Popol Vuh vinyl deluxe box set Vol 2 Acoustic & Ambient Spheres released 26/11/21
BMG is releasing Popol Vuh’s vinyl deluxe box set Vol. 2 – Acoustic & Ambient Spheres on November 26th 2021. A true gem for fans, this collector’s edition includes the albums Seligpreisung, Coeur de Verre, Agape-Agape Love-Love and Cobra Verde, four important progressive rock & ambient works by the band from the 1970s & 1980s. Cobra Verde and Coeur de Verre are the original soundtracks of the Werner Herzog cinema-classics. All albums have been remastered and will be released on audiophile 180g vinyl with adapted original artworks, including a bonus track on each album. The 4LP vinyl box set comes with an insert with extensive liner notes and photos, completed by three picture prints, a collector's film still poster from Coeur de Verre and the original movie poster from Cobra Verde (both in A3 format). Each album will also be available on CD with an extensive booklet. Following the highly acclaimed release of Popol Vuh's The Essential Album Collection Vol. 1 (in 2019), Vol. 2 - Acoustic & Ambient Spheres marks a magnificent continuation of this special edition series.
Popol Vuh’s Conny Veit & Florian Fricke – Baumberg 1973 © Edition Popol Vuh
“Call it Magic Music or Love Music, just what you’d like to: it’s music for the soul. That’s it”, Florian Fricke once said about the music of Popol Vuh. He did not want his music to be tied to any specific genre nor to be forced into a typology.“I keep on finding new styles and recurring patterns to merge into the music. But the essence always stays the same. Let me tell you one thing: Popol Vuh’s essence is a mass for the heart. It’s music about love. That’s all.” And this is what makes Popol Vuh’s music so timeless and brilliant. “The most important thing is to touch people, to awaken something inside them”, as Florian Fricke said in a TV interview.
Popol Vuh, founded in 1970 in Munich by Florian Fricke, is a pioneering avant-garde band in the fields of electronic music and progressive rock. Their versatile music has been influencing generations of musicians ever since and was a groundbreaking precursor for today´s ambient and trance music. Early on, Popol Vuh combined rock with electronic sounds, integrating ethnic and world music elements and experimenting with synthesizers. Composer and keyboard visionary Florian Fricke created unparalleled soundscapes with the MOOG III, which influenced many contemporary electronic musicians. From the 1970s onwards, a long-lasting, profound collaboration with renowned director Werner Herzog, resulted in more than ten soundtracks. Florian Fricke wrote the soundtracks for Herzog’s most seminal movies, such as “Aguirre”, “Herz aus Glas”, “Nosferatu – The Vampyre”, “Fitzcarraldo” and “Cobra Verde”. These legendary soundtracks received several award nominations and made cinema history.
In 2001, Popol Vuh mastermind Florian Fricke passed away. British ambient musician Alex Paterson (The Orb) acknowledged the collective’s music as creative visionaries: “Before Brian Eno, there was Popol Vuh; a magical journey into the soul of heaven. Music for real music lovers. History never repeats sound like this.” Guitarist and songwriter Stephen Joseph Malkmus (Pavement) described their compositions as, “unbelievably beautiful, unbelievably strange music”.
SELIGPREISUNG (1973) was the fourth album by Popol Vuh. Compared to their previous recordings, the hymn-likeHosianna Mantra – a milestone record within their career – Seligpreisung saw Popol Vuh taking the next step. A new musical element entered the mix: rock. No coincidence, Daniel Fichelscher (from Amon Düül II) made his first appearance here, playing guitars and drums. Fichelscher was to become an important companion for Fricke integrating the rock element as an important and explicit ingredient of their music in the coming years. The music on Seligpreisungevokes that typical mysterious brilliance of Popol Vuh and their ability to sound almost non-Western while using mostly Western instruments. While Daniel Fichelscher and Conny Veit provided 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 of the 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.
Undisturbed by new developments in rock and pop culture at the time, Popol Vuh continued to go their own way at the end of the 1970s. While disco, punk and new wave introduced new standards, they produced one of their absolute highlights with COEUR DE VERRE (1970). After the more explicit (raga) rock album Letzte Tage, Letzte Nächte, they released Coeur de Verre (Heart of Glass), an album in the same style and with the same intensity, but with even more refined and subtle arrangements. This was their first all-instrumental release since 1973’s Hosianna Mantra. The album was recorded as a smaller line-up with Fricke and Fichelscher; guest musician Matthias von Tippelskirch played flute, Al Gromer contributed flute and sitar. The compositions have unprecedented dynamics with a deep, hypnotic effect, created by irresistible trance-like ambient rock effects. It was hardly a surprise that Werner Herzog chose the music as the soundtrack for his feature film "Heart of Glass." Herzog claims that almost all the actors performed the entire film under the influence of hypnosis. Subsequently, this album was released as the soundtrack to the film. Coeur de Verreproves that Popol Vuh’s intense soundscapes can flourish even without vocals. Interwoven with the influences of eastern world music, an unmistakably rich progressive rock sound emerged. Heavy, groovy guitar patterns dominate on “Hüter der Schwelle” and “Der Ruf”. "Das Lied von den hohen Bergen" and "Singet, denn der Gesang vertreibt die Wölfe" are another two brilliant pieces fusing world music and rock. The atmospheric bonus track "Earth View" serves as the epilogue. The motif, which slowly builds over repetitions, is an ambient solo composition by Florian Fricke from 1977.
