2017-08-25
Review 25th August 2017
Article by: John Wenlock-Smith
This is an album from current Tangerine Dream members Thorsten
Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss. It’s highly distinctive and yet wears
its influences clearly and immediately in that it sounds like vintage
Virgin-era Tangerine Dream, with its array of clattering analogue
synthesizers and loops sounding like something from a bygone era.
Synthwaves was recorded in West Berlin late in 2016 and is an
independent release, but don’t be fooled, this is not Tangerine
Dream-lite but rightly stands alone as a release on its own merits.
There is a warmth and an integrity that acts as a tribute, repaying its
heroes and inspirations, but in addition it is a thoroughly enjoyable
and listenable album with strong music and compositions and not
just aimless noodling. It is a fairly immediate album but, like most,
the more you listen the more you hear, if you get my drift.
I especially like the use of simple melodies that stay with you after
everything has finished, such as occurs on Rain on Dry Concrete (I
love the imaginative titles used). There is substance and subtext here,
but you need to let the music surround you to catch the
undercurrents and see where Thorsten and Ulrich are taking you. It is
a lovingly crafted album by two tremendous talents who on the basis
of this release are very capable and considerate musicians who can
be trusted to carry the TD banner forward into waters uncharted.
The only downside is that the information provided with the CD is
very scant, which I feel lets things down a little, but I guess budgetary
constraints account for that.
A great little disc, catch it while you can.
MUSICIANS
Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich Schnauss – Various Synthesizers,
Programming & All Sounds
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Azure Vista Records
Catalogue#: Vista 003
Date of Release: 30th June 2017
2017-07-31
Review 31st July 2017
Synthwaves by Quaeschning & Schnauss Echoes August CD of the
Month
Written by John Diliberto on July 31, 2017
The spirit of Tangerine Dream lives in our August CD of the Month.
Wax up your surfboard because we’re riding Synthwaves. Synthwave,
singular, is an electronic music genre that looks back to 1980s
electronic music from pop to soundtracks. But Synthwaves, plural, is
a new album by Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss, both
veterans of electronic music in their own right and currently
members of Tangerine Dream. Synthwaves harkens back to the early
80s sound of the Dream, but with some newer twists.
Both musicians are steeped in the heritage of German electronic
music. Thorsten Quaeschning recorded revved-up retro-space music
under the name, Picture Palace Music. He’s also been a member of
Tangerine Dream for the last 15 years or so. Ulrich Schnauss
launched a new sound in electronic music that mixed shoegaze
textures and guitar-like distortions with driving rhythms that often
sounded like surf music in overdrive. His debut album, Far Away
Trains Passing By and its follow-up, A Strangely Isolated Place, are
signature examples of 21st century electronic music. For the last few
years, he’s also been a member of Tangerine Dream.
These two musicians have gotten together on Synthwaves, to create
state-of-the-art sequencer music. “Rain on Dry Concrete” has driving
interlocking patterns, phasing in and out of each other like a laser
moiré pattern. This is the sound of 80s Tangerine Dream, updated
with even more precision and complexity. This is music for the open
highway, cruise control set to 90 mph, barreling through the night
into the faint glow of the horizon.
A couple of tunes have echoes of Tangerine Dream’s “Love on A Real
Train” including “Slow Life”, built around an ostinato piano sequence
and building to a climax on growling bass chords and phased
synthesizer pads. “Thirst” follows a similar path, but builds into an
industrial percolation of sequencer groove.
We always thought the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and
Ash Ra Tempel (now Ashra) was the music of the future, and forty
years later I think we can say we were right, because Synthwaves
emerges out of the curl of that electronic wave, but it lands on
different beaches. The duo, especially Quaeschning , deploys a
gearhead’s wet dreams-worth of relatively vintage synthesizers from
Roland, Korg and Oberheim, mostly 80’s models at that intersection
of digital, analog and MIDI. Given the gear it shouldn’t be a surprise
when the lead melody line of “Flare” uses a similar timbre to 80s era
Dream.
It’s surprising to hear Ulrich Schnauss, who has such a distinctive 21st
century sound, submerge himself in the aesthetics and modes of
Tangerine Dream. It’s not until the final track, “Prism,” where the
Schnauss influence is obvious with the melancholy opening chords
leading to an anthemic delay treated melody line. I kept waiting for
the drums to roar in as on his own song, “Here Today, Gone
Tomorrow” from Goodbye, which it resembles.
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss have made the best
sequencer driven electronic album since Steve Roach’s 2015 album,
Skeleton Keys. Synthwaves is an incredible ride, like going aerial in
the Banzai pipeline.
2017-07-30
We ride Synthwaves by Quaschning & Schnauss, Echoes CD of the
Month for August. Thorsten Quaschning recorded retrospace sounds
under the name, Picture Palace Music. He’s also been a member of
Tangerine Dream for the last 15 years or so. Ulrich Schnauss has
been an Echoes favorite for all of this century going back to his debut
album, Far Away Trains Passing By, a CD of the Month back then. For
the last few years, he’s also been a member of Tangerine Dream.
These two musicians have gotten together on an electronic album
called Synthwaves . It’s a meeting of Dream-style sequencers and
dynamics and Ulrich Schnauss’s shoegaze influenced electronica.
We’ll explore this state-of-the-art sequencer album on Echoes.
2017-07-27
Review 27th July 2017
Had Hoshiko Yamane been involved, Synthwaves could have been
issued as a Tangerine Dream release, given that Thorsten
Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss, and Yamane compose the outfit's
current lineup in the wake of founder Edgar Froese's 2015 passing. As
it is, Synthwaves sees Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss teaming up
for an eight-track excursion whose contents are often reminiscent of
the parent group. Recorded during two weeks in Berlin, the recording
lands the listener squarely within Tangerine Dream territory from its
first moment, with layers of vintage synthesizers and motorik drum
machine beats giving “Main Theme” a pristine sheen that might well
have you thinking of early group releases like Stratosfear, Force
Majeure, and the Thief soundtrack.
