s/d popol vuh

was looking up some information about (what i thought was) the melltron in "aguirre", found this interesting article

interesting!

1) 'For every key on the keyboard he had made a tape of that note which had been sung by a real choir. It wasn't sampled or anything.' Chris adds: 'He devised a system where he took about 150 matches and stuck them in the parts of the keyboard that didn't work. He painted these with different colours so he knew which keys he could play. It was the first such instrument in the world and Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh used it for his soundtrack music to [Werner] Herzog's Aguirre: Wrath Of God. It's in a museum now."
which museum?! where?

2) <3 the phrase "this Haboob project"

3) i just got my hands on a reissue (?) of that Herzog interview book and am seriously looking forward to any more PV info I can get out of it. My guess is that there's not much but throw me in the briar patch and make me read a book about Herzog, boohoo.

i just like saying it -- HABOOB

wouldn't mind hearing their album

you're telling me!

For the New Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock (www.gepr.net/) David Wayne gives the following hint:

"Interesting. The major point of interest for most progressive fans is Haboob's very significant connections with Amon Düül 2. The LP features psychedelic cover art by Amon Düül 2 keyboardist Falk U. Rogner, and it was produced by Amon Düül 2 saxophonist / producer Olaf Kübler. Jimmy Johnson has numerous studio credits, but is perhaps best known in prog-rock circles for his collaboration with Amon Düül 2 on Wolf City and Dance of the Lemmings (along with Phallus Dei, the band's best work, in my opinion). As you'd expect, Johnson's effects-laden organ and Mellotron (here called "choir-organ") are quite prominent. Unfortunately, Johnson's compositions aren't nearly as distinguished - the LP is comprised of a free improvisation (during which Green cuts loose to display some considerable jazz chops), a very Hendrix-inspired blues, and some pretty straightforward psychedelic soul - funk - rock pieces. The end result is sort of like a collaboration between Amon Düül 2 and early Funkadelic, or the Chambers Brothers (or perhaps even Sly Stone), minus the extended guitar explorations. The vocals, guitars and keyboards are heavily processed throughout - in fact the singing is pretty much buried beneath multiple layers of effects and electronic weirdness. The lyrics are only occasionally understandable. Despite the relative simplicity of the music, it has a lot of appeal - and I would urge those of you who are interested in a fusion of Euro-psychedelia with US soul and funk to seek this one out."

was wrong upthread to assume it was an orchestron! the world, it's so big.

I've heard the Haboob album and sought out every recording Jimmy Jackson is credited with appearing on... and there's next to no Choir Organ on any of them... Embryo, Kllaus Doldinger and, most disappointingly of all considering it's his album, Haboob. So best sticking to Amon Duul II, esp. Wolf City.

is that instrument making the sounds that I always thought were "just" massed backing vocals in "Surrounded By The Stars"?

Yes, that's it. Over the years I'd concluded the 'Choir Organ' was just a vaguely poetic name for a mellotron BUT I did read somewhere that, on ADII's "Tanz der Lemminge", there's a passage where a chord is held for 30 seconds (or thereabouts) and that it's not possible to hold a note for that long on a mellotron (apparently... I'm no expert). So, who knows? I do know that it is a fucking great noise and that the guys (and gal) in ADII obv. thought so as they slathered it all over their recordings, 1971-72.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure what the keyboard is at the end of "Sleepwalkers' Timeless Bridge" on "Wolf City", I assumed that was the Choir Organ too but whatever it is it's mindblowing.

Yes that's like my favorite keyboard sound ever. I just want that track isolated and looped FOREVER.

the higher registers of the choir-organ sound on the aguirre tracks are chilling

i was just thinking i should explore embryo. what's the deal with their mal waldron connection?

They did a cover version of a composition of his ("Call") on their first (least jazz, most rock) album, then did it again later on another album, this time with Waldron playing on the track. I assume Waldron was living in Germany (or at least Europe) at the time? Actually I think Christian Burchard (the main guy in Embryo) played with Waldron pre-Embryo. I'm not much of a jazz rock fan but I like some of their stuff.

first haboob album is on youtube. choir organ makes an entrance about 90 seconds into the first track. I'm only three minutes in, and yeah this record's completely messed up.

in a good way?

definitely for me. typical krautrock freakouts & processing overkill, but coming more from R&B / soul than rock. not lifechanging but if you're into both AD2 and Funkadelic.

the choir organ is a mystery!

oh, i'm mad on ADII at the moment; can't get enough of yeti and wolf city.

high five

Soul Jazz to release collection of Popol Vuh rarities

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=27777

Sweet.

