The Prodigy is an electronic music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990, in Braintree, Essex, England. They have sold over 16 million records worldwide which is unequaled in dance music history. Their music consists of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore, industrial and, breakbeat in the early 1990s to alternative rock and big beat with punk vocal elements in later times.

Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German seaport of Kiel in 1977. He became interested in a range of music: My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Tangerine Dream, Chapterhouse, and early bleep & breakbeat tracks. There was not much opportunity to see his musical influences in Kiel, so he moved to Berlin in 1996.

Ulrich's musical output began under the pseudonyms of View to the Future and Ethereal 77. These electronica and drum-driven pieces became noticed by Berlin electronica label CCO (City Centre Offices), whom Schnauss sent CDR's on a regular basis. Ulrich developed these submissions to CCO into his first album under his own name, Far Away Trains Passing By, released in Europe in 2001, and in the United States in 2005.