The album AGAPE-AGAPE LOVE-LOVE (1983) marks the end of Popol Vuh’s classic phase that covered most of the 1970s & 1980s. During this period, Popol Vuh unfolded their musical vision in many albums that each has its own specific qualities. Agape-Agape Love-Love features many of the different styles that Popol Vuh developed during these years and combines them in increasingly complex arrangements. Because of its variety, mastermind Florian Fricke considered this album one of his best. The album opens with “Hand in hand”, filled with choral chanting. The pulsating guitar-driven track “They danced, they laughed, as of old” is a great drone-like raga-rock track, while the swirling song“Agape-Agape” merges an uplifting melody with trance-inducing chanting. “Love, life, death” is an almost ritualistic percussion-dominated piece reflecting the influences of eastern music. In these times, Fricke was inspired by the work of Persian mystic and poet Rumi. “Behold the drover summons” and the closing track “Why do I still sleep” reflect this inspiration. Besides Fricke on the grand piano, the album is accompanied by the layered vocal chants of Renate Knaup, and guitars and drums by Daniel Fichelscher as well as guitars by Conny Veit. Together they created something that is intense and introspective at the same time. Music for the heart. The bonus track “Circledance” complements the engaging folk and prog-rock atmosphere of this album perfectly and makes this a sought-after Popol Vuh record.
The original soundtrack COBRA VERDE (1987) of Werner Herzog's historical film drama, based on the novel by Bruce Chatwin and starring Klaus Kinski, was nominated for an Oscar Academy Award. The arrangements feature several layered orchestral, oratorio-like chants and choirs accompanied by Fricke's piano and Fichelscher's guitar and percussion, made in collaboration with the Bavarian State Opera Chorus among others. With the two synthesizer tracks "Nachts: Schnee" and "Eine Andere Welt", Popol Vuh ventured away from their signature sound somewhat, finding two fantastically dramatic and darkly beautiful epic ambient soundscapes. Cobra Verde became an extraordinary milestone in the history of soundtracks as well as an atmospheric ambient score.
Sometimes, the term ‘Krautrock’ is associated with Popol Vuh. Originating in England, the term started out as more of an English collective term for music from Germany rather than a specific genre classification. Alongside Can, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultze, Neu! and Kraftwerk, Popol Vuh stood for renewal and musical opening: for a time of global cultural awakening. For this reason, and also because of their legendary soundtracks for Werner Herzog's major motion pictures, Popol Vuh's music stands internationally as an unmistakable, authentic influence and expression of its time.“Popol Vuh´s music reveals the darkest, most hidden things inside of our soul. Without it, my best films would never have existed”, remarks Werner Herzog. A timeless music, whose impact and beauty touches us, again and again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Popol Vuh – Vol.2: Acoustic & Ambient Spheres tracklistings;
LP1 – Cobra Verde (OST Cobra Verde)
Side 1
Der Tod Des Cobra Verde
Nachts: Schnee
Der Marktplatz
Eine Andere Welt
Grab Der Mutter
Side 2
Om Mani Padme Hum 4*
Sieh Nicht Überm Meer Ist's
Hab‘ Mut. Bis Dass Die Nacht Mit Ruh‘ Und Stille Kommt
Om Mani Padme Hum 4 (Piano Version)
LP2 – Agape-Agape Love-Love
Side 1
Hand in hand
They danced, they laughed, as of old
Love, life, death
The Christ is near
Side 2
Behold, The drover summonds
Agape-Agape
Why do I still sleep
Circledance*
LP3 – Coeur de Verre (OST Heart Of Glass)
Side 1
Engel der Gegenwart
Blätter aus dem Buch der Kühnheit
Das Lied von den hohen Bergen
Side 2
Hüter der Schwelle
Der Ruf
Singet, denn der Gesang vertreibt die Wölfe
Gemeinschaft
Earth View*
LP4 – Seligpreisung
Side 1
Selig sind, die da hungern
Tand der Chassidim
Selig sind, die da hier weinen
Side 2
Selig sind, die da willig arm sind
Selig sind, die da Leid klagen
Selig sind, die Sanftmütigen
Selig sind, die da reinen Herzens sind
Ja, sie sollen Gottes Kinder heissen
Be in Love*
* Bonus track