Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 79

Thread: Popol Vuh - 'nuff said

  1. #1
    Member Teddy Vengeance's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Deepest darkest Japan
    Posts
    400

    Popol Vuh - 'nuff said

    No one sounds like these guys. Has anyone else ever plumbed that whole ambient/spiritual thing with such grace and subtlety? Fischelcher's raga-ish guitar tone is sublime - melts me every time.

    Favorite works? Discuss and praise.

  2. #2
    Boo! walt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Oakland Gardens NY
    Posts
    5,626
    Hosianna Mantra is sublime,transcendent, ethereal,epic.......
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

  3. #3
    I'm rather fond of his Nosferatu soundtrack.
    If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
    https://battema.bandcamp.com/

    Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com

  4. #4
    ^ Hosianna remains my personal fave.

    Then Einsjäger, Letzte Tage, Herz - and from the electronic period In den Garten Pharaos and Aguirre. These are all extraordinary works.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Helsinki
    Posts
    275
    Probably...
    Hosianna Mantra: their most beautiful overall work.
    Einsjäger und Siebenjäger: the best of their rock period.
    Cobra Verde: some of their greatest melodies and atmospheres.

    But I like most of their releases, excluding Yoga and the 1990s "techno" pair. Similarly, I find the early electronic pair less interesting than many of their fans. Trying to sort out the rest is like trying to grade your children. Most of Die Nacht der Seele and both Nosferatu albums is superb, as is the "Aguirre" theme, and so on and so on and such...

    Yes, they pretty much made up a sound of their own and no one has really matched it. In my mind I tend to lump them together with Jade Warrior, in that both had a truly unique sound that not only mixed rock, ambient and ethnic folk ideas but was, at its best, unearthily beautiful. I miss this kind of approach in contemporary "progressive music". It's easier to claim "progress" by making things heavier, faster, more complex, more dissonant, much harder to strip it down to soemthing like this, to a concentrated essence of beauty.

  6. #6
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by Teddy Vengeance View Post
    No one sounds like these guys.
    Before or since.

    I have everything from 1970 to 1983 and think they are all pretty great at their worst.

    Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte is probably my over-all favorite, but that's a hard choice.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  7. #7
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    The Past
    Posts
    1,900
    I know only their first five LPs but dig them all to only slightly greater or lesser degrees.
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  8. #8
    Member at least 100 dead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Treetops High
    Posts
    274
    Only know these:
    • Affenstunde
    • In den Gärten Pharaos
    • Hosianna Mantra
    • Aguirre
    • Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
    • Das Hohelied Salomos


    These are all great and, at the risk of sounding completely daft, magical. If I could only keep one, though, it would probably be In den Gärten Pharaos. That or Hosianna Mantra.

    BTW: Has anyone heard the “Revisited & Remixed 1970-1999” 2CD set? If so, what’s your opinion?
    "Dem Glücklichen legt auch der Hahn ein Ei."

  9. #9
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    in a cosmic jazzy-groove around Brussels
    Posts
    6,091
    I like the first two experimental album... and the more esoteric ones from Hosiana until Letze Nacht




    However, having seen most of the Herzog movies, I can't say I like much of their movie-music... I don't remember any good memories of the OST I heard (Glass, Aguirre, Nosferatu)
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  10. #10
    Member Vic333's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    214
    I've only heard Bruder des Schattens/Sohns des Lichts, because of the Nosferatu connection, but I really love it. About ready to check out some more.
    I picked up In den Garten Pharaos based on high praise on the forum. Hopefully I can check it out this afternoon.

  11. #11
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Helsinki
    Posts
    275
    Quote Originally Posted by at least 100 dead View Post

    BTW: Has anyone heard the “Revisited & Remixed 1970-1999” 2CD set? If so, what’s your opinion?
    I heard it in 2012. I only remember being unimpressed with the remixes, though now I cannot recall a single detail about them. The "revisited" disc is a decent trawl through their more electronic-sounding stuff, though not really representative of their works as a whole. "Kailash: Last Village" was a nice bonus at the time, but since the whole (and quite good) soundtrack Kailash has since been made widely available, it doesn't even tick that box anymore.