Ooh!! Excited!

Nice! Haven't seen that doc before, sounds heavy.

this will warrant the purchase of a new glass pipe

Whoa. God damn. This is terrific news!

super surprised + excited by this!

will buy

coolness. i have those spirit of peace tracks (unrelated to the album of that name) appended to my cd copy of hosianna mantra, would anyone know what era they're from? cause no details in cd booklet.

in other news, Nosferatu 2-LP reissue via Wah Wah in August
my PV google alert has finally paid off (a little bit)
http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/popol_vuhs_nosferatu_gets_deluxe_vinyl_reissue

that kailash/spirit of peace thing is released next week right?

That's what I heard, but there's been very little info that I've seen. I think it's finally up on Soul Jazz's page as a pre-order, but I was hoping some US distros would be carrying it.

has this been mentioned? oh, yes, 2 months ago. appears to be out now.

http://boomkat.com/downloads/1215604-popol-vuh-soul-jazz-records-presents-popol-vuh-kailash-pilgrimage-to-the-throne-of-gods-piano-recordings

is this normal? for two reissue labels to both release dueling versions of the same title?
http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3336124/waxwork-announces-definitive-vinyl-release-nosferatu-vampyre/

Just a few days ago, we reported that Wah Wah Records was working on a remastered vinyl soundtrack to the 1979 German art-house vampire film Nosferatu The Vampyre, which was directed by Werner Herzog. Now official word has come down that Waxwork Records is also creating their own definitive release of the soundtrack and this one sounds like the ultimate edition for collectors.

Waxwork states that they have been, “…working with Florian Fricke’s (Popol Vuh’s founder) family for many months to create a definitive LP release of the score,” and that, “…it’s shaping up to be an incredible release and we are beyond excited, kinda in shock, that it is happening.”

Waxwork also tells us that this will be the first of many Herzog/Popol Vuh collaborations that will be coming to vinyl. While no specific details have been released, we’re told that details announced in the near future.

Waxwork’s edition will be an expanded double LP version with artwork by Jessica Seamans of LandLand. The album drops on April 17th and the street date is in May 25th. A full track list can be seen below.

haha, as if popol vuh's catalogue isn't confusing enough. "expanded" sounds like the one I want to get though.

they're both expanded!

i am excited that they're promising more
i want LT-LN and i want daniel fichelscher to show up in my google alerts

alive and well and ready to give me some pointers

the Solaris soundtrack did a similar thing last year.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/772562-edward-artemiev-solaris-original-soundtrack
http://boomkat.com/vinyl/803396-eduard-artemiev-solaris-original-soundtrack-superior-viaduct-edition

there was also a third, on the same label as the first, with a different focus

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/787678-edward-artemiev-solaris-music-from-the-motion-picture

ha that foreshadows some classic popol/popul spelling issues

Spent a while trying to find definitive 'Stalker' sdtrk, to no avail.

review of the new thing over on pfork: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20242-kailash/
gotta get this

so what's the deal with Waxwork? Good sound quality/pressing quality? Their Phase IV release is vinyl and soundcloud only, apparently, which gives me a sadness-- I'd like to pay money for a high quality MP3 version instead of being stuck with the low bitrate version I had to use a plugin to download off soundcloud.

The dueling Nosferatus remind me of the separate reissues of HNAS's Im Schatten Der Möhre that both appeared in 2002. I picked up Heemann's Streamline edition too early and missed out on the bonus tracks on the Dom version. Meh.

haha ILXmail me if you want that, I snapped them all up

the year of the vuh is upon us

http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/popol_vuh_treated_to_new_batch_of_vinyl_reissues

my first wish listed above has been granted
aleluia!

kind of excited about these reissues, but I fear they will cost like $37 each

aw come on, those Wah Wah LPs were only like $28 ;)

at least this time i can avoid making 1000 phone calls to the record store about it
that's something

happy vuh year

i see what vuh did there

been into agape agape and sei still wisse ich bin quite a bit lately -- the versions i have downloaded of both sound like cassette tape rips and the wobbly sound adds to the overall weird occult hieratic recorded-in-an-enormous-cave-ness