Track Listing

1. Gone Forever
2. On My Own
3. Letter from Home
4. Monday - Paracetamol
5. Clear Day
6. Blumenthal
7. In All the Wrong Places
8. Strangely Isolated Place

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13138 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The domestic version of Schnauss' second album, originally released by Berlin/Manchester's City Centre Offices in May '03. Fuses the ambient electronics of Eno & Boards of Canada with Slowdive & My Bloody Valentine, with an emphasis on melody.

Amazon.com
Ulrich Schnauss's A Strangely Isolated Place was released in Europe during May of 2003, but fans had to wait over a year for it to arrive on these shores. The Berliner's follow-up to Far Away Trains Passing By is another gentle and fascinating record, similarly drunk with melody. But Schnauss has augmented his electro-synth sound with tsunamis of huge, arching major chords that rival M83's over-the-top lushness. Shoegazer influences show up in the Slowdive-esque "Gone Forever," as well as the My Bloody Valentine buzz in "Clear Day". Despite Place's ethereal sheen, the bones of solid dance-ability are also here, as several clever DJs have already noted (see Sasha's use of "On My Own" for Involver). The record could use a few well-placed batches of noise to act as counterpoint, but long-suffering fans of early Cocteau Twins looking for a fix of dreamy songcraft should find much to love. --Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews

Sunsets Put To Music
In the past (before I listened to this record) whenever I heard someone describe an album or artist as "lush" (see M83) or "noise driven" (see My Bloody Valentine) or "ethereal" (see Boards of Canada), I usually just hummed and nodded in half-acknowledged understanding. Those are pretty ambiguous adjectives, I used to think.

Now I get it.

In this album, Ulrich Schnause uses broad, rushing sweeps of sound (think static, think airplanes taking off, think blood pumping in your ears) to make some of the most evocative music I have heard in a long time. If not ever.

This is an album that is supremely bittersweet, sandwiching layer upon layer of honest emotion between rich, achingly beautiful chords. Driven by a pulse that is strong but never insistent and colored by a hue that is subtle but impossible to ignore, this album exemplifies everything that the words "lush," "noise driven," and "ethereal" could ever possibly mean. If I didn't think it would devalue (and ultimately demean) the record, I would try to explain the heart-breaking beauty of each and every song on this CD. As it is, I'll just say that every song is just as gorgeous as the next, and the sum total is something that is quite seriously a work of art and a treasure to own.

Mysterious, Haunting, Eerily Familiar
This album is sure to find a special place in your heart. Schnaus' melodies have a way of getting under your skin. They will remind of places you have been a long time ago. It's almost as if Schnaus were talking to the listener through music. Some of the songs are uplifting, others have a more classic "chill" sound. Either way, you are bound to find this CD intriguing and beautiful. It makes good listening in almost any context.

(Simeon Hein is the author of OPENING MINDS and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE and composer of the CDs EARTH DREAMING and OPENING SKIES.)

I have listened to this album...
in the city streets, at home, out in the country, when it was rainy, when it was cloudy and it has always clicked.
For years I have been trying to find the Vangelis and Jarres of our era and Ulrich Schnauss comes pretty close. Very synthetic and organic melodies that transcend to many levels is what makes his melodies subtly addictive.
If you like this check Barbara Morgenstern out, start with "The Grass is Always Greener". And obviously Boards of Canada, any album.