"Any type of situation where you can just do something different and put yourself in a different place for inspiration is always great," says Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich at the launch party for Lulu, his band's new collaboration with Lou Reed, at the Steven Kasher Gallery in Manhattan. "Everything we did on this project was so impulsive, so momentary, off the floor, in a great big circle playing to each other – that's not how we normally make music."

Lulu is based on a series of plays by German dramatist Frank Wedekind, as interpreted by Robert Wilson. "Laurie Anderson and I sat going through it scene by scene to get the basic plot, the way Bob was approaching it," says Reed, describing his process before taking his lyrics to Metallica.

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