s/d popol vuh

I'm glad it's of interest! I'd offer more cool pictures of my Popol Vuh tourism, but a day or so after I took this picture I accidentally dropped my phone in the sea, so this Instagram pic is all that remains.

Poetic! Much as fricke threw his moog into the ocean after the 2nd album

You must now take all your photos acoustically

I thought he sold it to Klaus Schulze? Not very poetic, I know.

Let history record that when I dived into the Caribbean to retrieve my phone, my hands searched the ocean floor in the midnight waters for an hour and twenty minutes, the phone sparking and popping while it played Schulze's "Moondawn" in its entirety, heard properly for the first time, although that is not what happened.

What exactly is this thing? Looks like a greatest hits, but seems to be a unique recording. (Related also to this compilation, both titled in such a way as to be most impossible to find.) Seems to have been done (if Discogs can be believed) just before Guido Hieronymous came on board? How much other stuff is out there?

I always assumed it was a best of compiled by his son. If it’s NOT just a best of I’d like to know about it

The first one looks like a straight compilation, judging by track timings, though I suppose they could be remixes. The second, may be retitled tracks, remixes, don't know tbh.

This is one of those bands, like Tangerine Dream, whose soundtracks are essential, and yet whose official soundtrack releases are inconsistent and/or incomplete. Right?

Kind of. Heart of Glass + Nosferatu would be hard to improve on as albums but they are far from being straightforward score releases. Aguirre is kind of just an album that happens to be named Aguirre with a couple things from the film and mostly other stuff. Fitzcarraldo is like a traditional late 70s early 80s ost pretty much. Some vuh from the movie and some diegetic music heard in the movie. I still don’t have cobra verde!

Heart of Glass is my favorite as an album

There's actually more music from Letzte Tage in the film than from the 'soundtrack album'.

Liner notes for 70s Progressives can be read here (the reliable populvuh.nl), which claim it was recorded in 1979. My confusion comes from the writeup at Discogs:

This CD comprises alternate recordings of Popol Vuh 1970s works. Although not exactly stated on the release, this material was recorded at Bavaria Studio, Munich, 1990 reuniting many old Popol Vuh members (but in a line-up that never actually existed before). Tracks 1, 3, 4 & 10 previously appeared on the Popol Vuh - Florian Fricke compilation. All the other tracks are previously unreleased.

If you look at the history (might need to be logged into Discogs to see that?), there's some back and forth about what this is. Maybe that's just Discogs people making things up? Not seeing an actual source for the idea that it was re-recorded.

Weird. Are those the sessions at which some of
The alt versions on Sing For Song Drives Away the Wolves were done?

Just wanted to let y'all know that Die Erde und Ich Sind Eins, which was teased an eternity ago, was finally reissued on Wah Wah. I never saw an official announcement and it doesn't seem to me like Wah Wah has an official online presence, anymore, so I have no idea when it actually dropped. But it's available both online and in stores. Or at Reckless in Chicago, anyway.

you don't say! which reckless location?

I saw one at the Milwaukee shop, but the webstore tells me that Broadway is also carrying. Was $35, so it might be cheaper to purchase online. Further digging suggests that Light in the Attic had copies in May, but that they're all long-gone. Ever since Kailash, they seem to have at least some hand in (or on, as it were) Vuh-related reissues.

Comes with a 50-page Fricke manifesto of some kind! 500 copies pressed.

I think LITA are just US distributors for Wah Wah? not totally sure

Comes with a 50-page Fricke manifesto of some kind! 500 copies pressed.
whoa this is sort of worth the price! the other wah wah PV reissues all came with the same essays and poster, which was kind of disappointing. i have read those essays and seen those photos plenty of times now.

I didn't know that, actually. I already had all of the SPV CDs and was pretty short on bread, at the time, so I only picked up a few of those. I assumed that each subsequent batch had a different set of liners or something.

FYI it's in German:

Also includes the 50 page booklet 'Das Alphabet des Körpers' (in German) that Fricke wrote and relates closely to the release. It was not included in the original release and only received a very limited publication later by Florian Fricke's widow Bettina. This release also includes two inserts: firstly, a 12" x 12" sheet with liner notes by Dolf Mulder (in English) and three black & white photos; and secondly, a 12" x 24" one sided, high quality stiff paper insert with drawings & notes by Fricke relating to the album.

some pissed off Discogs reviews referencing that booklet, also covers w/o glue

At any rate, I just grabbed a copy off of Discogs for $25. Looking forward to reading as much as listening; should be a good chance to brush up on my shitty German skills. But I've been looking for a copy of this record for like twelve years (even the CD, which NEVER shows up, would've done), so I'm definitely looking forward to listening. My tiny-sounding mp3s are pretty well-worn, by now.

