Ulrich Schnauss

Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German seaport of Kiel in 1977. He had piano lessons when he was seven. He became interested in a range of music: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Tangerine Dream, Chapterhouse, and early bleep and breakbeat tracks. There was not much opportunity to see his musical influences in Kiel, so he moved to Berlin in 1996.

Schnauss' musical output began under the pseudonyms of View to the Future and Ethereal 77. These electronica and drum-driven pieces were noticed by Berlin electronica label CCO (City Centre Offices), to which Schnauss sent CDs on a regular basis. Schnauss developed these submissions to CCO into his first album under his own name, Far Away Trains Passing By, released in Europe in 2001 and in the United States in 2005.

Schnauss performing at Bestival (2008)

His next album, 2003's A Strangely Isolated Place, showed the influence of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie. Schnauss has said of this album, "When you've worked with computers and keyboards for a number of years, they become not so fascinating of themselves anymore. I gained confidence after people began to discover Far Away Trains Passing By, and it hasn't really stopped since then. This time I decided not to compromise on what I wanted to do, with what I thought people might want me to do."[2]

Since the release of both albums Schnauss has been asked to work with and remix with artists, including port-royal, Mojave 3, Airiel, A Shoreline Dream, Asobi Seksu, Televise, Longview, Johannes Schmoelling, The Zephyrs, Lunz (Roedelius), and others.

He also plays keyboards for UK indie band Longview, whose singer Rob McVey was featured on Schnauss' next album, Goodbye. In an interview, he said: "I have always loved music that has both elements: melancholy and sadness as a description of the current situation you are in, but at the same time a hopeful, utopian element that reminds you of the possibility of a different life."[3]

His third album, Goodbye, was completed in early 2007. It was released in Europe by Independiente Records on 25 June 2007. The United States release followed on 10 July under Domino Records. Regarding this album, he said: "The overall idea was pretty much the same. I just wanted to merge the indie songwriting elements and electronic instrumentation. After the previous album I still had a feeling like there was more room to take these ideas to an extreme level when it comes to layering and laying down as many tracks as possible."

On 12 June 2007, Schnauss released an EP, Quicksand Memory, which contains two remixes by Robin Guthrie of previous releases, a mix by Rob McVey of a previously unreleased track, and an edit of a track appearing on his latest album.

In the spring of 2008, Schnauss remixed two tracks by the Manchester-based shoegaze band Daniel Land and the Modern Painters. On 27 October 2008, the two tracks, "Within the Boundaries" and "Benjamin's Room", were released as a double A-side 7" single by the independent record label Sonic Cathedral, the label's 11th release.

In July 2008, the Stars EP was released to support his June/July US tour. A co-produced/co-written track with A Shoreline Dream, titled "neverChanger", was released on an EP of the same name. Schnauss traveled out for a short tour with the band in Texas and Colorado to promote this effort and performed this track with A Shoreline Dream during his performances.

In October 2009, Schnauss' record labels, Independiente and Domino, sued Guns N' Roses, alleging that the band had committed copyright infringement by using portions of Schnauss' compositions in the track "Riad 'n the Bedouins" on the album Chinese Democracy.[4]

In 2010, Schnauss was involved in the mixing of Exit Calm's self-titled debut album.

Schnauss also provided keyboards and backing vocals on Engineers' third album, In Praise of More. Schnauss also played as a headlining act for the "Phrase One" festival held in the small Irish town of Carrick-on-Shannon on 19 April 2013.

Schnauss was a member of Tangerine Dream from 2014 to 2020. His first release with the group was the mini-album Mala Kunia (2014) which launched "The Quantum Years"-era of the group influenced by quantum physics.

After obtaining the rights to his entire catalog, Schnauss remastered and mixed all five of his solo studio albums, releasing them in 2019 on the 7CD compilation box set Now is a Timeless Present, along with a bonus disc of unreleased recordings and outtakes. Albums A Long Way to Fall and No Further Ahead than Today were also re-worked and partially re-recorded, and given new artwork and titles of A Long Way to Fall – Rebound and No Further Ahead than Tomorrow. Each remastered album was later released individually in 2020.[5][6][7]

Live in London

• "Monday Paracetamol", from A Strangely Isolated Place, was used as one of the BGMs for the 2007 version of popular global EA Sports video game franchise Tiger Woods PGA tour.
• Later in 2007, "On My Own", from A Strangely Isolated Place, was used by Pontiac in its "Cars" TV commercial.
• GMC's Super Bowl commercial in 2008 ("Mountain Top") featured "Blumenwiese Neben Autobahn", from Far Away Trains Passing By.
• "A Million Miles Away" was featured in the PAL territory version of the PlayStation 2 video game Gran Turismo 4.
• "...Passing By", from Far Away Trains Passing By, was featured in the 2005 movie Elizabethtown and its accompanying soundtrack
• In the CSI: Miami Season 3 episode "Under the Influence", the song "On My Own" can be heard playing in the background as the newest addition to Horatio Caine's team, Ryan Wolfe (played by Jonathan Togo), is busy searching through Kenwall "Duke" Duquesne's car for evidence.
• "On My Own", from A Strangely Isolated Place, was featured in the Spring Summer 2012 collection for Emanuel Ungaro.
• "Look at the Sky" was selected as the Tom Hiddleston song of the day on 1 November 2011.
• "Stars" was used as the backing track in a 2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan TV commercial.[8]
• "Gone Forever" is used in the closing scene and during the beginning of the end credits in the 2014 film White Bird in a Blizzard, featuring Shailene Woodley.

• Ulrich Schnauss
• Ethereal 77
• View to the Future
• The Extremist
• Hexaquart
• Police in Cars With Headphones
• Hair (with Alex Krueger)
• Beroshima
• Measured
• Tinkabell
• Longview (keyboardist)
• Engineers (keyboardist)

• A Shoreline Dream
• Carl Weingarten

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ulrich Schnauss.

• Official website

Discographies

• Ulrich Schnauss discography at Discogs
• Ulrich Schnauss discography at MusicBrainz

Interviews

• Ulrich Schnauss interview at archive.today (archived 5 May 2013)
• Interview: Ulrich Schnauss at archive.today (archived 11 October 2008)
• Ulrich Schnauss Interview/Metro Gallery Review (4 July 2008)
• Ulrich Schnauss Interview (2008)
• Ulrich Schnauss Says Auf Wiedersehen (23 July 2007)