Popol Vuh

A soundtrack for the Werner Herzog film of the same name and originally released in 1987, Cobra Verde was the sixteenth album by Popol Vuh.

Herz aus Glas (subtitled "Singet, denn der Gesang vertreibt die Wölfe" [German for "Sing, for singing drives away the wolves"], French "Cœur de verre") is the ninth album by Popol Vuh. It was originally released in 1977 on Brain Records. In 2005 SPV re-released the album with two bonus tracks. This album was released as the original motion picture soundtrack of Heart of Glass (Original German title: "Herz aus Glas", French title "Coeur de verre") by German director Werner Herzog, but in fact only two tracks ("Engel der Gegenwart" and "Hüter der Schwelle") were actually featured in the film.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
This is one isn't one of my favourite POPOL VUH albums although it's still very good. The side long title track is the highlight here with it's medieval chants repeated over and over.

Released in 1974, Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (Earth & Sky) is a further rock entrenchment for Popol Vuh. Florian Fricke's piano is more percussively present with its runs and large chord voicings rippling throughout each composition. In addition, Daniel Fichelscher's electric guitar picks up where Conny Veit's left off, taking the bluesy space rock solo style into new territory by incorporating Eastern scales into the main body of his blues phrasing. There are five short compositions on the first side, which merely prepare the listener for the mind-blowing title cut, which takes up the entirety of side two. Here, in addition to the swirling organic percussion and pianism of Fricke and the loping, often singing guitar lines that repeat hypnotically with rock & roll tension, the vocals of the amazing Djong Yun become the catalyst for the other musicians to spiral off into extended improvisations…

Popol Vuh's Seligpreisung is another essential work from the band, ushering in the classic middle period for which they are best known. The album represents the reconvening of the band after Fricke had contributed to Gila's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, after which he brought former Amon Duul II drummer turned guitarist Daniel Fischelscher into the fold of his main band. Fischelscher would become Fricke's main collaborator for what is essentially Popol Vuh's most intensely brilliant period, reaching a possible culmination in the subsequent classics Letzte Tage, Letzte Nachte and Einsjager & Siebenjager. In light of those later achievements, Seligpreisung still stands as a solid addition, if slightly more tentative…

Alberto Ginastera left his massive orchestral piece Popol Vuh, which had been commissioned by Eugene Ormandy, unfinished at his death in 1983, and it was only after it was discovered by pianist Barbara Nissman that it had its premiere in 1989, with Leonard Slatkin and Saint Louis Symphony. A musical reimagining of Mayan creation mythology, it's a monumental piece that viscerally evokes a primitive world using both folk elements and sophisticated modernist techniques. The composer wrote that he was aiming for a "reconstitution of the transcendental aspect of the ancient pre-Columbian world," and the piece is fully successful at capturing that vision with music that is powerfully primal, strange, and darkly beautiful.

Compared to their previous recordings, the hymn-like ‘Hosianna Mantra’ – a milestone record within their career – saw Popol Vuh taking the next step with ‘Seligpreisung’. A new musical element entered the mix: rock. No coincidence, as Daniel Fichelscher from Amon Düül II made his first appearance here, playing guitars and drums. Fichelscher was to become an important companion for Fricke securing the rock element as an important and explicit ingredient of their music in the coming years. The music on ‘Seligpreisung’ evokes that typical and mysterious brilliance of Popol Vuh of being able to sound non-Western while using mostly Western instruments. While Daniel Fichelscher and Conny Veit gave rock impulses, Florian Fricke and Robert Eliscu approached things from the classical side. Robert Eliscu played a lyrical oboe; his intricate duets with Fricke on the grand piano defined the meditative side of the tracks on the album. Due to the temporary absence of vocalist Djong Yun, all vocal duties fell to Florian Fricke this time. The incredibly beautiful bonus track “Be In Love” is an essential addition. It is the A-side of a now hard to find single, recorded just before the album “Seligpreisung”, with vocals by Djong Yun.

Essential: a masterpiece of Progressive Rock music.
Once again Florian blesses us with some meditative and reflective music. And I have to say that this is one of my favourites from him.