Ulrich Schnauss

Kiel and Berlin

Ulrich Schnauss was born on September 8, 1977 in Kiel, on the Baltic coast of West Germany, and is based in London. He became interested in electronic music in the acid house era and made drum and bass at first, before turning around 2000 to song-based electronica. He has released music since at least 1995 as View to the Future, and under other names including Ethereal 77, Hexaquart and Beroshima, a techno project. He moved to Berlin in 1996. His influences include My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Tangerine Dream and Chapterhouse, and he describes writing at the piano first. His gear includes an Oberheim OB-8, which he uses most, a Voyetra-8, his favorite, an Elka Synthex and a Memory Moog.

Far Away Trains Passing By (November 14, 2001, City Centre Offices) was his debut album, followed by A Strangely Isolated Place (June 9, 2003), which Resident Advisor ranked 37th of the 2000s and Pitchfork put 31st in its 2016 list of the best shoegaze albums. Domino took the first two for the US in 2004, and sync placements in CSI raised his profile there. Goodbye (2007, Independiente and Domino), A Long Way to Fall (2013), No Further Ahead Than Tomorrow (2016, PIAS) and the 2019 box set Now Is a Timeless Present followed, along with collaborations with Mark Peters (Underrated Silence, Tomorrow Is Another Day) and Jonas Munk (Passage, 2017). He was a member of Tangerine Dream from 2014 to 2020. His music has appeared in a 2008 Super Bowl ad, a 2009 Palm Pre ad, Gran Turismo 4 and Elizabethtown; he has said that sync work has sustained him more than sales or gigs, and that if he had the choice, he wouldn't play live.