Gila - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (1973)

To follow on from the Popol Vuh postings of the last two weeks, here's a Vuh-adjacent album.  Conny Veit originally formed Gila as an improvisatory space-rock group, which split in 1972.  After playing on Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra, Veit decided to revive the Gila name for another album, and invited Florian Fricke and future Vuh mainstay Daniel Fichelscher (who Veit had met at Amon Düül's commune) to participate.

The album's concept was based on Dee Brown's book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of The American West, and on three tracks takes its lyrics directly from the book.  Musically, the blueprint for the forthcoming Popol Vuh sound is unmistakeable, even though Veit writes all the songs and thus everything is based more around 12-string acoustic guitars.  Fricke plays piano and occasional mellotron, Fichelscher handles drums and bass, and Veit's partner Sabine Merbach is the Renate Knaup-esque lead vocalist.  A fascinating little link in the chain of Popol Vuh's history, and a great-sounding krautrock minor classic in its own right.

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pw: sgtg

Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)

After two initial albums of moog, percussion and organ, great as they were in their own way, the run of classic Popol Vuh albums that existed in their own beautiful universe began here.  Intent on producing "a mass for the heart", Florian Fricke scaled down his own input to just piano (and a little harpsichord) and brought on board sympathetic musicians.  Conny Veit's shimmering, liquid tones are the only guitar here - Daniel Fichelscher was yet to join - and bits of oboe, tambura, and violin fill out the heavenly sound.  The magical element that raised the album above stunningly gorgeous to somewhere far beyond was the voice of Dyong Yun, never better than on the epic title track.  Beyond essential music.  More from Fricke and Veit (plus Fichelscher) next week.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Seligpreisung
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
Aguirre
Das Hohelied Salomos
Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte
Coeur De Verre
Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin
Florian Fricke - Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins

Popol Vuh - Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin (1981)

Popol Vuh entered the 80s with one of their darkest, most ritualistic albums.  The base of their sound was still the layers of Daniel Fichelscher's chiming guitars, and Florian Fricke's piano somewhere in the mix, but the songs were becoming ever more minimal in their trance-inducing, mantric repetition.  Renate Knaup, who was now the main vocalist, has said of her time in Popol Vuh that "Florian's music makes you feel stoned when you sing it; the repetition makes you high".

After an initial blast of the Bavarian State Opera Choir, opener Wehe Khorazin settles into the first "yehung" chant of many by 80s Vuh.  This is often assumed to mean "hand in hand", as it appears alongside this phrase on the back of the Spirit Of Peace LP.  "Yehung" and "hand in hand" are however the alternating lyrics of Take The Tension High on that album, and I reckon they're just meant to be printed as lyrics, rather than a translation. "Yehung" may have some religious root, or it could just be a chant made up by Fricke that sounds good, like the "Haram dei"'s on Letzte Tage.  Anyway, enough about that.

The next track intensifies the ritual atmosphere with just percussion and chanting, before Garten Der Gemeinschaft closes the album's first half on a more calming note, led by Fricke's piano.  The second half is in a similarly less intense vein, more akin to previous Popol Vuh albums, or indeed what was to come for the rest of the 80s.  The highlight here is the lengthy Lass Los, which starts from a choral introduction and then bursts into a familiar Fichelscher chime as the vocals combine the album's Biblical title "Be still, know that I am" with the song title and more "yehung".  The little melodic motif that stretched across Popol Vuh's career (I think Fricke called it "Little Warrior") makes an appearance at the end of the final track, capping off another wonderful, if a bit darker than usual, Vuh album.  Another one next week, which I always felt was too obvious to post - but let's face it, it's too good not to.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Seligpreisung
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
Aguirre
Das Hohelied Salomos
Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte
Coeur De Verre
Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
Florian Fricke - Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins

Popol Vuh - Coeur De Verre ("Singet, Denn Der Gesang Vertreibt Die Wölfe") (1977)

Or indeed, 'Herz aus Glas', or any of the other permutations of the title over the years...  The original name for this 1977 album, which translates as 'Sing, for the song drives out the wolves', was put aside when Werner Herzog once again tapped Florian Fricke for some new Vuh music for his latest beautifully bizarre movie, and it was decided to market the album as a soundtrack.

As my memories of the Heart Of Glass film are a bit hazy (and to be honest, still would be if I'd just finished watching it five minutes ago - it's a bit hard-going even by Herzog's standards), let's just focus on the music.  As the follow-up to Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte, Popol Vuh were still in rock mode, with Daniel Fichelscher's guitars up front and centre.  And top, bottom, sides and background too.  This album has often begged the question - is Florian Fricke even on it?  He's credited with piano as usual, but is so far back in the mix as to be virtually inaudible.

