s/d popol vuh

title track on hosianna mantra might have the most majestic guitar solo ever

Dadaismus' reviews upthread are all-time

A couple of weeks ago I listened to all the albums 1971-1977 and then had to listen to them again, and then again ... I think Einsjäger und Siebenjäger is my favorite right now

what dadaismus did up top is inspiring. this band deserves that quality of attention

Yes, those reviews are GREAT and I refer to them a lot!

BTW Dadaismus = Tom D.

I listen to Popol Vuh a lot. Maybe too much. It always feels like not enough.

let me explain

1) what dadaismus did up top is inspiring. this band deserves that quality of attention
super duper otm. writing about popol vuh seems like it would be really hard to do, and he has done it so well and with such attention to the best details. i came to popol vuh sort of by accident, and decided it was something i should explore further, but only after maybe 10 years had passed from the first time i heard them, tangerine dream, shit like that. when i read his reviews, it was gratifying to find that his favorites were also my favorites (Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts and Herz au Glas in particular) and that there were favorites I hadn't heard yet.

2) remember that "listen to popol vuh recording while sitting in a church" event discussed upthread? i thought some time would pass and i would realize that this is a silly idea. instead, time has passed and i find myself still thinking that this sounds like an enjoyable activity, minus the people plinking their plastic beer cups.

anyway, --> actual question ----> recommended books/articles containing interesting information about popol vuh? i haven't done much reading about them tbh.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! I'm no music critic but just felt the need at the time to share my thoughts on some great music. I don't know of any books on Popol Vuh. There are articles 'n' stuff online if you look, some of which are useful for reminding you that Florian Fricke et al were not a bunch of head-in-the-clouds mystics (I remember reading one where Danny Fichelscher was drunk and being obnoxious). First article I ever saw on Popol Vuh was in an old issue of Sounds by Sandy Robertson, an interview from ca. 1980.

I did not realize a "soundtracks" PV box set had come out

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K%2B%2BrahEoL._SS400_.jpg

Weird I just listened to aguire this morning at breakfast, lovely album

popol vuh rules.
still need to get that soundtracks box. i've got most of it already, but it looks so niiiiiice.

i know, me too! i was (am, i guess) holding out for a vinyl version but i would really like to see the book.
i will look up that article you mentioned, tom. thanks.

i lucked into a weird pressing of aguire at a garage sale for $4 :)

will admit that i was envious when i read that upthread

i've only even seen a PV record one time, and that was aguirre in a tiny jazz store in paris, and it was really expensive!
actually that's not true -- i have this because someone gave it to me (thanks jeff/jenny!)
http://www.amarcordrecords.it/images/rockeurope/rockpicturespopolvuhherzogre.jpg

The SPV remasterings are not all better than the Spalax CDs. IIRC I still prefer the Spalax releases for Herz aus Glas and Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht. Would have to go compare again...

I have that soundtracks box and the book is kinda mostly fluff, unfortunately.

some nice pics tho.

they ketpt the same terrible remaster packaging for the individual cases (identical booklets, giant, weird fricke pic) as well.

is this the article?

http://www.popolvuh.nl/archsounds1981

otherwise the only thing i can find (maybe i am not searching well?) is this

http://www.enso-on.com/2008/09/popol-vuh-florian-fricke-1981-interview.html

'A CLEARER VUH-POINT' XD

oh why not

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_x0YsFNqhV0M/SN_WuaR3mQI/AAAAAAAACa4/DP8l34QQ0wk/s1600-h/sounds+popol+vuh+bb.jpg

oops that image must have been too big

@Jon, both the Spalax and SPV versions of Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht are equally and atrociously muddy. Maybe the original tapes were that way? I still have the Spalax for Herz Aus Glas and it's good to know that I didn't need to bother with the "upgrade."

I re-read that 1981 article last night when I couldn't sleep, and this stuck out in particular because I am on a Herzog kick.

Both Werner Herzog and Florian Fricke have a vision that is almost religious in its intensity but lately a divergence has appeared in their ways of seeing.
Florian has no time for blissed-out hippy-trippy muzak and feels that it’s not enough to show a phoney happiness all the time, and yet despite the awesome powers at play in the light and shade of Popol Vuh he does not see himself as being at one with his friend.
Herzog revels in conflict: When he was refused permision to unleash thousands of rats on the town of Delft for a scene in ‘Nosferatu’, he met the truck bringing the rats back with a tractor on which he perched himself, forcing the truck to go in the opposite direction.
“Too much the darkness”, says Florian.

too much the darkness indeed!

was working on my vuh/cortez the killer cover w/ my two year old this morning. think we've got the keyboard sound down!
at the rate i'm going this project will be completed sometime in 2015.

it has been three months
where is our cortez the killer?!

at the rate i'm going this project will be completed sometime in 2015 2018.

