Current Music Fixation: Ulrich Schnauss

Does it get any better than this?
Sun shining, cool breeze, and the warm blanket that is "Synthgaze"

At the moment, this is all it takes for me.

Although I "had" this CD on my former ipod (again, stolen by some Russians at a Queen East Vodka bar) I have recently had the pleasure of getting reacquainted with a CD that I had on constant play about a year ago. Ulrich Schnauss' "A Strangely Isolated Place."

Born in 1977 in Kiel, Germany, Schnauss (then younger than 20 years old) took his love of Shoegaze and Electronic music and relocated to the much bigger and more accepting city of Berlin. It is here that Schnauss began his mastery of forging an alliance between British Shoegaze influences (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive etc...) and Electronic and break beat tracks.

Like fellow "Synthgaze" artist M83, Schnauss seems to have found the perfect marriage between introducing shoegaze, Ambient, and electronic music to the masses in a way that makes it feel as though the genres were always destined to be combined.

With a total of 8 tracks, A Strangely Isolated Place is full of epic waves of soft ambiance and up tempo beats and instrumentals. Add the whisper delivery of lyrics from Shoegaze era past and you will feel you find yourself anywhere but "A Strangely Isolated Place" (bad play on words. I'm Human so cram it.)

There are a few standout tracks on this album that should appeal to people not familiar with the genre (On My Own, Clear Day, Gone Forever) but as a rule, the album works best from start to finish to get a full appreciation of the scope of his vision and talent.

If you add the fact that he sounds like he could be a descendant of a Nazi war criminal, you have struck gold. And this my dear friends, Is why Murphy recommended him in the first place.