their personal memories. We’ve already heard from Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti, and now Bowie’s Berlin-era partner Brian Eno is opening up about his final interaction with the shape-shifting star. In a statement to BBC News, Eno says that he and Bowie had been discussing over email the prospect of revisiting 1995’s Outside on a new project together. “We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks,” he says. “We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.” But, as Eno recalls, Bowie’s last sentence in an email to Eno sent just one week ago had a valedictory air: “Thank you for our good times, Brian. They will never rot.” Eno now says that was likely Bowie’s way of giving their 40-year friendship a fitting send-off: “It was signed ‘Dawn.’ I realise now he was saying goodbye.”

Read Eno’s full statement below:

“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.

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.

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’.

I realise now he was saying goodbye.”