Some nights are made for sitting back and just letting the world spin on its axis; nights to watch the snow fall and gaze over misty neon hazes in the distance. Dark skies and white snow always seem to cast a sleepy contrast but it’s also one shared by an almost motionless state.
It’s times like these Benjamin Dauer treasures; the still hours where life is yet to accelerate towards its grinding daily regimen; the wait before the first creaks of cold bones and commuter trains amplify the city.
“By day, I am a problem-solver,” Benjamin starts, “and each project comes with a slew of new requirements and problems. Things can move pretty quickly and before you know it, months have passed and the next one is coming down the pipeline.
“It means I cherish the early morning hours before I go in. It's during these times that I feel a deep sense of peace and quiet and so my mind can wander, free of project goalposts and timelines.”
Free of these pressures, his “Twenty Three and Twenty Six EP” is testament to operating in a haze of AM detachment. Four drifting scores of ambient invention, tape echo and swimming delay, they’re musical explorations that are beautifully, subtly metrical. Awash with hypnotic rhythms and an unpolished human touch, each track feels like it plays out to its untraced, natural end.
“I love these happy accidents as I feel they are a natural part of the improvisation process” he explains. “I enjoy these opportunities to practice improvisation and I’ve discovered that these free-spirited explorations often end up feeling finely choreographed in the end. Perhaps this is some sort of primal response or urge to seek rhythm in my life?” he ponders.
Whatever the thought process, the still hours just got more beautiful.
Ulrich Schnauss – A Long Way To Fall
The best thing about taking five weeks out from ASIP, is that the wait for Ulrich’s new album went a lot faster than I had hoped. Well, as I type, i’m a lucky so-and-so with it pumping through my headphones and i’ve just put my order in for the deluxe LP through Domino too. But… you ask, is that because you’re a life-long fan and your god-damn website is named after one of his albums, or is ‘A Long Way to Fall’ actually that good?
OK, let’s start where we normally end up with Ulrich’s music. He’s an innovator, he’s original, and in many peoples eyes, a complete genius. He’s moved from Drum’n Bass, to ethereal electronica, made one of my favourite albums of all time, he plays in a Shoegaze band, makes guitars sound even better alongside Mark Peters and Jonas Munk, turns tracks into magic with many-a-remix, produces with that fine lady who said “it’s going to be a fine night tonight”, likes to DJ acid and techno, and more recently has even dabbled with a chap named ASC on Auxiliary. So what are we expecting now?
If like me, you’re a follower of Ulrich (yes, he’s done well this year on the social-media front) then you’ll have heard some of his mixes, top tens and inspirations. And in all honesty, his EP with ASC late last year made complete sense to me given his commentary on tracks over the past few months. The green vinyl, will long be treasured in my collection, and I expected more of the same approach with his new album too. In the strictest sense, I don’t think that’s too far off the mark either.
“A Long Way to Fall” is ambitious by Ulrich’s standards. Apart from ‘Goodbye’ which was one of the first of his albums to breach out and focus on vocals, this album for me is Ulrich’s most varied, most intelligent piece of work to date. Complexity, is often a word I associate with Ulrich’s rhythms, drum patterns and synths, and a listen to this album (then maybe a quick tour of his studio) will help prove that very fact.
Bigger drums, punchier rhythms and some of the most ridiculous synth-work to ever grace a melodic electronica track have made this album stand, jump, punch and suck the very air that surrounds anything in-between your ears and the headphones you don for this album. Take the below track, ‘A Ritual In Time And Death’ and you’d be forgiven for thinking Jean Michel Jarre had graced Ulrich’s london studio for an afternoon and the duo had gone wild on about ten sets of synthesizers. There’s unexpected samples and small bouncing snippets over a tumbling bassline in ‘Broken Homes’ that immediately reminded me of Kettel and Secedes latest album, ‘When Can‘ – quirky, unexpected yet grounded in a growing melody you can only ever come to expect from Ulrich.
There are however tracks that make you feel a little more at home, such as the title track ‘A Long Way To Fall’, ‘Like A Ghost In Your Own Life’ and ‘A Forgotten Birthday’, but the days of slow burners such as one of my all-time favourites, ‘Monday Paracetamol‘ are far, far away. These tracks are like a new lease of life in Ulrich’s sound – rich with colour, evolving drum patterns and as always, layers and layers that creep in, explode and take the track up an unexpected notch at every given moment. Which is why I now go back to my earlier statement around Ulrich’s EP with ASC – if you listened to ’77’ you’ll know just how upbeat and melodic this release was. Sure, there’s some darker more atmospheric moments in there, but this approach certainly seems to have rubbed off in one way or another on this album.
