Goodbye

Ulrich Schnauss

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 10, 2007)
• Original Release Date: May 14, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Domino
• ASIN: B000RGSOOG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,899 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Goodbye is not a farewell from German electronic artist Ulrich Schnauss, but it does mark the last in a trilogy that includes Far Away Trains Passing By and A Strangely Isolated Place. Both are landmark albums of melodically ecstatic electronica, and Goodbye flows from their digital loins. Tracks like "Never Be the Same" and "In Between the Years" share the same surging rhythms, heroic electronic melodies, and jangly shoe-gazer guitars heard on the earlier discs. A slight tweak on Goodbye is the shift toward more overt vocal tracks as opposed to the textural, chanting choruses Schnauss has always employed. Rob McVey, the singer from Longview, intones the epic strains of "Shine," while "Stars" places singer Judith Beck deep in echoes, singing like a delay-drenched, surf-music dervish. In fact, "delayed," "drenched," and "dervish" pretty much sum up Goodbye. Schnauss piles on effects and layers in a psychedelic melee that would leave Ozric Tentacles and Pink Floyd standing transfixed by his stroboscopic strategies. Unlike on his previous CDs, Schnauss doesn't let you get comfortable. Reverb-smeared vocals, feedback-oscillated synthesizers, and raging guitars of destruction crush through on tracks like "Medusa." But there are also moments of sublime beauty and the kind of haunting melodies that have made Schnauss a favorite for chill-out soundtracks of the imagination. Ice crystals glisten on the branches of "Einfeld" and the deliriously euphoric "Goodbye" simply lifts you higher, in a spiritual way. It may be goodbye to this era of Ulrich Schnauss, but it promises many happy returns. --John Diliberto

Product Description

Ulrich's third album marks his first new release in four years. "An altogether lusher, more slouched, musical approach. The results have strong echoes of My Bloody Valentine or a turbo-charged Brian Eno..." - Music Week (May 2007). "A triumph of simplicity over pretension, of melody and harmony over pops and clicks and of the humane over the elusive" - Impose.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Decadent Ambient Perfection, July 10, 2007

By	Rebecca Johnson "SeasonedwithLove.com" (Washington State) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Delicate and sublime with a stirring of ecstasy dancing over a driving powerful intoxication is what you will find if you listen to Goodbye first. It is the perfect place to start this journey into soul shivering musical escape. The song surges and sways bursting from the limits of sound into an unbelievably ecstatic moment in time. This goes beyond inspiration to new levels of creativity where modern technology and ancient longings collide. At times it is crystalline perfection and at others the warm sounds completely surround you enveloping you in a dreamy haze.

If you listen to the album from start to finish you will first encounter silky washes of sound with ethereal vocals. "Stars" is almost chilling with dramatic elements that seem to seek to overwhelm with psychedelic swirls and epic sonic power. Vocals cascade over driving beats like a waterfall and then a plane suddenly lands. The dreamy "Einfeld" has a renewed clarity but still retains the warm washes of sound ebbing and flowing from the first tracks. "In Between the Years" is like a snowstorm and a warm fire with distant echoes of haunting chill. It invites you closer and then sends you spinning off into starscapes.

"Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" wakes up this album with a spontaneous fusion of lush layering and nostalgia. You can sink deeply into the memories of this track and yet it has the excitement of new discovery. This song and the mesmerizing "Goodbye" both give me shivers. "A Song about Hope" is much more mellow and has a captivating rhythm that keeps your full attention as the song soars in luminous orchestral beauty. "Medusa" is much darker introspective piece with static urban elements and echoes. "For Good" has the sounds of lonely acoustic guitar and distant brooding longing.

As a relaxing chill out album this offers a sinking into the feeling of escape while it plays with the ideas of fragility and power. Warm washes of sound mingle with ethereal vocals throughout and capture many moods and places that are exciting and serene all at once.

If you love this album you may also enjoy music by Feist, Evening Ocean, Hooverphonic, Between Interval, Zero 7 and The Album Leaf.

~The Rebecca Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastique!, September 6, 2007

By	J. grassa "jgandsg" (Salemi, Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ulrich Schnauss occpupies a very unusual space between ambient and dance pop, that no-one else gets close. I absolutely love it. Thinking man's ambient pop. Just listen to track 3 - Stars for a perfect introduction to Schnauss at his best. A galactic retro dance pop classic. The production and synthetic sounds are just sublime. I think it is excellent chillout music except I mean that as great music to play whilst having dinner with friends (not the turgid music that generally fills this genre). I do agree that it is probably not as good as the first two albums, but given that the are near perfect I hardly think that this is a problem.
Highly recommended!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So long, farewell..., July 9, 2007

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Ulrich Schnauss has always specialized on sweeping, ghostly wintry electronica, the sort of thing that gives you tundra dreams.

Technically, you can only do that so many times before people start getting tired of it. But in "Goodbye," he explores some new sounds -- Britpop meldings, ambient sweeps, and some truly epic explorations into a strange new electronic world.

It opens with gently ringing synth, which practically smothers the gentle beats and a murmuring voice that never quite forms words. Call it angel electronica. The second song is something of a stumble -- Schnauss collaborates with Long-View, in a song that sounds like a merry-go-round of stoned vocals.

But then with "Stars," he erupts into a a tightly wound melody that slowly builds to a messily epic crescendo. From there, Schnauss mingles new work with old: sleepily ambient electronica, haunting fuzz experimentals, angular creepy electropop, and more soaring epics like "Song About Hope."

It ends with a sort of mellow acoustic guitar that slowly melts into a soft synth tune... and what sounds like a musician cleaning up and leaving the studio. It's a suitable ending to what sounds like a transition album, as if Schnauss is feeling out what he can do other than sleepy electronica.

And somehow, without giving it a jumbled feel, he succeeds -- you can hear some drum machines and piano buried down there, and there's a flicker of ringing guitar in places, giving the nebulous melodies some solidarity and helping build them up.

But the overriding presence is synth. Synth, synth, synth. And here's Schnauss's real skill: he molds them into soaring epics, windblown stretches, fuzzy twists, and -- in "Medusa" -- elaborately twisted dark explorations of just how far you can push a complex melody.

Ulrich Schnauss explores some new territory in his third full-length album, the hopefully unportentous "Goodbye." But we just said hello!