Memorable touches often differentiate one track from another and
help recommend the release: both “Rain On Dry Concrete” and “Flare”
less evoke Tangerine Dream than The Pat Metheny Group by
including whistling synth textures similar to the sonorities Lyle Mays
often added to the group's material. Though “Slow Life” opens in
gentle ambient mode with reverb-drenched piano at the forefront, it
gradually develops into an exercise in kosmische dazzle rich in
entrancing synthetic washes, bass pulses, and analog sequencer
patterns. “Flare” dazzles too, in this case by bewitching the listener
with blissed-out psychedelia. Other tracks, on the other hand,
present vintage riffs on the TD sound: oceanic waves of interlocking
synth patterns blaze, sparkle, and pulsate throughout “Thirst” and
“Prism,” each a deep exercise in interstellar overdrive if there ever
was one. Inviting the comparison further, some pieces appear to
thread guitar playing into their arrangements, much as Froese did on
many a TD recording.
Admittedly, Synthwaves won't win any awards for originality or
innovation; what largely compensates for that, however, is the high
quality of the production, with Quaeschning and Schnauss having
created a remarkable and consistently beguiling collection of which
they can be proud. Each richly polyrhythmic setting is an elaborately
considered composition that pays homage to the past while at the
same time sounding thoroughly contemporary.
2017-07-09
Review 9th July 2017
“Quality instrumental electronic music is often overlooked these days
at the expense of vocal driven synth material.
The halcyon days, of when artists such as JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, KLAUS
SCHULZE and TANGERINE DREAM were all at their peak, are all but a
distant memory.
However, there are still artists that are producing quality work in this
vein and this led The Electricity Club to investigate this release…
‘Synthwaves’ is a collaboration between TANGERINE DREAM
members Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss which utilises
their enviable collection of synthesizers.
Whereas solo Schnauss has a fairly identifiable “wall of sound with
Shoegaze elements” aesthetic, the link-up with Quaeschning has
produced a more direct and melodic sound which, in places
(unsurprisingly) references the classic sound of TD.
The start-off track ‘Main Theme’ appears to be a homage to the
‘Stranger Things’ opening music, which in itself paid tribute to TD and
electronic artists of the era. From the off, the track relies on a deep
resonant synth bass and sequencer lines before introducing some
William Orbit-style stabs and big reverberant drum sounds. In classic
TD style, more layered echoed sequencer parts raise the energy level
and what makes the piece sustain interest over its 8 minute length is
its continually changing chord progressions and refusal to rely on a
linear approach.
‘Slow Life’ starts off with a quite beautiful ambient Eno-esque acoustic
piano part drenched in a long reverb before swiftly introducing
another wonderfully deep bass and hooky synth sequence. Alongside
a later track on the album, the ghost of the classic ‘Risky Business’
soundtrack piece ‘Love On A Real Train’ is initially recalled here, but
the introduction of phased Solina strings and guitar-like textures add
a further dimension.
‘Cats and Dogs’ which relies on a vintage Oberheim DMX for its drum
pattern and the PROPAGANDA lyric-pinching ‘A Calm But Steady Flow’
are pleasant enough, but come across as mid-album fillers.
Where the album really hits its stride though is in the final trilogy of
tracks; ‘Thirst’ is the second track to owe a debt to ‘Love on a Real
Train’. Based around a Manikin Schrittmacher sequencer part, the
track’s skittering percussion and additional synth layers hit a
wonderful climax at 3 minutes 17 seconds when a bass synth
modulates around the hypnotic synth parts.
Although over 8 minutes in length, ‘Thirst’ never outstays its welcome
and for fans of the Berlin School of sequencing, is bound to be an
undeniable highlight here.
‘Flare’ comes across in part as a drum-less electronic re-imagining of
a ‘Disintegration’-era track by THE CURE; its huge string synth melody
sounding absolutely epic and adding in a welcome musical change to
the piece.
Album closer ‘Prism’ has the kind of chord progression that makes
the hairs stand up on the back of the neck and ends ‘Synthwaves’ on
a real high.
What’s interesting about this collaboration (and potentially exciting
for the fans of the upcoming TANGERINE DREAM album) is that it
must have been hugely tempting for Quaeschning and Schnauss to
use the tracks here for TD. The very fact that they haven’t means that
the upcoming TD release ‘Quantum Gate’ could be something very
special indeed and a major justification of the continuation of the
band following the passing of leader Edgar Froese.
If you are a long term fan of melodic instrumental synthesizer music
and maybe haven’t been inclined to investigate what is current within
this sub-genre, this album would be a fantastic place to start. It
avoids a lot of the clichés of some Berlin School material and at no
point does it become overly self-indulgent.
Immerse yourself in the ‘Synthwaves’ and you may never wish to
surface again…
‘Synthwaves’ uses the following instrumentation and equipment:
Thorsten Quaeschning – Steinberg Cubase, Manikin Schrittmacher
sequencer, Manikin Memotron, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland JD800, Dave
Smith Prophet 8, ARP Solina MK2, Korg Wavestation EX, Waldorf
Microwave, Moog Voyager, Eurorack Modular, Roland V Synth, Korg
Z1, Korg Prophecy, Korg M1 synthesiser, Clavia Nordwave, Yamaha
TG77, Roland System 1, Roland JU06, Korg MS20, Roland JP08, Roland
TR-8 Rhythm Performer, Oberheim DMX, Roland Promars, Fender
Starcaster, Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, Spectrasonics
Omnisphere, Spectrasonics Keyscape, Screwdriver on wood and
contact microphones, several boxes with contact microphones, bees
in garden
Ulrich Schnauss – Steinberg Cubase and Logic Pro, Manikin
Schrittmacher sequencer, Roland JD XA, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland JD-
800, Oberheim OB-8, Roland System 1, Roland MKS-70, Rhodes
Chroma, Waldorf Q, Microwave XT, Sonic Core SCOPE system, Ensoniq
DP4”
2017-07-05
Review 5th July 2017
“Quaeschning & Schnauss unveil new album Synthwaves
by Mike Stanton
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss have teamed up to
create a record of pure Berlin-school bliss which pays homage to the
past while remaining fresh and relevant. Crisp, interlocking patterns
are modulated and mutated with mathematical precision into eight
pieces of pristine, post-kosmische sounds to float away to.
Recorded over two intense weeks in Berlin, Quaeschning and
Schnauss – both students of the great, late maestro Edgar Froese and
current members of Tangerine Dream – locked themselves in a studio
full of vintage synthesizers, analogue sequencers and drum
machines, and the result is a gorgeous set of purely electronic music.
