Influences: Ulrich Schnauss

Most of us have moved on by now, but when a bunch of people around the planet started to rediscover a sound that was once denounced ‘shoegaze’, some amazing talents emerged. Mahogany’s Andrew Prinz and Emil Nikolaisen are particularly striking examples: I’ve chosen a song by Nikolaisen’s band Serena Maneesh which manages to deliver a sonic landscape that sounds inspiring and exciting by fusing otherworldly chord changes with Brazilian and psych flavours. Already a classic.

For me Tangerine Dream will always remain the beginning and end of everything. I don’t even think I necessarily would’ve started writing ‘electronic music’ if I hadn’t have bought a copy of ‘Stratosfear’ in a Berlin record shop around 1991. While I understand the fascination of a tradition in electronica that utilizes an aesthetic of technological precision, TD paved the way for a more human, at times even romantic approach. Edgar Froese’s sequencing with its polyrhythmic agility, not surrendering to the limitations of a rigid 4/4 grid, is a passionate statement against the reduction of human beings to ‘man machines’.

A review I read somewhere described Vollenweider’s music as sounding like ‘folk music from an unknown civilization’. While his work indeed utilizes traditional writing methods, it’s at the same time overcoming them by elegantly merging and relocating familiar elements. As a result we may be reminded that the good values carried forth by traditions are universal and never exclusive to just one particular ‘culture’. I hear an unmatched degree of empathy and hope in Vollenweider’s music that has literally saved my life on more than a few occasions.

The Orb are one of my favourite acts to emerge out of the 90s UK electronica wave. I often feel they don’t get quite as much credit as they deserve – maybe that’s the price to pay for creating a body of work that defies categorizations and pigeonholing. This is a well-known piece from one of their most productive periods, successfully merging acoustic and electronic elements to a degree that it actually becomes irrelevant attempting to distinguish them.

The music of Bernard Xolotl is a more recent discovery for me – and one that hit me like a ton of bricks. His melodic language seems fascinatingly familiar and foreign at the same time, while the sonic landscapes display a most delicious utilization of modulation effects.

The first record I ever bought (or more precisely, convinced my parents to buy for me) was Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’. The intro to ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ was played as background music by an orthopedist while us kids were doing exercises. Being a 5 year old I had no idea who Floyd were or about the origins of this music – but the impact of the listening experience was a most profound one. Almost every evening I used to fall asleep to this album, being deeply fascinated and almost terrified by its overwhelming soundscapes.

Drum & bass is the soundtrack of my youth – but even two decades on the combination of lightspeed breakz and floating pads never fails to mesmerize. This is a particularly fine example containing one of the most beautifully crafted amen breakz I’ve ever heard.

My favourite ‘shoegaze’ track – and one of my favourite songs in general. As much as the ‘genre’ relied on sonics (‘making guitars sound like synths’), the truly magical moments occurred when they were married to the exceptional songwriting talents of a Neil Halstead or an Andrew Sherriff. More than 25 years on this still sends shivers down my spine every time.