 " Moment of Surrender " was written by U2 and No Line on the Horizon producers / co @-@ writers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois during a two @-@ week recording session in Fez , Morocco between May and June 2007 . The song was developed within a few hours , and then recorded in a single take in a <unk> of the hotel <unk> El <unk> . Eno began by creating a percussion loop of a " rolling hand drum " so that the band would have something to improvise along with when they joined him for songwriting and recording . However , Eno had not arranged the loop properly and the result was a strange , uneven beat that he compared to " a wheeled carriage that had one of the wheels a bit cracked " or " the way a camel moves " . Although Eno was trying to fix the loop , drummer Larry Mullen , Jr. began playing along to it . Eno then asked guitarist the Edge to play some chords . After a quick discussion about the chord changes and the meter ( in which they decided to have a " funny layout " that was not based on " <unk> or <unk> " ) , the six of them improvised the entirety of the piece . 