Whereas the title suggests something new and contemporary, the
pieces are firmly rooted in the 1970’s evoking the likes of Cluster,
Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze at their spacey best.
Many of the tracks meld Tangerine Dream‘s sequencer-led journeys
and Cluster‘s playful side allowing poly-rhythmic patterns to build –
slowly but steadily – bar after bar, until synth-Satori is reached. By the
time the last track on this album runs out, it’s obvious these two
producers are themselves masters of their craft.
“Main Theme” is dramatic and sweeping with more than a few nods
to the retro and synthwave movement. “Rain On Dry Concrete” and
“Slow Life” are all bubbling arpeggios and bright shiny synths that
play with melody and space. “Cats and Dogs” packs so many ideas in
it appears to swell and grow with each listen. “Thirst” is almost a
follow-up to Tangerine Dream‘s “Love on a Real Train” crossed with
Jean Michel Jarre‘s “Arppegiator” with its crystal-glare electronics,
spiraling sequencer and pulsating cues.
“Flare” is a ballad with pure TD touches, while “Prism” gathers all the
prettiest moments from TD and Ulrich‘s solo work with breathy synth
pads creating a woozy 80’s shoegaze vibe, it swirls slowly leaving a
fuzzy sheen in its wake.
Synthwaves spans a range of moods from pulsating electronics
through hypnotic drone to bright, chiming tones. Their heady
explorations conjure meditative lulls throughout without falling into
new age murkiness. It is a beautiful journey into a neon-metropolitan
dusk.”
If you enjoyed the decent records we have been championing by the
likes of Concretism and Dalham then you are going to love this.
Similarly if you can't get enough of the kosmische synth re-issues that
have started popping up then this will be for you. Moreover if like me
you only dabble these days, this could be the one synth record you
need to pick up this year.”
2017-06-27
Review 5th July 2017
“8/10 “´Stars” Clinton Staff review, 27 June 2017
What a lot of people forget about me is that a used to be a right
synth nut. In the early '80s I was obsessed with anything synthesizer
and used to pour over my grandma's Marshall Ward catalogues
looking at the pictures of the sort of keyboards I could only dream of
owning. Now everyone else has caught on we have a glut of synth
based albums in store that tend to leave me as cold as the
atmospheres they are trying to emulate but I was quite taken with
this album of compositions by Tangerine Dream affiliates Thorsten
Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss.
This is a series of terrific 'Bladerunner' style compositions particularly
the excellent opening 'Main Theme' which is one of those insta-classic
synth themes that you are sure you have heard before. Following the
death of Tangerine Dream leader Edgar Froese, the pair locked
themselves in a room full of vintage equipment and basically
squelched until their heart was content. 'Rain on Dry Concrete' is
another superb piece which uses brilliant polyrhythms bouncing
from ear to ear whilst also providing the sort of melody that would do
as a heartfelt melody to 1982's latest pylons. 'Slow Life' starts out a
little ambient with piano type sounds but soon erupts out of it's ether
with a splendidly doomy yet soothing bass-line and brilliant drifting
synth notes.
If you enjoyed the decent records we have been championing by the
likes of Concretism and Dalham then you are going to love this.
Similarly if you can't get enough of the kosmische synth re-issues that
have started popping up then this will be for you. Moreover if like me
you only dabble these days, this could be the one synth record you
need to pick up this year.”
2017-06-26
Interview 26th June 2017
Interview in Berlin after the June 2017 Concerts. (Taken from 2nd
1Ear2Hear Radio Show)
2017-06-25
Concert 25th June 2017
Quaeschning & Schnauss
playing Synthwaves
2017-06-23
“Electronic Surfs with Synthwaves
There’s a new genre out there that’s called Synthwave, that sounds
like 1980s electronic music. On the next Slow Flow Echoes we’ll hear
music from the soundtrack of The Rise of the Synths and a new
album from Thorsten Quaschning and Ulrich Schnauss called
Synthwaves. We surf it on Echoes”
2017-06-23
Review 23th June 2017
“A two-week experiment, Synthwaves is the result of Thorsten
Quaeschning (Tangerine Dream) and Ulrich Schnauss sequestering
themselves in a room full of vintage synths, sequencers, and drum
machines. The results are quite brilliant. The duo takes the listener
on sci-fi adventures, flying them over space-like plateaus on far off
planets, painting epic planetscape horizons where dual planets float
in the distance, and flying them through uncharted areas of space
with glisten stars and nebulae. It’s not astonishing that these two
clearly adept musicians could craft such beautifully executed synth
tracks but that they did so in such a short time and having placed
particular limitations on themselves. Both a nostalgia trip for those
who are 80’s synth music fans as well as a fresh take on the entire
genre, Synthwaves is a demonstration of Quaeschning and Schnauss’
musical prowess.
“Main Theme” opens Synthwaves with deep bass and bright, dancing
synths. The melodic patterns move about, connecting to one another
in a stream of brightly syncopated tempi. “Main Theme” prepares the
listener for what’s ahead as they sit in holding, ready to blast off into
an epic soundtrack of space exploration and sci-fi worlds. The
variations on the core melody in this piece are captivating. Indeed,
once you allow this track to envelop you, there is no turning back and
the need to listen to what comes next becomes urgent and,
ultimately, welcome. “Rain on Dry Concrete” comes into the speakers
with echoing sci-fi synths and syncopated shaker sounds. It most
certainly evokes long walks in hot summer rain showers but in a far
distant, technologically advanced future. “Rain on Dry Concrete”
should be listened to with soundtracks for future sci-fi epics in mind.
“Slow Life” is just an astonishingly beautiful piece beginning with a
simple melody played on piano which is wrapped in warm drones.
Eventually, more sounds flitter into the speakers, as the title suggests,
as the burgeoning of life is at hand. Deeper keys provide another
melodic layer as they lead the listener into waves of textures that
spark the imagination. Quaeschning and Schnauss hypnotize the
listener as they ply their magic layers, building, peeling away, and
building again. “Slow Life” is a magnificent feat of musical ingenuity.
“Cats and Dogs” brings in a bit of a shift, with a view toward the use of
percussion and the syncopated synths that travel alongside it. The
piece builds as it reaches for an inevitable climax with melodies
playing off one another amid dancing synths.
“A Calm Steady Flow” begins with robotic synths and percussion.
