He started out as singer/ songwriter in the late 1960s, was an early founding member of
Agitation Free and toured with the German cast of the musical
HAIR in 1970/ 71. In 1972
Ash Ra Tempel asked him to join them as singer for their recording of the psychedelic album
Seven Up, that took place in collaboration with
Timothy Leary in the Sinus Studio in Bern, Switzerland. 1973 he was founding member of the Berlin band
Metropolis with whom he played and toured for the next three years. After recording the album
Metropolis and releasing the single "Super Plastic Club", the band produced a multi-media show based on
Ray Bradbury's
The Illustrated Man, before they split in 1976. While still with Metropolis he was asked to write the music score for – and perform in – the theater play
Die Hälfte des Himmels und wir (La Moitié du ciel et nous) by French author and director
Armand Gatti, which was played in 1975 at the Berlin Forum Theater. In 1977 he founded Albatros Concerts and for a short time promoted bands like Patti Smith, Bob Marley, Blondie or early Dire Straits before he again concentrated on his career as composer and musician.
Michael Hoenig asked to help him with a sequence that was meant to be a part of his first solo album “
Departure from the Northern Wasteland“. So Duwe composed and played harmonies and the melody that then became the instrumental "Sun & Moon“. When
Klaus Schulze founded his IC-Label in 1978, Michael Duwe was the first artist signed. Together they produced his first solo work,
Mickie D’s Unicorn, an album full of dragons, witches, fairies and elves, which set a milestone in the fusion of pop and synthesizer music at the time, and with guest musicians ranging from
Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra Tempel) to
Michael Shrieve (Santana). Over the following years he produced five more solo albums, but none as successful as his first one. ==Later years==