https://youtu.be/wANEBUr-J0c?si=b5PMf0nMQFAxHytS

This album saw Schnitzler head further in the direction of pop music. Like “Consequenz”, “Con 3” is a collaborative effort with Wolfgang Seidel, alias Sequenza. “Con 3” is a really odd mixture of numerous ingredients which Schnitzler was capable of combining with dexterity and taste. His musical handwriting is immediately apparent in the foreground. Effervescent electronic sequences can be heard on all nine pieces, coming from somewhere and appearing to go wherever – this is Schnitzler alright, this is his musical utopia. Then Wolfgang Seidel, formerly drummer with Ton, Steine, Scherben: an ideal partner for Schnitzler when it came to programming rhythm machines and sequencers for a minimalistic mesh.

Another ingredient in “Con 3” is undoubtedly German New Wave (Neue Deutsche Welle, NDW). How could it not have touched Schnitzler? He lived and worked in Berlin! Above all, his succinct, absurd-surrealist lyrics would have suited many a protagonist of NDW. In this respect, Schnitzler revealed two hitherto hidden talents: his delivery of lyrics written by himself was both precise and incredibly assured. The fourth component of “Con 3” is without question the character in the back­ground, Peter Baumann. As producer and sound engineer, he was to Schnitzler what Conny Plank had been for Cluster and Harmonia and many others. His gentle, discreet impulses, his immense know-how with regard to modern studio technology and his perennial enthusiasm could be detected in all of the productions he created in his Paragon Studio. Years of working with Tangerine Dream honed his studio experience and his intuitive flair for electronic experiments. Those like Schnitzler who were able to work in the Paragon Studio were in exceptionally good hands. There could hardly be a more fertile alliance.

“Con 3” might have sounded rather disconcerting to Schnitzler listeners at the time. He h.......
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