Poltergeist like synth tones haunt the cracks and crevices of this
energetic piece. There are also these small moments where particular
tones and textures play amid the larger melodies. These choices are
striking and the attention to detail evocative. “Thirst” leads into a
trilogy of one word titled songs. It is the longest on the album,
boasting an 8:11 length. This composition has a bravado to it, an
epicness, the sort that screams space opera or hero’s journey. This
track really does lead into a back-end trilogy to this album, with its
soaring complex moments and its suggestive, triumphant
atmosphere.
“Flare” is the penultimate track on Synthwaves and it dials down the
larger sound and initially focuses on more somber moments. That
said, eventually bright synths come to the fore and spark rays of
hope into the darker, underlying tones. As “Flare” progresses, there
are moments of rising electronic crystalline textures, glittering and
dazzling. “Prism”, the album’s finale, comes into the speaker with
iridescent fuzz, birds chirping, and slow glacial synths. It’s a track that
soothes and memorizes and leads the listener gently into the fade at
the end of the album.
It’s no secret that Quaeschning and Schnauss both are masters of
their instruments and the genres in which they tend to produce
music. As individuals, their output is brilliant and, as collaborators, it
is that much more breathtaking. There is a depth here that many
musicians could not conjure from older analog synths. Quaeschning
and Schnauss evoke a warmth from stereotypically cold mediums,
from dense fuzzy walls of sound to deep abiding warm tones that
engulf the listener. There is a sonic story being told here but it will
evoke different things to different listeners, as these things go. That
said, Synthwaves is captivating and will immerse the listener in synth
heaven.”
2017-06-21
Review 21st June 2017
“Ulrich Schnauss is a busy guy. Not only has he released an excellent
album already this year with fellow synth aficionado and Causa Sui
guitarist Jonas Munk called Passage, but he’s also readying a new
Tangerine Dream album called Quantum Gate, which marks the final
concepts of TD founder Edgar Froese(who passed away in early 2015)
and a new beginning for the Berlin School masters. You’d think that
would be plenty for the year, but Schnauss seems constantly abuzz
with ideas and creativity. He’s teamed up with Tangerine Dream band
mate Thorsten Quaeschning and the two have made an album filled
with analog synth heaven called Synthwaves. It’s a testament to the
golden age of analog sounds and hazy oscillation that komische
music gave us in both the pre-Watergate and post-end of the dream
decade known as the 70s. It’s also a bit of a tribute to the mentor
both Schnauss and Quaeschning had in Froese. The record is a heady
sonic trip into the past, while keeping eyes firmly pointed to the
future.
“Main Theme” feels like a proper announcement to the world of
Synthwaves. It blankets you in a warm sea of analog waves and
melodic, early 80s pop hooks. This track could have easily
soundtracked a lost Michael Mann film. It’s the kind of song that
grabs you immediately and doesn’t let go. “Rain On Dry Concrete”
can’t help but feel like Tangerine Dream. TD is in Quaeschning &
Schauss’ DNA. It puts me in mind of Le Parc with its bright synth
structures and arpeggiated sounds. “Slow Life” crumbles into a
beautiful abyss. It’s crystalline sounds and nearly 8-minute run time
create an epic listen. Through headphones “Slow Life” becomes a
hypnotic tome, prone to pull you from your existence and carry you
into some other ethereal world. Likewise, “Cats and Dogs” paints an
aural universe with oscillation and LFO frequencies. It’s playful and
all-encompassing. “A Calm But Steady Flow” sounds like robotic
resonance in a metallic cavern. Some kind of AI call from the center
of a synthetic world. You can almost touch the square waves in the
air.
Elsewhere “Thirst” recalls classic TD in the form of their Three O’Clock
High score, while “Flare” has an ominous depth to it, like staring with
your toes dangling into some great unknown. If you’re a fan of S U R V
I V E and the Stranger Things soundtrack, this track will reach
something inside you and not easily let go. “Prism” casts off into the
great unknown, not really sure what will be caught. That’s the beauty
of it, though. The unknown. Something just beyond the horizon.
That’s truly the beauty of Synthwaves. It’s an album of musical
exploration. It casts a musical line into the ether and we sit to see
what that line pulls up. Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss
have set out to create something exploratory but also something
inviting and genuine. They’ve achieved that. I believe Edgar Froese
would approve.”
2017-06-19
Review 19th June 2017
Presented as a homage to the electronic music masters of the past
yet breathing fresh contemporary and enchanting vibes along an
overall post-cosmic sound, Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich Schnauss
"Synthwaves" is a 53-minute release made with vintage synthesizers,
sequencers and drum machines only.
The eight track outcome has a highly cinematic feel and reflects quite
a bit on TD’s soundtrack achievements on the first four pieces.
Contrary to that I consider "A Calm but steady flow" an awkward and
too stark exercise and therefor out of place on this recording. The last
three tracks ("Thirst, "Flare" and "Prism") though are highlights with
their sparkling, profound emotive and to the point sequenced aural
design.
Aside a nice nod and a wink to TD's classic work, the overall crisp
sound along the nice matching and range of interlocking patterns
evoke lovely vibes of nostalgia. Nice going guys!
2017-06-16
Review 16th June 2017
“Berlin retro electronics from synth geniuses Thorsten Quaeschning
and Ulrich Schnauss. Synthwaves pays homage to the masters of the
past, yet feels fresh and enchanting. Rich, neon-lit patterns are
modulated and mutated with precision into several post cosmic
sounds to drift to. During two intense weeks in the capital,
Quaeschning and Schnauss (both students of the great, late maestro
Edgar Froese) are said to have locked themselves in a studio full of
vintage synthesizers, analogue sequencers and drum machines and
here are the impressive results. These tracks are so evocative and life
affirming as you'd expect given the credentials of these producers: in
particular the dreampop and nu-gaze prince Schnauss' contribution.
As with the finest Tangerine Dream soundtracks, it's the kind of music
that paints vivid pictures on the canvas of the listeners mind.”
2017-08-25
Review 25th August 2017
Article by: John Wenlock-Smith
This is an album from current Tangerine Dream
members Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich
Schnauss. It’s highly distinctive and yet wears its
influences clearly and immediately in that it sounds
like vintage Virgin-era Tangerine Dream, with its
array of clattering analogue synthesizers and loops
sounding like something from a bygone era.
