Ulrich Schnauss
Goodbye (Domino)
By Erin Wolf
Published: July 14th, 2007 | 9:36am
The man from Kiel, Germany, Ulrich Schnauss is slowly but surely becoming renowned for his elusive, unearthly beats entwined with glossy melodies, intricately layered and delicately strong as a snowflake. A secretly adored beat maker in his homeland, Schnauss didn’t stay a secret much longer after his stellar 2003 release A Strangely Isolated Place, which transposed ambient-pop with rock genres, creating an unforgettable string of eight songs; a straight-up joyride from Schnauss’ musical imagination.
Fast forward to 2007, with Goodbye as Schnauss’ latest release. Goodbye has been nervously anticipated by fans eager to see what the electronic wunderkind can conjure up next. They may likely be puzzled. Justly, Goodbye is a lovely listen, and a first-time encounterer of Schnauss will be captivated by the continual mix of sounds that have been created by the likes of Boards of Canada, Lush, Cocteau Twins, and even Moby. Someone who is familiar with 2001’s Far Away Trains Passing By and its more boisterous 2003 follow-up, might be mystified by the album’s backslide into more ambient territory.
The first track, “Never Be the Same,” beautifully breathes with vocals from Judith Beck and continues into “Shine,” which sends out a purely austere monastic tone, but with its pop-rock balladry effects of overly-prominent vocals by Rob McVey (Long-View), the song is an imposter in Schnauss’ catalogue, where his trademark sans-vocals or buried-vocals method is what separates camp from captivating. Next, “Stars” brings Schnauss back to form, merging a driving dance beat with rock undertones and ambient pristinity.
The remainder of the album drifts into strictly ambient territory (with the exception of standout track “Medusa”, which bristles with tinges of industrial). Schnauss demonstrates his capability for mixing “100 tracks simultaneously” as he has so described the production of Goodbye. Unfortunately, too much focus on the layering has taken away the focus from the wonderfully innate knack of creation Schnauss has and has demonstrated with his brilliant 2003 album. Hopefully, Goodbye will be a lesson for Schnauss in terms of not straying too far from his origins, which have already proven to be golden.
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