The Disintegration sessions, winter 1988–89
Recorded between November 1988 and February 1989 at Outside Studios in Berkshire and Hook End Manor in Oxfordshire, Disintegration took shape against the band's own stated intention to make something "darker and slower."
By the end of the Kissing Tour in late 1987, Robert Smith had told several interviewers that he wanted the next Cure record to move away from the pop gestures of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. He was approaching thirty and, he said, felt the band was running out of time to make a serious album.
Pre-production at Smith's house
Writing began at Smith's home in Devon in the summer of 1988. Working primarily on a six-string electric and a Solina string synthesiser, he demoed early versions of "Pictures of You," "Prayers for Rain," and the piece that would become the title track, to a Fostex eight-track.
Outside Studios, November 1988
The band convened at Outside Studios near Reading in November 1988 with producer David M. Allen. The sessions ran through the coldest winter of the decade; Smith has described Porl Thompson's 6-string electric layers on "Plainsong" and "Pictures of You" as the most important single contribution to the record's texture.
Hook End Manor, early 1989
Mixing moved to Hook End Manor in Oxfordshire in January and February 1989. Lol Tolhurst's diminishing involvement during this period is widely documented; by the album's release in May he had effectively left the band. The record's dedication to him on first pressings — "for Lol" — is sometimes misread; it is not valedictory but pre-emptive.