Synthwaves was recorded in West Berlin late in 2016
and is an independent release, but don’t be fooled,
this is not Tangerine Dream-lite but rightly stands
alone as a release on its own merits. There is a
warmth and an integrity that acts as a tribute,
repaying its heroes and inspirations, but in addition
it is a thoroughly enjoyable and listenable album
with strong music and compositions and not just
aimless noodling. It is a fairly immediate album but,
like most, the more you listen the more you hear, if
you get my drift.
I especially like the use of simple melodies that stay
with you after everything has finished, such as
occurs on Rain on Dry Concrete (I love the
imaginative titles used). There is substance and
subtext here, but you need to let the music
surround you to catch the undercurrents and see
where Thorsten and Ulrich are taking you. It is a
lovingly crafted album by two tremendous talents
who on the basis of this release are very capable
and considerate musicians who can be trusted to
carry the TD banner forward into waters uncharted.
The only downside is that the information provided
with the CD is very scant, which I feel lets things
down a little, but I guess budgetary constraints
account for that.
A great little disc, catch it while you can.
MUSICIANS
Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich Schnauss – Various
Synthesizers, Programming & All Sounds
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Azure Vista Records
Catalogue#: Vista 003
Date of Release: 30th June 2017
2017-07-31
Review 31st July 2017
Synthwaves by Quaeschning & Schnauss Echoes
August CD of the Month
Written by John Diliberto on July 31, 2017
The spirit of Tangerine Dream lives in our August CD
of the Month.
Wax up your surfboard because we’re riding
Synthwaves. Synthwave, singular, is an electronic
music genre that looks back to 1980s electronic
music from pop to soundtracks. But Synthwaves,
plural, is a new album by Thorsten Quaeschning and
Ulrich Schnauss, both veterans of electronic music
in their own right and currently members of
Tangerine Dream. Synthwaves harkens back to the
early 80s sound of the Dream, but with some newer
twists.
Both musicians are steeped in the heritage of
German electronic music. Thorsten Quaeschning
recorded revved-up retro-space music under the
name, Picture Palace Music. He’s also been a
member of Tangerine Dream for the last 15 years or
so. Ulrich Schnauss launched a new sound in
electronic music that mixed shoegaze textures and
guitar-like distortions with driving rhythms that
often sounded like surf music in overdrive. His
debut album, Far Away Trains Passing By and its
follow-up, A Strangely Isolated Place, are signature
examples of 21st century electronic music. For the
last few years, he’s also been a member of
Tangerine Dream.
These two musicians have gotten together on
Synthwaves, to create state-of-the-art sequencer
music. “Rain on Dry Concrete” has driving
interlocking patterns, phasing in and out of each
other like a laser moiré pattern. This is the sound of
80s Tangerine Dream, updated with even more
precision and complexity. This is music for the open
highway, cruise control set to 90 mph, barreling
through the night into the faint glow of the horizon.
A couple of tunes have echoes of Tangerine Dream’s
“Love on A Real Train” including “Slow Life”, built
around an ostinato piano sequence and building to
a climax on growling bass chords and phased
synthesizer pads. “Thirst” follows a similar path, but
builds into an industrial percolation of sequencer
groove.
We always thought the music of Tangerine Dream,
Klaus Schulze and Ash Ra Tempel (now Ashra) was
the music of the future, and forty years later I think
we can say we were right, because Synthwaves
emerges out of the curl of that electronic wave, but
it lands on different beaches. The duo, especially
Quaeschning , deploys a gearhead’s wet dreams-
worth of relatively vintage synthesizers from Roland,
Korg and Oberheim, mostly 80’s models at that
intersection of digital, analog and MIDI. Given the
gear it shouldn’t be a surprise when the lead melody
line of “Flare” uses a similar timbre to 80s era
Dream.
It’s surprising to hear Ulrich Schnauss, who has such
a distinctive 21st century sound, submerge himself
in the aesthetics and modes of Tangerine Dream. It’s
not until the final track, “Prism,” where the Schnauss
influence is obvious with the melancholy opening
chords leading to an anthemic delay treated melody
line. I kept waiting for the drums to roar in as on his
own song, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” from
Goodbye, which it resembles.
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss have
made the best sequencer driven electronic album
since Steve Roach’s 2015 album, Skeleton Keys.
Synthwaves is an incredible ride, like going aerial in
the Banzai pipeline.
2017-07-30
We ride Synthwaves by Quaschning & Schnauss,
Echoes CD of the Month for August. Thorsten
Quaschning recorded retrospace sounds under the
name, Picture Palace Music. He’s also been a
member of Tangerine Dream for the last 15 years or
so. Ulrich Schnauss has been an Echoes favorite for
all of this century going back to his debut album, Far
Away Trains Passing By, a CD of the Month back
then. For the last few years, he’s also been a
member of Tangerine Dream. These two musicians
have gotten together on an electronic album called
Synthwaves . It’s a meeting of Dream-style
sequencers and dynamics and Ulrich Schnauss’s
shoegaze influenced electronica. We’ll explore this
state-of-the-art sequencer album on Echoes.
2017-07-27
Review 27th July 2017
Had Hoshiko Yamane been involved, Synthwaves
could have been issued as a Tangerine Dream
release, given that Thorsten Quaeschning, Ulrich
Schnauss, and Yamane compose the outfit's current
lineup in the wake of founder Edgar Froese's 2015
passing. As it is, Synthwaves sees Quaeschning and
Ulrich Schnauss teaming up for an eight-track
excursion whose contents are often reminiscent of
the parent group. Recorded during two weeks in
Berlin, the recording lands the listener squarely
within Tangerine Dream territory from its first
moment, with layers of vintage synthesizers and
motorik drum machine beats giving “Main Theme” a
pristine sheen that might well have you thinking of
early group releases like Stratosfear, Force Majeure,
and the Thief soundtrack.
Memorable touches often differentiate one track
from another and help recommend the release:
both “Rain On Dry Concrete” and “Flare” less evoke
Tangerine Dream than The Pat Metheny Group by
including whistling synth textures similar to the
sonorities Lyle Mays often added to the group's
material. Though “Slow Life” opens in gentle
ambient mode with reverb-drenched piano at the
forefront, it gradually develops into an exercise in
kosmische dazzle rich in entrancing synthetic
washes, bass pulses, and analog sequencer
patterns. “Flare” dazzles too, in this case by
bewitching the listener with blissed-out psychedelia.
