» Edit Band Information
» Edit Albums
» Add a Review
» Add an Album
» Add News | Ulrich Schnauss and ASC
Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German town of Kiel in 1977. During his formative years, he came to love a wide spectrum of music, ranging
from My Bloody Valentine to Tangerine Dream, from Chapterhouse to early bleep and breakbeat tracks. There was not much opportunity to see his
musical heroes in Kiel, so he moved to Berlin in 1996.
By that time, Ulrich was already a prolific musician in such genres as ambient and drum and bass, with a variety of pseudonyms (most notably View to
the Future and Ethereal 77). These earlier works soon caught the eye of Berlin electronica label ...read more
Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German town of Kiel in 1977. During his formative years, he came to love a wide spectrum of music, ranging
from My Bloody Valentine to Tangerine Dream, from Chapterhouse to early bleep and breakbeat tracks. There was not much opportunity to see his
musical heroes in Kiel, so he moved to Berlin in 1996.
By that time, Ulrich was already a prolific musician in such genres as ambient and drum and bass, with a variety of pseudonyms (most notably View to
the Future and Ethereal 77). These earlier works soon caught the eye of Berlin electronica label CCO (City Centre Offices), who took him up.
Soon his submissions to CCO developed into Ulrich’s first album under his own name, entitled Far Away Trains Passing By. It became an electronic
classic; listeners were smitten with the lush instrumentation and the emotional impact of his elegant music.
Yet nothing could prepare his growing army of supporters for the next record, A Strangely Isolated Place, which slowly came together in 2001. The
album truly displayed Ulrich’s youthful indie influences and established his pedigree as an outstanding electronic composer. A Strangely Isolated Place
has become one of those extraordinary and rare occurrences: a record that slowly grows in stature by virtue of its overriding ability to deliver more
than the usual arid and academic treatises on the state of the synthesizer.
“When you’ve worked with computers and keyboards for a number of years, they become not so fascinating of themselves anymore,” he said. “I
gained in confidence after people began to discover Faraway Trains, 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.”
The result is an oddly retro-futurist record, which owes more to MBV’s Loveless or Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack than Ulrich’s computer-centric
peers.
Since the release of both albums, Ulrich has been asked to work with and remix a host of artists including Mojave 3, Longview, Johannes Schmoelling,
The Zephyrs, Robin Guthrie, A Shoreline Dream, Engineers and Lunz (Rodelius).
Goodbye, Ulrich Schnauss’s third album, was released in 2007.
Growing up in different areas of England, on a steady diet of Motown, Techno & the blossoming UK Hardcore scene, ASC's productions manage to
encompass such a wide range of these influences. Starting out DJ’ing with a bunch of like minded friends on pirate radio stations while still in school,
ASC soon found himself getting interested in how the tracks he was playing were made. This led to an investment in a modest studio setup, which
proved to be a defining point in James’ life.
An initial batch of tracks were written between 1997-1999, and eventually a 7 track demo appeared, of which 6 were signed to West Midlands based
Nu Directions, and the remaining track was signed to LTJ Bukem’s well known Good Looking Records. After a handful of successful releases on these
labels and a few others, James started his own label, Covert Operations, which went on to put out a total of 30 vinyl releases & 8 CD’s between 2000
& 2009.
After receiving much praise for his intricately detailed and well thought out productions, ASC amassed a serious back catalogue of releases on some of
the most forward thinking labels out there, such as 720 Degrees, Offshore, and Paradox’s Outsider label. Tracks like Starkwood, and the critically
acclaimed Porcelain attracted the attention of Instra:mental, who were quick to pick up on his talent. Upon teaming up with Instra:mental, ASC’s work
has featured prominently in the Autonomic Podcasts, and NonPlus+ will be releasing a full length ASC album in 2010. Collaborations with
Instra:mental, dBridge, Consequence & Vaccine are some of the fruits of this labour and will furthermore cement ASC’s reputation of being able to
craft some of the finest electronic music out there.
DJ’ing has been a big part of ASC’s career so far, and has seen him travel the world. He has played at some the best venues all over Europe, including
the world famous Sziget festival in Hungary, toured Australia & played all over the USA. The USA proved to be popular with James, and led to him
relocating to San Diego in the winter of 2004, where he now currently resides. « hide |
Similar Bands: A Shoreline Dream, Engineers, Tycho, dBridge, Consequence |
 | 77
11/26/2012
|
|
Contributors: Mad., Deviant.,
|