If Coeur/Herz/Wölfe is very much the Fichelscher show then, that's no bad thing, as he's on fine form, letting his chiming layers of guitar and ringing lead lines create another minor masterpiece in the Popol Vuh canon over the drums and percussion (also played by Fichelshcer).  Al Gromer Khan drops by on sitar for Das Lied von den hohen Bergen to round out the album's majestic first half on a nice mellow note, before things get even more amped up.  Hüter der Schwelle and Der Ruf in particular are the rockiest this band ever got, but the closing Gemeinschaft with its guest flute part points towards their progressively mellower future.

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Popol Vuh - Aguirre (rel. 1975)

Time for more Popol Vuh, in the form of the 1975 soundtrack album (of sorts) for Werner Herzog's 1972 film Aguirre, Wrath Of God.  I really ought to see the movie again sometime, as I haven't for years and suspect there's a lot more to it than just the memory I have of Klaus Kinski gurning menacingly on a river raft.  This album does get regular rotation of course, if not quite as often as the peerless studio albums surrounding it in the Vuh catalogue.

Aguirre the album, then, is not quite a soundtrack, more of a compilation/outtakes album; at least we get the most stunning piece from the film featured in two takes here, with 'choir organ' played by US organist Jimmy Jackson (who'd also played with Amon Düül II and Embryo). Besides this, Morgengruss from Einsjäger & Siebenjäger is featured in a slightly different mix, as is an instrumental version of 'Sohn Gottes' from Seligpreisung.  These two tracks might post-date the film, but they sit nicely enough on this album.  Apparently Fricke just liked having the wider exposure for certain pieces of his music.

And don't miss the final 16-minute Vergegenwärtigung, which dates right back to the In Den Gärten Pharaos era of Moog-synth dominated Popol Vuh in all its spacy formlessness.  If you listen hard enough, there's occasional bits of the main Aguirre theme buried far down in the mix - I missed this completely for ages until someone else's review pointed it out.

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Popol Vuh - Das Hohelied Salomos (1975)

Haven't posted a Vuh album in a while, so here's one that often gets unfairly maligned compared to some of the stellar heights they were reaching in the 70s on either side of this album.  So is Das Hohelied Salomos (Song of Solomon, and indeed we're back in Biblical territory for the lyrics, all from that particular book) merely... good?  Maybe by this band's impossibly high standards, but just taken as an album in its own right it's stunningly beautiful.

There's much more of Dyong Yun's angelic vocals than on predecessor Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, and Daniel Fichelscher gets in a good balance of acoustic guitar alongside his many liquid layers of lead playing.  In fact, given the mix of the various classic-era Popol Vuh stylings here - some stuff looks forward to the more rocky tone of Letze Tage, other tracks appear to have jumped in straight off Hosianna Mantra - this album is possibly the ideal starting point if you haven't yet dipped a toe in the heavenly Vuh waters.

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Popol Vuh - Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte (1976)

Think this was my first Popol Vuh album, and although there's others I love more (see previous posts), Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte is still a brilliant record.  By this point, guitarist Daniel Fichelscher had equal status to Florian Fricke in shaping the Popol Vuh sound, and it certainly shows on this, their most rock-oriented album.  Right from the start, Fichelscher's chiming layers of guitar are all over the place, the heavier sound edging into to Amon Düül II territory - whose vocalist Renate Knaup is also on board, giving an earthier balance to Dyong Yun's pure tone.

Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte always makes me imagine that if you took a time machine back to medieval Europe and borrowed a group of musicians to make a mid-70s rock album, this is what it would sound like.  Frequently ominous, with memorable, strange chanting, but always with an uplifting, pastoral change just around the corner, this is the sound of wandering minstrels cranking it up to eleven in search of the enlightenment.

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Popol Vuh - Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (1974)

Can never stay away from Popol Vuh for too long.  This is the one after Seligpreisung, which welcomed on board guitarist Daniel Fichelscher; from here on until the early 90s (and the last recognisable Vuh album) he'd share equal importance with Florian Fricke in shaping the group's sound.

Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (Hunter One and Hunter Seven) takes its name from characters in the creation myth of the Quiché Maya - which had already inspired the band name, Popol Vuh.  The album starts off as it means to go on, with Kleiner Krieger being a minute of ringing guitar lines, and King Minos futher setting out the core Popol Vuh sound for the next few years.  The gorgeous Morgengruß (morning greeting) shows Fichelscher's versatility with a bucolic acoustic guitar chime gradually being overlaid with his snaking lead lines.

An interesting Popol Vuh motif over their career was repurposing little bits of melody for different albums - the closing moments of the first side of this album are a similarly quiet, pianistic reprise of the 'Agnus Dei' finale of Seligpreisung.  The undisputed highlight of Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, however, is the side-long title track.  From peaceful beginnings, it sets off on a 19 minute epic voyage that gives both Fricke and Fichelscher ample room to drive the track through its cyclic moods, and vocalist Dyong Yun returns for the first time since Hosianna Mantra to add brief moments of breathy, spellbinding vocals.