Other tracks, on the other hand, present vintage
riffs on the TD sound: oceanic waves of interlocking
synth patterns blaze, sparkle, and pulsate
throughout “Thirst” and “Prism,” each a deep
exercise in interstellar overdrive if there ever was
one. Inviting the comparison further, some pieces
appear to thread guitar playing into their
arrangements, much as Froese did on many a TD
recording.
Admittedly, Synthwaves won't win any awards for
originality or innovation; what largely compensates
for that, however, is the high quality of the
production, with Quaeschning and Schnauss having
created a remarkable and consistently beguiling
collection of which they can be proud. Each richly
polyrhythmic setting is an elaborately considered
composition that pays homage to the past while at
the same time sounding thoroughly contemporary.
2017-07-09
Review 9th July 2017
“Quality instrumental electronic music is often
overlooked these days at the expense of vocal
driven synth material.
The halcyon days, of when artists such as JEAN-
MICHEL JARRE, KLAUS SCHULZE and TANGERINE
DREAM were all at their peak, are all but a distant
memory.
However, there are still artists that are producing
quality work in this vein and this led The Electricity
Club to investigate this release…
‘Synthwaves’ is a collaboration between TANGERINE
DREAM members Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich
Schnauss which utilises their enviable collection of
synthesizers.
Whereas solo Schnauss has a fairly identifiable “wall
of sound with Shoegaze elements” aesthetic, the
link-up with Quaeschning has produced a more
direct and melodic sound which, in places
(unsurprisingly) references the classic sound of TD.
The start-off track ‘Main Theme’ appears to be a
homage to the ‘Stranger Things’ opening music,
which in itself paid tribute to TD and electronic
artists of the era. From the off, the track relies on a
deep resonant synth bass and sequencer lines
before introducing some William Orbit-style stabs
and big reverberant drum sounds. In classic TD
style, more layered echoed sequencer parts raise
the energy level and what makes the piece sustain
interest over its 8 minute length is its continually
changing chord progressions and refusal to rely on a
linear approach.
‘Slow Life’ starts off with a quite beautiful ambient
Eno-esque acoustic piano part drenched in a long
reverb before swiftly introducing another
wonderfully deep bass and hooky synth sequence.
Alongside a later track on the album, the ghost of
the classic ‘Risky Business’ soundtrack piece ‘Love
On A Real Train’ is initially recalled here, but the
introduction of phased Solina strings and guitar-like
textures add a further dimension.
‘Cats and Dogs’ which relies on a vintage Oberheim
DMX for its drum pattern and the PROPAGANDA
lyric-pinching ‘A Calm But Steady Flow’ are pleasant
enough, but come across as mid-album fillers.
Where the album really hits its stride though is in
the final trilogy of tracks; ‘Thirst’ is the second track
to owe a debt to ‘Love on a Real Train’. Based
around a Manikin Schrittmacher sequencer part, the
track’s skittering percussion and additional synth
layers hit a wonderful climax at 3 minutes 17
seconds when a bass synth modulates around the
hypnotic synth parts.
Although over 8 minutes in length, ‘Thirst’ never
outstays its welcome and for fans of the Berlin
School of sequencing, is bound to be an undeniable
highlight here.
‘Flare’ comes across in part as a drum-less electronic
re-imagining of a ‘Disintegration’-era track by THE
CURE; its huge string synth melody sounding
absolutely epic and adding in a welcome musical
change to the piece.
Album closer ‘Prism’ has the kind of chord
progression that makes the hairs stand up on the
back of the neck and ends ‘Synthwaves’ on a real
high.
What’s interesting about this collaboration (and
potentially exciting for the fans of the upcoming
TANGERINE DREAM album) is that it must have been
hugely tempting for Quaeschning and Schnauss to
use the tracks here for TD. The very fact that they
haven’t means that the upcoming TD release
‘Quantum Gate’ could be something very special
indeed and a major justification of the continuation
of the band following the passing of leader Edgar
Froese.
If you are a long term fan of melodic instrumental
synthesizer music and maybe haven’t been inclined
to investigate what is current within this sub-genre,
this album would be a fantastic place to start. It
avoids a lot of the clichés of some Berlin School
material and at no point does it become overly self-
indulgent.
Immerse yourself in the ‘Synthwaves’ and you may
never wish to surface again…
‘Synthwaves’ uses the following instrumentation and
equipment:
Thorsten Quaeschning – Steinberg Cubase, Manikin
Schrittmacher sequencer, Manikin Memotron,
Roland Jupiter 8, Roland JD800, Dave Smith Prophet
8, ARP Solina MK2, Korg Wavestation EX, Waldorf
Microwave, Moog Voyager, Eurorack Modular,
Roland V Synth, Korg Z1, Korg Prophecy, Korg M1
synthesiser, Clavia Nordwave, Yamaha TG77, Roland
System 1, Roland JU06, Korg MS20, Roland JP08,
Roland TR-8 Rhythm Performer, Oberheim DMX,
Roland Promars, Fender Starcaster, Fender
Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, Spectrasonics
Omnisphere, Spectrasonics Keyscape, Screwdriver
on wood and contact microphones, several boxes
with contact microphones, bees in garden
Ulrich Schnauss – Steinberg Cubase and Logic Pro,
Manikin Schrittmacher sequencer, Roland JD XA,
Roland Jupiter 8, Roland JD-800, Oberheim OB-8,
Roland System 1, Roland MKS-70, Rhodes Chroma,
Waldorf Q, Microwave XT, Sonic Core SCOPE system,
Ensoniq DP4”
2017-07-05
Review 5th July 2017
“Quaeschning & Schnauss unveil new album
Synthwaves
by Mike Stanton
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss have
teamed up to create a record of pure Berlin-school
bliss which pays homage to the past while
remaining fresh and relevant. Crisp, interlocking
patterns are modulated and mutated with
mathematical precision into eight pieces of pristine,
post-kosmische sounds to float away to.
