Ulrich Schnauss’ A Strangely Isolated Place belies its name with its successful European release (CCO) a year or so ago and its triumphant arrival on the North American shows via Domino. A gossamer-winged apparition of ethereal resonance, A Strangely Isolated Place is a record which carries its love for the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive in full view. Schnauss deftly blends sweeping harmonic melodies with washes of clean sound and the nearly-wordless cry of vocalist Judith Beck, delivering a record which lifts you right off your feet.
Crystalline guitar ala Robin Guthrie and Vangelis ring tones straight out of Bladerunner guide us into the cloud shape of “Gone Forever,” ushering us into a plane of pure light and rounded edges where every tone is large enough to comfortably put your hand on and all the notes bump against you in the most gentle manner. “On My Own” shoots along on a contrail of Slowdive and a decade-old bleep bloop dance beat, an elliptical comet ride that pulls the past along in its wake but still manages to be something new and sparkly as it flashes past. “Monday-Paracetamol” welds the shoegazer aesthetic to a Boards of Canada-style innocence, crafting a luminous idolon whose rhythmic heartbeat is a whirling kaleidoscope of delicate hues. “Blumenthal” fills the sanctuary like a Vangelis-inspired Requiem, crystalline synthesizer tones flying up to the vaulted ceiling where they catch the colored light from the stained-glass windows.
The shoegazers tried to build a cathedral of infinitely echoing sound and, while these ephemeral creations eventually collapsed, a generation later there is another group of electronic architects who seek to recreate the same assemblies of sonic worship. Schnauss is the new High Priest of shoegazer sound, intelligently bridging the infinite sustain of the shoegazer guitar with the perpetual loop of techno to create a new temple of worship. Bring your haunted melancholy, your wistful heavenward gazes, your haunted unrequited yearnings, bring them all. There is room enough under the dome of sound erected by A Strangely Isolated Place for everyone.
A Strangely Isolated Place is out now on Domino.