;_;

i hope the song is three years long

at least that long.
until then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYjBtHVOyFE

i guess that'll do.

just out of curiosity to anyone who would bother to click on this thread:

assuming you already went through the active devouring phase, how frequently do you listen to popol vuh right now?

me? 1-3x per week probably, a lot for any one band by my standards. this has been going on for years. that's why i asked.

i end up listening to them whenever this thread is bumped. right now!

weekly and often multiple times during the week. ususally makes my evening commute bearable

I only listen to them once every few months. If I had more than two of their lps I would probably listen to them more.

Yeah, once every few months for me too. Always on vinyl. Faves are the first three, Affenstunde, In den Gärten Pharaos and Hosianna Mantra. I will always keep coming back to them.

you are people who know how it's done.

1-3x per week here, usually first album of the morning

I just got a giant Amazon credit and bought their Herzog soundtracks box set, on the strength of watching Nosferatu a while back and then hearing one amazing track on a Projekt Records compilation that came from an album I was unable to even find a picture of after searching for like ten years. Next week should be fun!

I really need a copy of Einsjager Sebenjager or whatever its called.
My favorite stuff is the Fichelscher era.

Letzte Tage - Letzte Nachte was my second PV album and I think it's still my favorite. Honestly though I don't think there's even one I have that I don't like.

Also best cover
http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/8011614912926.jpg

Can't wait until the weather gets nicer and I can resume my weekly bike trips to the plant conservatory to walk around/look at plants/listen to spaced out PV jams. It really never gets old!

I have about 10 of the records, and actually I listen to the early electronic stuff as much as I listen to the prime mid-'70s stuff. I really like Heart of Glass soundtrack--Popul Vuh were ultimate acoustic-space-liturgical sprawl, better at it than just about anyone. The Floyd, Mike Oldfield, I dunno. The vibe is never as...wily...as Eno can be even in the ambient stuff. More nature-mystic, perhaps? I've seen some comps of their work around; has there ever been a dedicated U.S.-aimed comp of their work?

I really like Heart of Glass soundtrack--Popul Vuh were ultimate acoustic-space-liturgical sprawl, better at it than just about anyone.
totally! heart of glass was my first PV album. i think? pretty sure it was, then letzte tage, then future sound experience, and at that point i was sold for life.
i could really blather on and on but there would be no point.

there's this weird one, but it's not really a "greatest hits" or anything
http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=4921
http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/popol-vuh.jpg
it's pretty nice though, esp. the long piano thing.

there was a 2cd "revisited and remixed" cd last year

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revisited-Remixed-1970-99-Popol-Vuh/dp/B004UBB3QU/

1. Aguirre I Lacrima Di Rei
2. Affenstunde
3. In Den Garten Pharaos
4. Ich Mache Einen Spiegel
5. Nachts - Schnee
6. Eine Andere Welt
7. In Your Eyes
8. Train Through Time
9. Nascita
10. Bruder Des Schattens
11. Through Pain To Heaven
12. Kailash: Last Village

plus a disk of remixes by people like Mika Vainio, Mouse On Mars, Stereolab...

(also on amazon.com)

I listen all the time! This is a great thread, it's what pushed me to really dig into the catalog.

Letzte Tage - Letzte Nachte is the one for me, followed by Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin (the production!!!!) although they're all really great in different ways. They also all kind of blend together in the best way possible for me, like they only actually have one song that is 10 albums long or something!

there's always 1:19 for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL8E3Q5iZsY

I think about that sequence every time I listen to PV. I love that little tune... it turns up in several places in the discography. (also that's my favorite Herzog film).

I like the mastering of the old Spalax version of Letzte Tage more than the 21st century remastered one available now. I hope I come across a used copy of the Spalax LT, LN someday.

I just checked and I have the Spalax version. There's one that sounds different than this one?

My LT, LN is a vinyl reissue on "Think Progressive." It is a little muddy sounding? But I love it.

i'm always kinda wondering whether my popol vuh stuff sounds muddy n murky because that's just the way it was recorded or whether it's been transferred in a less than optimal way. but it doesn't really matter in the end.

It's def among my favorite Herzog films too btw. The Bruno years were really really really good.

Mine sounds clear, but it's a CD -- I wish someone would reissue all of this stuff and give it the treatment and also outtakes etc.