Recorded over two intense weeks in Berlin,
Quaeschning and Schnauss – both students of the
great, late maestro Edgar Froese and current
members of Tangerine Dream – locked themselves
in a studio full of vintage synthesizers, analogue
sequencers and drum machines, and the result is a
gorgeous set of purely electronic music. Whereas
the title suggests something new and contemporary,
the pieces are firmly rooted in the 1970’s evoking
the likes of Cluster, Tangerine Dream and Klaus
Schulze at their spacey best.
Many of the tracks meld Tangerine Dream‘s
sequencer-led journeys and Cluster‘s playful side
allowing poly-rhythmic patterns to build – slowly but
steadily – bar after bar, until synth-Satori is reached.
By the time the last track on this album runs out, it’s
obvious these two producers are themselves
masters of their craft.
“Main Theme” is dramatic and sweeping with more
than a few nods to the retro and synthwave
movement. “Rain On Dry Concrete” and “Slow Life”
are all bubbling arpeggios and bright shiny synths
that play with melody and space. “Cats and Dogs”
packs so many ideas in it appears to swell and grow
with each listen. “Thirst” is almost a follow-up to
Tangerine Dream‘s “Love on a Real Train” crossed
with Jean Michel Jarre‘s “Arppegiator” with its crystal-
glare electronics, spiraling sequencer and pulsating
cues.
“Flare” is a ballad with pure TD touches, while
“Prism” gathers all the prettiest moments from TD
and Ulrich‘s solo work with breathy synth pads
creating a woozy 80’s shoegaze vibe, it swirls slowly
leaving a fuzzy sheen in its wake.
Synthwaves spans a range of moods from pulsating
electronics through hypnotic drone to bright,
chiming tones. Their heady explorations conjure
meditative lulls throughout without falling into new
age murkiness. It is a beautiful journey into a neon-
metropolitan dusk.”
If you enjoyed the decent records we have been
championing by the likes of Concretism and Dalham
then you are going to love this. Similarly if you can't
get enough of the kosmische synth re-issues that
have started popping up then this will be for you.
Moreover if like me you only dabble these days, this
could be the one synth record you need to pick up
this year.”
2017-06-27
Review 5th July 2017
“8/10 “´Stars” Clinton Staff review, 27 June 2017
What a lot of people forget about me is that a used
to be a right synth nut. In the early '80s I was
obsessed with anything synthesizer and used to
pour over my grandma's Marshall Ward catalogues
looking at the pictures of the sort of keyboards I
could only dream of owning. Now everyone else has
caught on we have a glut of synth based albums in
store that tend to leave me as cold as the
atmospheres they are trying to emulate but I was
quite taken with this album of compositions by
Tangerine Dream affiliates Thorsten Quaeschning
and Ulrich Schnauss.
This is a series of terrific 'Bladerunner' style
compositions particularly the excellent opening
'Main Theme' which is one of those insta-classic
synth themes that you are sure you have heard
before. Following the death of Tangerine Dream
leader Edgar Froese, the pair locked themselves in a
room full of vintage equipment and basically
squelched until their heart was content. 'Rain on Dry
Concrete' is another superb piece which uses
brilliant polyrhythms bouncing from ear to ear
whilst also providing the sort of melody that would
do as a heartfelt melody to 1982's latest pylons.
'Slow Life' starts out a little ambient with piano type
sounds but soon erupts out of it's ether with a
splendidly doomy yet soothing bass-line and
brilliant drifting synth notes.
If you enjoyed the decent records we have been
championing by the likes of Concretism and Dalham
then you are going to love this. Similarly if you can't
get enough of the kosmische synth re-issues that
have started popping up then this will be for you.
Moreover if like me you only dabble these days, this
could be the one synth record you need to pick up
this year.”
2017-06-26
Interview 26th June 2017
Interview in Berlin after the June 2017 Concerts.
(Taken from 2nd 1Ear2Hear Radio Show)
2017-06-25
Concert 25th June 2017
Quaeschning & Schnauss
playing Synthwaves
2017-06-23
“Electronic Surfs with Synthwaves
There’s a new genre out there that’s called
Synthwave, that sounds like 1980s electronic music.
On the next Slow Flow Echoes we’ll hear music from
the soundtrack of The Rise of the Synths and a new
album from Thorsten Quaschning and Ulrich
Schnauss called Synthwaves. We surf it on Echoes”
2017-06-23
Review 23th June 2017
“A two-week experiment, Synthwaves is the result of
Thorsten Quaeschning (Tangerine Dream) and Ulrich
Schnauss sequestering themselves in a room full of
vintage synths, sequencers, and drum machines.
The results are quite brilliant. The duo takes the
listener on sci-fi adventures, flying them over space-
like plateaus on far off planets, painting epic
planetscape horizons where dual planets float in the
distance, and flying them through uncharted areas
of space with glisten stars and nebulae. It’s not
astonishing that these two clearly adept musicians
could craft such beautifully executed synth tracks
but that they did so in such a short time and having
placed particular limitations on themselves. Both a
nostalgia trip for those who are 80’s synth music
fans as well as a fresh take on the entire genre,
Synthwaves is a demonstration of Quaeschning and
Schnauss’ musical prowess.
“Main Theme” opens Synthwaves with deep bass
and bright, dancing synths. The melodic patterns
move about, connecting to one another in a stream
of brightly syncopated tempi. “Main Theme”
prepares the listener for what’s ahead as they sit in
holding, ready to blast off into an epic soundtrack of
space exploration and sci-fi worlds. The variations
on the core melody in this piece are captivating.
Indeed, once you allow this track to envelop you,
there is no turning back and the need to listen to
what comes next becomes urgent and, ultimately,
welcome. “Rain on Dry Concrete” comes into the
speakers with echoing sci-fi synths and syncopated
shaker sounds. It most certainly evokes long walks
in hot summer rain showers but in a far distant,
technologically advanced future. “Rain on Dry
Concrete” should be listened to with soundtracks for
future sci-fi epics in mind.
“Slow Life” is just an astonishingly beautiful piece
beginning with a simple melody played on piano
which is wrapped in warm drones. Eventually, more
sounds flitter into the speakers, as the title suggests,
as the burgeoning of life is at hand. Deeper keys
provide another melodic layer as they lead the
listener into waves of textures that spark the
imagination. Quaeschning and Schnauss hypnotize
the listener as they ply their magic layers, building,
peeling away, and building again. “Slow Life” is a
magnificent feat of musical ingenuity. “Cats and
Dogs” brings in a bit of a shift, with a view toward
the use of percussion and the syncopated synths
that travel alongside it. The piece builds as it reaches
for an inevitable climax with melodies playing off
one another amid dancing synths.