  12. #12
    Member at least 100 dead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Treetops High
    Posts
    274
    ^
    Thanks, sir!
    "Dem Glücklichen legt auch der Hahn ein Ei."

  13. #13
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Westchester, NY
    Posts
    16,529
    Agree with the OP.

    Is Sing for Song Drives Away the Wolves as bad as I once read?

  14. #14
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Helsinki
    Posts
    275
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Agree with the OP.

    Is Sing for Song Drives Away the Wolves as bad as I once read?
    Actually, I like this version of "Das Lied von den hohen Bergen", with its additional digital percussion and synth textures (a "tangentized" version, you could say, if this were done by one of Fricke's colleagues), better than the original. The remixing is far less prominent on other tracks, mostly they sound clearer or punchier than the original versions on Coeur de verre. Which is where all the album's tracks come from, apart from the retitled* "Einsjäger und Siebenjäger" epic and Guido Hieronymus's short synth interlude "Süsse rast". And they are good songs, the lot of them. So no, I wouldn't call the album bad at all. Superfluous maybe.

    * The retitling is one of the more irritating features about Popol Vuh's catalogue. Tracks often appear renamed on later compilations - even before you consider the translations employed. Florian Fricke is the worst example of this. Of course, you also get alternative takes of same pieces billed as different compositions on some of their studio releases.

  15. #15
    Aguirre is one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of music I have ever heard, genre regardless, cunning Herzog knew always which door was the right to knock. But what I most admire in Popol Vuh is their ability to write uplifting and - why not? - happy music (I think it mostly has to do with the unique guitar tones). Lot of the stuff coming from Germany at the period was fantastic, but maybe at some point too intellectual or angst-driven. There's a lot of light conveyed in works like Einsjager&Siebenjager and Letzte Tage, Letzte Nachte.

  16. #16
    Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Austin Texas
    Posts
    725
    I have Aguirre, Tantric Songs/Hosianna Mantra, and The Best of Popul Vuh From The Films of Werner Herzog. I've listened to a lot of the other albums, but it seemed like the price was always too high to justify buying them.

  17. #17
    When love is calling you, turn around and follow
    Last days, last nights...


    I remember picking up Hosianna Mantra in my teen years and hating it. “Yuck! Crystal-gazing new-age vegan patchouli-incense yoga music!” was my reaction. I've since come to terms with it; while Djong Yun’s vocals seem to lack something, the organic and mostly acoustic sound was far and away different from the bleepy bloopy space sounds of other Krautrock acts mining similar territory.

    It’s not my favorite PV album, though. I like Aguirre, Seligpreisung, Einsjäger and Letzte Täge all better.
    Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...

  18. #18
    Member at least 100 dead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Treetops High
    Posts
    274
    Quote Originally Posted by Zappathustra View Post
    Aguirre is one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of music I have ever heard, genre regardless, cunning Herzog knew always which door was the right to knock.
    The opening scene of Aguirre is unforgettably atmospheric:



    Bit of trivia for the gearsluts: Those icy choirs were apparently not made with a Tron. Explains Werner Herzog:

    To create the music that is used in the opening of AGUIRRE we used a very strange instrument which we called a ‘choir-organ’. This instrument has inside it three dozen different tapes running parallel to each other in loops. The first of these tapes has the pitch in fifths, and the next has the whole scale. All these tapes are running at the same time, and there is a keyboard on which you can play them like on a organ so that, when you push one particular key, a certain loop will go on forever and sound just like a human choir but yet, at the same time, very artificial and really quite eerie.
    (IIRC, the same instrument can be also heard on Amon Düül’s Tanz der Lemminge and Wolf City.)
    "Dem Glücklichen legt auch der Hahn ein Ei."

  19. #19
    (not his real name) no.nine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    90
    My favorite is In den Gärten Pharaos. "Vuh" is music of the Gods! I can't think of another piece of music which reaches such a sustained height of intense exhilaration.
    "I tah dah nur!" - Ike

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by at least 100 dead View Post
    The opening scene of Aguirre is unforgettably atmospheric.
    Absolutely. I watched this 20 years ago, completely unawares of Herzog and his work. I was sitting 4th row and the beginning had such a suffocating effect on me that I got up from my chair and headed for the exit (almost an anxiety attack!). To my good fortune I decided to sit last row, right next to the exit door where it felt safe to watch the movie. Needless to say I fell in love with it and watched it many times again.

