Popol Vuh - 'nuff said

[mogrooves]

So, which albums would you suggest one start with?

Hosianna Mantra
Einsjager und Siebenjager

[at least 100 dead]

Sooo...thanks to this thread, I finally got "Letzte Tage, letzte Nächte" and "Nacht der Seele / Tantric Songs". Both wonderful. The latter doesn't appear to be particularly popular among PV likers, but I'm enjoying it a lot. Those "Mantram" tracks are rather gothic and sound closer to Einstürzende Neubauten than new age.

[Kai]

This has indeed some of the band's greatest atmospherics. As you said, gothic on pieces like the ”Mantrams” and ”Wanderer durch die Nacht” (maybe that is Dark New Age?), but also really beautiful on ”Engel der Luft”. It does seem a bit underappreciated for some reason.

At the time, I thought it was strange match to bundle it together with Affenstunde on the 1992 twofer by High Tide. But perhaps it isn't such a strange idea. Despite the different instrumentation and compositional approach, both albums have a lot of common in terms of atmosphere.

[Enid]

In several cases it seemed that many of their themes were recurring on certain albums and the listener would be confused as to why this was happening. Some Popol Vuh pieces were meant to be reminiscent of others and additionally some of the recurring themes were either extended or shortened. As spiritual themes often repeat in music of ancient Greece and Egypt, so in the case of Popol Vuh to follow that concept. Was Florian Fricke using music he was writing for a regular Popol Vuh album at the time for soundtracks? Or was he doing reconstruction with it to fit the purpose of the film?