On first listen, I have to admit, I was a little taken back. I glazed through much of it, and didn’t spend too much time on the intricacies – almost too excited to listen as I often am with any new Ulrich stuff. But revisiting it now and many other times these past few days, you really come to respect just how much work goes into an Ulrich Schnauss album. I think ‘A Long Way To Fall’ overall, might be a little too ‘melodic’ and upbeat for any electronica fan being introduced to Ulrich on this album – they would sit and wonder how on earth he could conjure up such vivid patterns and colors. But for those that have grown to love him, you’ll recognise his signature sound and respect him for evolving, for experimenting with an untold amount of synthesizers; for manipulating them like only he could and for creating an album that no-one else in this world could even come close to achieving. It’s a signature sound that just keeps growing and growing, and long may it last.
That just leaves me with one final thing to say on this album, which is probably going to take it to an altogether new level of admiration… a remix EP is planned for the bass heavy track ‘I Take Comfort In Your Ignorance’, with Arovane (YES AROVANE – old CCO label mate of Ulrich’s and his first stuff since about 2004!!), ASC (anything else Ulrich can do with the Auxiliary boss is a blessing) and Tycho – well we all know how much Tycho is going to absolutely blast the underlining of that track with his sublime sun-drenched guitars (evidence here).
‘A Long Way To Fall’ is out on Domino on 12th February with the deluxe Vinyl Package and CD available to pre-order now.
isolatedmix 35 – Orion & J.Shore
Like the massive spectrum of music in my head, Finnish brothers Orion and J.Shore usually sit at opposite ends on the music production front. Juska (Orion), grew up on the early 90’s hypnotic trance sound such as Cygnus X’s album “Hypermetrical” and Sven Väth’s “The Harlequin – The Robot And The Ballet-Dancer” and for the past five years has hosted a variety of electronic music on his National Finnish Radio show. In a vein I can very much relate to, these early 90’s records often contained a few ambient or downtempo tracks and Juska soon grew to love the sleepier side of electronic music as much as the ecstasy of early 90’s trance.
Younger Brother J.Shore however, had a much more straight forward introduction into the ambient/electronica genre, listening to Aphex Twin, Global Communication and Boards of Canada, he grew up to to become a very talented choir conductor and pianist. And it was on these terms that the two combined to produce music together with their first album, Brotherhood, released in 2011 – an album that I still hold in high regard, and featured at the beginning of last year.
It’s this unique collaboration that I can hear throughout each record and as hoped, within this mix. Their records often consist of live strings, guitars and pianos, and as Orion has found out, this ‘orchestral’ out-take is a perfect addition to a well composed chill-out track. For this mix Orion and J.Shore have decided to “introduce many Finnish and Scandinavian artists which we think are incredibly talented” as well as including a couple of unreleased tracks from the studio, including Orkidea’s Unity and Chris Coco’s ‘My Sunset’.
Here’s a quick intro from Juska on some of the artists and tracks featured:
“Some of the artists worth highlighting from the mix are Gorm Sørensen, who is a super talented Danish chill-out producer and Silk Sofa label A&R; Tokyo Boulevard, whose debut is one of those timeless chill-out albums; Norwegian Xerxes who releases amazing music and made a really great unofficial remix of our “Brotherhood” track; Finnish Softys, one half of the legendary Slusnik Luna, who is a very talented chill-out producer, too; Indigo, who hasn’t released too much but whose chill-out mixes in the 90s were a big inspiration for me; Planet Boelex, who made an exclusive remix of Nails for this mix only and who is easily in the Top 3 of Finnish chill-out/ambient producers; and finally Kajis and Turismo, both very very promising Finnish newcomers. Kajis delivered a beautiful orchestral track for this mix and Turismo’s remix of Architect’s Dream has exactly this oldskool vibe I love”
Orion & J.Shore have recently offered out their album ‘Brotherhood’ for remix under a creative commons license, available on their Facebook Page and as well as releasing the remixes mentioned above, will also be looking to finalise more music towards the end of the year.
Tracklist:
1. Gorm Sørensen – ID
2. Tim Sane – Untitled
3. Lauge & Baba Gnohm – Structures
4. Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood (Xerxes remix)
5. Stephen J. Kroos – IO
6. Orion & J.Shore – Deep Blue (Tokyo Boulevard Downtempo Remix)
7. Jani R – All The Beauty (2012 Beat Mix)
8. Softys – No More Time For Us
9. Orion & J.Shore – Architect’s Dream (Turismo Remix)
10. Indigo – Dineh
11. Orion & J.Shore – Nails (Planet Boelex remix)
12. Kajis – What Are We Doing
13. Incolumis – Cloudcage
14. Turismo – And Our Universe Was Born
15. Unfabled – Solitude
16. Orkidea – Unity (Orion & J.Shore remix)
17. Chris Coco – My Sunset (Orion & J.Shore remix)
Orion & J.Shore on Facebook | Soundcloud | iTunes (Brotherhood)