  21. #21
    Member Birdy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Dundas,Ontario
    Posts
    112
    Quote Originally Posted by Kai View Post
    Probably...
    Hosianna Mantra: their most beautiful overall work.
    Einsjäger und Siebenjäger: the best of their rock period.
    Cobra Verde: some of their greatest melodies and atmospheres.

    But I like most of their releases, excluding Yoga and the 1990s "techno" pair. Similarly, I find the early electronic pair less interesting than many of their fans. Trying to sort out the rest is like trying to grade your children. Most of Die Nacht der Seele and both Nosferatu albums is superb, as is the "Aguirre" theme, and so on and so on and such...

    Yes, they pretty much made up a sound of their own and no one has really matched it. In my mind I tend to lump them together with Jade Warrior, in that both had a truly unique sound that not only mixed rock, ambient and ethnic folk ideas but was, at its best, unearthily beautiful. I miss this kind of approach in contemporary "progressive music". It's easier to claim "progress" by making things heavier, faster, more complex, more dissonant, much harder to strip it down to soemthing like this, to a concentrated essence of beauty.
    Agree with most of this, especially the unique comparison to Jade warrior. In a similar vein are the early works of Deuter like Aum, Haleakala, Ecstacy etc. A real spiritual feel although a slightly different style.
    Another band that falls in that area is Between featuring Peter Michael Hamel(I believe)
    We are the grandchildren of apes, not angels
    But only we are gifted with the eyes to see
    On days without FEAR, when our heads are clear
    That angels, we could be
    (Marillion 2016)

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Birdy View Post
    Another band that falls in that area is Between featuring Peter Michael Hamel (I believe)
    The first two Between records (especially) are very, very good. They essentially merged oriental ethnic tones, meditative electroacoustics and improvisations into a highly original chamber ensemble setting, recalling the Third Ear Band, Aktuala and in tiny doses even snippets from the first Univers Zero album. If you're a Between fan then you'd probably also want to check out a couple of other krautrock acts, namely Limbus 3, Kalacakra and Witthüser & Westrupp, as well as the intriguing East-German band Bayon.

    What truly set Popol Vuh apart, besides the distinct instrumentation and MO, was Fricke's particular "sacred" vision of sound; as spritual as it was cerebral. The most fascinating aspect of this, IMO, was the fact that he/they managed to conjure an equal atmosphere no matter that instrumentation; whether all-electronic or with a band playing piano/drums/two el. guitars.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  23. #23
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    in a cosmic jazzy-groove around Brussels
    Posts
    6,091
    Quote Originally Posted by at least 100 dead View Post
    The opening scene of Aguirre is unforgettably atmospheric:

    Agreed that the music is perfect for the movie's images

    However heard without their visual support, it loses much (if not all) interest

    That's valid for all of PV's OST (IMHO, of course)
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    However heard without their visual support, it loses much (if not all) interest
    I disagree 100%. Herzog picked many of Fricke's soundtrack contributions again and again because he felt inspired to compose cinematic scenes from vibes he caught on listening to songs and pieces already produced. I heard the "Aguirre" theme long before I saw Herzog's (magnificent) film, and felt bedazzled by the otherworldly aura of it. There are obvious examples of the opposite, of course - as with the Nosferatu soundtrack, and Fitzcarraldo, where most if not all the music was commissioned. Another case of a tune existing for Herzog to pick up, though, is the endlessly beautiful and serene yet so simple and romantically pedestrian "Morgengrüss". Utterly timeless and singular stuff, like a lengthy kiss with a woman you just passed and fell in love with while strolling on your way to work on a sunny day.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  25. #25
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Fluffy Cloud
    Posts
    5,635
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    However heard without their visual support, it loses much (if not all) interest
    to each their own, but I just don't see how you can say this if you are a fan of both arteurs [WH and PV].

    I stand with Scrotum (wait - what?).
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •