This weekend I’ll mostly be listening to… Ulrich Schnauss

It’s a weekend for some respite… some calm. So, what better than Ulrich Schnauss? I’m trying to work out how long it is since I discovered Mr. Schnauss, German electronica and shoegaze musician who has been working away since the early 1990s but who really only came to prominence since the early 2000s… Certainly I don’t think it was before 2005 or so. Shame on me. Alathough I’ve mentioned him before here...

Once seen as part of the IDM genre he has slowly but elegantly shifted towards first a much more emotive sound, not entirely dissimilar to Boards of Canada, and then towards more mainstream shoe-gaze. It’s been a generally successful shift. I’m not quite so keen on his lash-up with Embrace-lite UK based indie band Long-view whose output, at least to date, and we’ve yet to see any Schnauss influenced tracks, has been fairly mundane.

The sound itself can best be described as warm and melodic and positioned within electronica or treated guitars. It’s mainly instrumental, but Schnauss – who has a singular vocal style – sings on some tracks, and has roped the occasional guest vocalist in. But warm and melodic is only the start. Washes of sounds, deep churning basses, occasional throbbing basslines and highly melodic keyboard lines merge into an instantly identifiable style.

His albums have varied from straight ahead electronica on Far Away Trains Passing By, through to a more krautrock feel on A Strangely Isolated Place and synthesised guitars on Goodbye.

Schnauss is in huge demand as a remixer, although granted within a narrow part of the musical spectrum. And his collaborations have been numerous. From Robin Guthrie, of the Cocteau Twins (natch), to goth influenced shoegazers A Shoreline Dream he pops up everywhere. And it’s striking to see that he also crosses over into chill, along with the aforementioned Boards and individuals like Jon Hopkins.

As ever, enough chat… here’s some tracks.

Oddly, most are fan-made…

Between Us and Them… (from Faraway Trains Passing By)

A Clear Day – from A Strangely Isolated Place

On my own – again from A Strangely Isolated Place (fan produced video which draws on eclectic sources for the imagery including the Futurama II)

Stars – from Goodbye (home made video from a drive around Tokyo… and why not?).