Music to listen to on headphones: Schiller-Atemlos

Schiller has returned with another double album, Atemlos, after the great Sehnsucht, that most of his fans consider a masterpiece, that had to live up to another classic Schiller-Tag und Nacht, a double album again.And Sehnsucht played its part.

I had first come across Schiller's music around 2003 when he's released the Leben...I feel you single off of Leben. The track was rather bouncy( much more than the album counterpart), yet I loved it, but I couldn't accept it as electronic music, cause its sound was too house-ish/techno-ish( at that time my electronic music was made of Vangelis, Jarre, the Tangs, Kitaro, Kraftwerk and probably had heard of KS but not yet listened to his music.The Berlin School or Retro scene was unknown to me).And while the genre was automatically refused to be heard by my ear, I still liked the track.

Then 2008 arrived and KS' site was showing this 33 minutes track in his discography section he had made with Schiller for his new album Sehnsucht. That left me intrigued. Evidently KS has made some errors in choosing who to make music with across the decades he's been in the business, but I hoped this was one of the lucky cases.
Thus, I searched and found Schiller's site where, at the time, snippets of songs from his new album were played. And the track with KS had left me impressed, I was wondering how grand it had to be in its entirety, upon hearing just a few seconds of it. I dl-ed the album and liked it, loved it, got hooked on it. And I've been a fan ever since. And I sure as hell don't mind it!

Now, let's get to Atemlos.

No matter if you've got a super high quality expensive most of us can't afford stereo system with a Bang&Olufsen logo on it( I'm not up to date anymore with which products from which brands are considered the ''shit'' nowadays, when it comes to music devices. Come to think about it, 've never been.:)) or a 5+1 system that has a cool technical name ,this album needs and has to be heard and enjoyed on the good ol' headphones.
It's not that stereos are not doing their job, on the contrary. Although I'm a decent listener sometimes I still like revving the engine up and turning the volume up higher and hearing the music's power caress the walls, if anything else. There's nothing better than annoying the neighbours with high-volumed music you enjoy, especially when it's clear they don't share your tastes. But let me get to the point.
No matter how advanced the systems are, there's no way they can play emotions inside the music as much as some mere mp3 players. There's something about headphones, good ones that is, they can make you hear subtle harmonies inside the tracks that'd be left undetected otherwise. Plus, it feels a lot closer to your music need. It's always nice to hear this album, in perfect silence, in the dark and soak up all the sounds and let the music breathe through you.

The album is very crips-sounding, just like any other Schiller album, very well produced, you can clearly hear his passion for notes, for ambience, for music, for felt and lived music. Some fans have said it's too mellow and ambient, very much different to the more up-tempo Sehnsucht. And while they might be right, in parts, I'd still want to disagree.
Let's not forget that Schiller's work has been chill out since the beginning, yet considering the album's name is Atemlos-Breathless one should expect a calmer and more downtempo approach to each track and overall sound. That doesn't mean Atemlos is beat-free, there is plenty of rhythm, plenty of danceable tracks, plenty atmosphere and plenty Schiller style. Most likely the singles will be remixed and become huge dancefloor anthems, this summer , at least.

A thing that sets Atemlos apart from its predecessors are the vocal guests. Long gone are the days of Heppner or Jette von Roth. Kim Sanders only ''donates'' her beautiful voice on one song and the rest of the vocals are left in the hands of unknown acts, to me, of course. Well, except Nadia Ali and Anggun. The tracks are still very much thought-out and the fact that we don't hear any recognisable voices from any previous Schiller albums doesn't detract one bit from the quality of the songs or the voices of the singers. The songs work great and it's clear Christopher wants to keep things fresh at all times by getting new talent to work with.

Overall, Atemlos is yet another gem from Schiller, an album that I'm sure lots of fans will give the ''masterpiece'' stamp. I'm one of those.
I'm gonna go as far as saying Atemlos is one of the albums I'd take with me on a deserted island in case of shipwreck. Go buy it!!!It's well worth the money!

T.


P.S. Maybe now Christopher could persuade Harald Bluechel( Cosmic baby) to get his arse in the studio and make another Mare Stellaris.....