Schnauss’ music video for “Love Grows Out of Thin Air”
Written by Gillian Booth on July 11, 2017
Ulrich Schnauss is a German electronic musician, producer, remixer, and collaborator. His influences include My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Tangerine Dream, and Chapterhouse. Originally under the pseudonyms View of the Future and Ethereal 77, Schnauss began producing music at a young age. He sent his music to a record label called City Centre Offices regularly, and they noticed him. He was then able to produce his first album in 2001 and has been creating, collaborating, remixing, producing, and editing music ever since. He is now a member of one of his childhood influences, Tangerine Dream, and plays keyboard for the band Longview. “Love Grows Out of Thin Air” is a track off his newest album, No Further Ahead Than Today.
The video for “Love Grows Out of Thin Air” is heartbreaking and tragic. It depicts the story of a retired detective named Frank Johnson, who loses his son in a traumatic drowning incident. His wife leaves him after the accident and he becomes suicidal. In the video, he reflects on the tragic memories, and he is driven back to the lighthouse where his son passed. He feels as though his son is reaching out to him and prepares to jump to his death. However, his wife, who has been looking for him, finds him out by the dock. She runs, grabs him, and saves his life. Frank imagines that it is his son who saved him, not his wife, and is relieved. The last shot is his wife holding him tightly in an embrace.
The heartbreaking story of loss and sadness is only aided by the Schnauss’ music. The video is less a music video and more a short film; the music reminds me of a film score. The tempo changes along with plot, the shifting mood foreshadows future events, and the tone foreshadows the tragedies. The theme of finding hope after tragedy is contained within his music. Schnauss has said, “I have always loved music that has both elements: melancholy and sadness as a description of the current situation you are in, but at the same time a hopeful, utopian element that reminds you of the possibility of a different life.”
WOW…really connects…sad yet beautiful…thank you.
The video for ‘Love Grows Out Of Thin Air’ was conceptualised and directed by talented Irish writer and director Sean James Garland.