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Popol Vuh - Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts (1978)

In line with one of my most regular springtime listening habits - it's Popol Vuh time.  Paradoxically, then, I've gone for an album that starts out with three minutes of their darkest-hued music - which some of you may recognise from the opening credits of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, with those eerie images of Mexican mummies.

Herzog had been friends with Florian Fricke for some time, and had already snagged some top-drawer Popol Vuh tracks for Aguirre - Wrath Of God and Heart Of Glass, to great effect.  It's worth making clear, though, that Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts (Brother of shadow, son of light) isn't a straightforward soundtrack album to Nosferatu - in one of (several!) confusing quirks in the Popol Vuh catalogue, there's also a separate Nosferatu album with a different tracklist.  So, anyway...

After the unearthly choral opening to the Brüder title track, the rest of its 17 minutes settle into a stately piano and guitar drone that builds and builds, sometimes with a bit more sitar and tambura here and there, to hypnotic effect.  After the 'Schattens' of the Nosferatu intro, this blissful epic of minimal understatement just bathes you in kaleidoscopic 'Lichts'.

Over on Side 2, Höre, der du wagst (Hear, who dares) gives us a subdued epilogue to the main piece, and the album is then rounded out with two slightly more regular Vuh vehicles between Fricke and Fichelscher.  But that's not to undersell them - even your common or garden Popol Vuh album track still exists in its own beautiful universe miles above anything else in the krautrock canon.

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previously posted at SGTG: 
Seligpreisung 
Die Erde und ich sind Eins

Popol Vuh - Seligpreisung (1973)

We're definitely due some Popol Vuh now.  As one of my favourite bands of all time, I could've gone for any number of albums to feature here first, but this one is just utterly, utterly essential in anyone's collection.

Hosianna Mantra, the Popol Vuh album prior to Seligpreisung, is the one that always gets mentioned in hear-before-you-die lists, essential krautrock countdowns and lots of music blogs, all with good reason - it's an absoultely transcendent experience.  Hosianna Mantra was the first flowering of Florian Fricke's concept of spare, richly melodic music based around piano, guitar and occasional other ethnic instruments, and an all-encompassing spiritual questing that, taken together, would last for the rest of his career with a few tweaks along the way (well, the less said about the last three Vuh albums the better).

Seligpreisung is, for my money, every bit as good as its predecessor - they complement each other so well that I genuinely can't pick a winner. Vocalist Dyong Yun was otherwise engaged, so Fricke uniquely does all the vocals himself this time around.  In this way, the two albums acquire a feminine-masculine dynamic, with Seligpreisung sounding almost monastic - all the more so as it was recorded in a church, and all the lyrics/most of the song titles are derived from The Beatitudes in The Gospel of Matthew.  A couple more scripture-cribbing albums would follow before Fricke got back on track with the more diverse, diffuse spirituality that he'd sketched out on Hosianna Mantra.

For me, the other key aspect to the yin-yang completeness of Hosianna Mantra and Seligpreisung is the musical progression.  The latter takes a step away from the 'cosmic convalescent home' (© Julian Cope) mellowness of the former, with the guitars now much more to the fore.  Conny Veit (who would shortly depart for another Gila album, taking the entire Vuh lineup with him as guests) is now joined by newcomer Daniel Fichelscher, foreshadowing how integral he was about to become to the group's sound.  Some listeners feel that Fichelscher's many guitar layers came to overpower the Popol Vuh sound in the years that followed, but I can't get enough of him.

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Florian Fricke - Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins (1983)

As my favourite krautrock band and one of my favourite bands of all time, Popol Vuh will inevitably feature on this blog at some point.  Firstly, here's something that I found impossible to get hold of until I ended up buying a slightly questionable CDR copy via discogs - but it still sounds decent enough.

In a 1989 interview with Audion magazine, Florian Fricke described some of his other pastimes beside making Popol Vuh records, one of which was holding occasional music therapy singing groups that he called Körperraummusik (Body-Space Music). Somewhere between mantric chanting, overtone singing and just general resonant humming, one of these sessions was recorded at a Gestalt Therapy Congress in Munich in 1983 and formed the basis of this album.  Fricke considered these group experiences to have excellent therapeutic results that 'vibrated through the body walls, bones and flesh' - judge for yourself.

The final track, Song Of The Earth, would be redone for the subsequent Popol Vuh album Spirit Of Peace, to which this album makes a nice companion piece. Spirit Of Peace can be found at a blog I like called Opium Hum.

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