artist: Johannes Schmoelling country of origin: Germany style(s): Electropop, ambient, Berlin school, Krautrock essential releases: Wuivend Riet (1986, Erdenklang) White Out (2000 version, Viktoria Park)

Audio technician and keyboard player Schmoelling was a key member of pioneering German electronic band Tangerine Dream from 1980-85 who immediately brought a slicker production sheen to their sound. Working with some of the earliest digital synthesisers he also expanded the range of tonal colours in Tangerine Dream's music and brought more variation to the structure of longer compositions, as can be heard on masterful TD albums like Logos (1982) and Poland (1984).

His fine solo debut Wuivend Reit was recorded shortly after his departure from the group. The first half contains four varied and tautly constructed pieces of ambient electro-pop that are infinitely quirkier and more interesting than anything on his last recording with Tangerine Dream, the wretched Le Parc (1985). With its murmuring, shuffling machine groove and flourishes of piano the stunning "Matjora Is Still Alive" aches with a beautiful urban melancholy. The album's second half contains the long two-part suite "Wuivend Reit" which was composed for a theatre production, the title being Dutch for "wind blown reeds". Distinguished by his highly creative use of marsh sounds and other digital samples and climaxing with a bright, epic folk melody, it shows his previously undemonstrated abilities with sound collage in the vein of avant-garde maestro Karl Stockhausen.

Despite such an impressive solo debut Schmoelling's subsequent albums and film soundtracks have been infrequent and mostly mediocre. An exception is White Out, originally recorded in 1990 and re-released 10 years later with extra tracks and subtle changes to the sound. A good album originally, an even better one now. Its not far in style from Wuivend Reit and the theme of Arctic landscapes and exploration is well suited to Schmoelling's airy, crisp sound. Close inspection also reveals how different this is to most "environmental" music. His samples of radio transmissions and wildlife sometimes appear in unexpected patterns; and his suspended string backdrops and chord progressions segue between melody and abstraction with unusual skill, particularly the jazzy electro impressionism of the title track. The album closes with "Ice Walk 2000", a lush remix that gives a surprising nod to trip-hop with its soaring keyboard motifs above and the brittle, crunchy breakbeat below.

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