“A Calm Steady Flow” begins with robotic synths and
percussion. Poltergeist like synth tones haunt the
cracks and crevices of this energetic piece. There are
also these small moments where particular tones
and textures play amid the larger melodies. These
choices are striking and the attention to detail
evocative. “Thirst” leads into a trilogy of one word
titled songs. It is the longest on the album, boasting
an 8:11 length. This composition has a bravado to it,
an epicness, the sort that screams space opera or
hero’s journey. This track really does lead into a
back-end trilogy to this album, with its soaring
complex moments and its suggestive, triumphant
atmosphere.
“Flare” is the penultimate track on Synthwaves and it
dials down the larger sound and initially focuses on
more somber moments. That said, eventually bright
synths come to the fore and spark rays of hope into
the darker, underlying tones. As “Flare” progresses,
there are moments of rising electronic crystalline
textures, glittering and dazzling. “Prism”, the album’s
finale, comes into the speaker with iridescent fuzz,
birds chirping, and slow glacial synths. It’s a track
that soothes and memorizes and leads the listener
gently into the fade at the end of the album.
It’s no secret that Quaeschning and Schnauss both
are masters of their instruments and the genres in
which they tend to produce music. As individuals,
their output is brilliant and, as collaborators, it is
that much more breathtaking. There is a depth here
that many musicians could not conjure from older
analog synths. Quaeschning and Schnauss evoke a
warmth from stereotypically cold mediums, from
dense fuzzy walls of sound to deep abiding warm
tones that engulf the listener. There is a sonic story
being told here but it will evoke different things to
different listeners, as these things go. That said,
Synthwaves is captivating and will immerse the
listener in synth heaven.”
2017-06-21
Review 21st June 2017
“Ulrich Schnauss is a busy guy. Not only has he
released an excellent album already this year with
fellow synth aficionado and Causa Sui guitarist Jonas
Munk called Passage, but he’s also readying a new
Tangerine Dream album called Quantum Gate,
which marks the final concepts of TD founder Edgar
Froese(who passed away in early 2015) and a new
beginning for the Berlin School masters. You’d think
that would be plenty for the year, but Schnauss
seems constantly abuzz with ideas and creativity.
He’s teamed up with Tangerine Dream band mate
Thorsten Quaeschning and the two have made an
album filled with analog synth heaven called
Synthwaves. It’s a testament to the golden age of
analog sounds and hazy oscillation that komische
music gave us in both the pre-Watergate and post-
end of the dream decade known as the 70s. It’s also
a bit of a tribute to the mentor both Schnauss and
Quaeschning had in Froese. The record is a heady
sonic trip into the past, while keeping eyes firmly
pointed to the future.
“Main Theme” feels like a proper announcement to
the world of Synthwaves. It blankets you in a warm
sea of analog waves and melodic, early 80s pop
hooks. This track could have easily soundtracked a
lost Michael Mann film. It’s the kind of song that
grabs you immediately and doesn’t let go. “Rain On
Dry Concrete” can’t help but feel like Tangerine
Dream. TD is in Quaeschning & Schauss’ DNA. It
puts me in mind of Le Parc with its bright synth
structures and arpeggiated sounds. “Slow Life”
crumbles into a beautiful abyss. It’s crystalline
sounds and nearly 8-minute run time create an epic
listen. Through headphones “Slow Life” becomes a
hypnotic tome, prone to pull you from your
existence and carry you into some other ethereal
world. Likewise, “Cats and Dogs” paints an aural
universe with oscillation and LFO frequencies. It’s
playful and all-encompassing. “A Calm But Steady
Flow” sounds like robotic resonance in a metallic
cavern. Some kind of AI call from the center of a
synthetic world. You can almost touch the square
waves in the air.
Elsewhere “Thirst” recalls classic TD in the form of
their Three O’Clock High score, while “Flare” has an
ominous depth to it, like staring with your toes
dangling into some great unknown. If you’re a fan of
S U R V I V E and the Stranger Things soundtrack,
this track will reach something inside you and not
easily let go. “Prism” casts off into the great
unknown, not really sure what will be caught. That’s
the beauty of it, though. The unknown. Something
just beyond the horizon.
That’s truly the beauty of Synthwaves. It’s an album
of musical exploration. It casts a musical line into
the ether and we sit to see what that line pulls up.
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss have set
out to create something exploratory but also
something inviting and genuine. They’ve achieved
that. I believe Edgar Froese would approve.”
2017-06-19
Review 19th June 2017
Presented as a homage to the electronic music
masters of the past yet breathing fresh
contemporary and enchanting vibes along an overall
post-cosmic sound, Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich
Schnauss "Synthwaves" is a 53-minute release made
with vintage synthesizers, sequencers and drum
machines only.
The eight track outcome has a highly cinematic feel
and reflects quite a bit on TD’s soundtrack
achievements on the first four pieces. Contrary to
that I consider "A Calm but steady flow" an awkward
and too stark exercise and therefor out of place on
this recording. The last three tracks ("Thirst, "Flare"
and "Prism") though are highlights with their
sparkling, profound emotive and to the point
sequenced aural design.
Aside a nice nod and a wink to TD's classic work, the
overall crisp sound along the nice matching and
range of interlocking patterns evoke lovely vibes of
nostalgia. Nice going guys!
2017-06-16
Review 16th June 2017
“Berlin retro electronics from synth geniuses
Thorsten Quaeschning and Ulrich Schnauss.
Synthwaves pays homage to the masters of the
past, yet feels fresh and enchanting. Rich, neon-lit
patterns are modulated and mutated with precision
into several post cosmic sounds to drift to. During
two intense weeks in the capital, Quaeschning and
Schnauss (both students of the great, late maestro
Edgar Froese) are said to have locked themselves in
a studio full of vintage synthesizers, analogue
sequencers and drum machines and here are the
impressive results. These tracks are so evocative
and life affirming as you'd expect given the
credentials of these producers: in particular the
dreampop and nu-gaze prince Schnauss'
contribution. As with the finest Tangerine Dream
soundtracks, it's the kind of music that paints vivid
pictures on the canvas of the listeners mind.”