Schnauss Says Hello Again With 'Goodbye'

After laboring for the better part of two years, German electronica artist Ulrich Schnauss has set a July 10 release for his third album, "Goodbye." The 10-track Domino set features vocals on a handful of tracks from prior contributor Judith Beck, as well as a collaboration with Rob McVey of U.K. rock act Longview, of which Schnauss is now a full-time member.

Throughout, the music evokes the best moments of early Lush and My Bloody Valentine, a sound Schnauss obsessed over for months on end. "Sound-wise, I wanted to take the whole layering idea to the next level," he tells Billboard.com. "There's far more stuff happening in these tracks than on the previous two records. It just became really difficult to mix it in the right way. Some of these songs have about 100 tracks playing simultaneously, and I had a lot of trouble getting the balance right."

Schnauss says the Beck-featuring track "Stars" was a particular brain-teaser, "because it has a high dynamic range. It's starts pretty quiet and then gets really loud towards the end. It got a bit out of control."

"Up until last summer, I was really unhappy with this record and really frustrated," he admits. "I almost gave up on it. But in the last five or six months, I got it right, and now I'm very pleased with the results."

Schnauss' prior albums were released in Europe by the tiny German label City Centre Offices, but this time around, "Goodbye" is coming out via Independiente, home to Travis, Gomez and Martina Topley-Bird, among others.

"Last time, I think there was a gap of one year between the European and U.S. releases," he says. "This time, it is almost simultaneous. I'm really happy about it, because I enjoyed those trips to the U.S. and I'm working very closely with a lot of people in the underground scene there with this kind of music. To be honest, I think that scene in America is even more interesting than what's happening in Europe."

For now, Schnauss is in the studio with Longview making his first recordings with the group, but he is planning to tour this summer. "I'm still working on a new, hopefully a bit more interesting live setup, but that's not really finished," he says. "I had a really nice offer to play a small festival in New York in late June, so I'm thinking about using that as the first opportunity to play with a more improvisation-based setup."