ulrich schnauss

A Strangely Isolated Place

Since the release of his amazing debut album "Far Away Trains Passing By", Ulrich Schnauss has been overwhelmed by a viral spread of appreciation for his music. From the zeitgeist-crazed message boards and forums of cool record labels to the license-requesting teams working behind the scenes for trend-setting compilations, Ulrich's sound has managed to do that rarest of things and has crossed-over beyond the parameters of the electronic music club and has leaped into a wider public domain. Electronic music has rarely found itself a popular home. Switch on your TV set or go to the cinema, however, and you'll discover a world of vast and endless possibilities brought to life with instrumental textures designed to arouse an emotional response. Add some guitars, unforgettable tunes and even a sliver of voice here and there, and you have yourself a soundtrack with instant mass appeal and an emotional vocabulary that is enriched with every single listen. Ulrich's debut album followed these principles perfectly, and this, his long-awaited follow-up "a strangely isolated place" extends and expands on a formula which is uniquely and unforgettably his own. This is a record with an unashamed love of many forms of popular music, as well as a technologically inspired method of delivery, "...isolated place" starts off with timeless melodies and embroiders itself with pop stylings, some vocals and a euphoric, larger than life sound that betrays the loneliness of its highly evocative title. Moving away from the widespread fascination with all things "micro", the scope here is BIG, although every fragment of sound from the opening melancholy bliss of "Gone Forever" to the dusty detuned breakbeat of "A Letter From Home" has been carefully wrapped and labelled "Fragile". For this is music that has been assembled piece by piece, every fragment carefully chosen and given a sense of belonging, a home. Ulrich Schnauss has brought to life a place that you may have never visited, but it's a place that you have always known. Unmissabl e.