Schnauss fuses combinations of ethereal synth pads and overboosted electric guitar chords to deliver angelic yet funky and powerful compositions. Most of his tracks are what I like to call "Building" tracks. He'll begin with a minimalist beat, or no beat at all, and build his pieces to emotionally charged crescendos of bliss. Vocals, both male and female are limited, for the most part to roles of "effect" and "accent" to keep the listener grounded and connected to his work. I detect little evolution in the Ulrich Schnauss' style from one CD to the next. Whereas with other artist you might not get what you expected from one CD to the next, with A Strange Isolated Place, if you liked Goodbye, you'll like this collection of his music as well. Unlike on his followup CD, Goodbye, Schnauss has shown restraint with his upbeat pieces on A Strangely Isolated Place. These tracks on Goodbye make me feel as if, like with many great minds, he walks a fine line between genius, and just plane madness. His style is eccentric and whereas many of his experiments work beautifully some of them tend to be "too much of a good thing". I love my new Schnauss CD and will keep it in my collection and play it for years, I'm sure.
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