At least I can work on translating the German. I'll never forget buying Ya Ho Wha 13's massive God and Hair box and not having any way to tackle the extensive and entirely Japanese liners. I survived, but it was kinda depressing.

But I was fine with the (terrible) German verse which Roedelius's wife read during a performance, a few weeks ago. So at least I've got a chance!

damn I never knew that about the Ya Ho Wha box, that is disappointing

there's a great Vinyl On Demand box set (German Punk And Wave) with all-German liners, but the label at least put out a pdf translation

Well, this has probably got something to do with it. Some musical/singing/breathing therapy stuff.

http://www.popolvuh.nl/d/archafa1995

taco i was at that roedelius show too! i wonder if i already know you?!?
i loled when he rhymed "nature" with "creature"

The German-language verse was just as silly. It was the equivalent of "I saw you on the train/And our eyes, they met/You've since been on my brain/Do you have a pet?" But I doubt we know one another. I think I know like three people irl who know who Roedelius is, and none of them were in attendance.

But if you ever see some dude who looks like he's just dying to talk about the Vuh, by all means give him/me a shout!

I was at Lands End National Park in San Francisco last weekend, where it was a beautiful sunny day and I listened to Einsjäger & Siebenjäger on my headphones amongst the cypress trees.

I guess it's not really from that album originally, but Wo Bist Du? is an all-time great rambling tune, it makes any straight path into a labyrinth that pleases and soothes a troubled mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bguDZdGj9gI

you are a person who knows how to live, f hazel!

Wow, that is a great track. And it's not on my earlier CD issue of E&S (damn!) so I'll need to find a copy of the expanded remaster.

Wah Wah for the win there, nice of them to add those two tracks to the vinyl reissue

xp that track was originally released on their "Die Nacht Der Seele" album.

is the version that was added to E&S a different recording?

haha, I was thinking "LL would approve of this choice" when I decided what to listen to! Last night I was lying on picnic bench in a state park in Arkansas looking up at the stars through towering pines and shivering, but I was listening to Music for the Age of Miracles by the Clientele. It wasn't a Popol Vuh moment.

As for Wo Bist Du? the bonus track on the E&S SPV CD (the one I have) is identical to the one on Die Nacht Der Seele, as far as I can tell. Why it ended up as a bonus track on E&S I cannot fathom.

i was having religious / sacred kinds of feelings listening to hosianna mantra while driving through the mojave over the weekend. i think it just repeated 4-5 times because i couldn't think of anything else i wanted to listen to.

that sounds dreamy

See America by Popol Vuh!

The music wasn't very loud, the worst noise pollution came from the back of the hall where they were selling cans of beer - lots of popping, clanking and fizzing. Problem solved by moving nearer the front!

― Matt #2, Thursday, 13 May 2010 15:52 (eight years ago)

Hahaha.

I went to this. Probably a very crappy idea to begin with but the 'bar' was just one of the cuntiest things possible in the circumstances. In the same (reverberant) room as we were supposed be quietly listening to this music (In Den Gärten Pharaos) the guy was literally tossing bottles into a bin of other bottles.

ha i was just reading this thread earlier today, been listening to a bunch of the 70s albums this week

good move

has this been posted before? new to me: https://sanjindumisic.com/florian-fricke-1981-interview-by-sandy-robertson/

Great interview!

I love his explanation of the band's name:

"It describes the music," says Florian. "The good soul of the good person, the feeling. Like now people call themselves the B52s and you know what the music will be like".

Presumably he was thinking about Cold War bombers rather than beehive wigs

https://i.imgur.com/KQjcriu.gif

my secret travelogue for popol vuh fans part 4: listening to Im Garten des Ruhe, a bonus track from Die Nacht der Seele, on the 148th-floor outside observation deck of the Burj Khalifa. we stayed late until everyone else left and lay along the glass looking at the city fade into unlit desert

best travelogue, never stop!

heard "aguirre 1" playing between sets at a show recently
i looked around to see who else noticed and saw nothing :-/
(this doesn't mean no one noticed, just that PV fans don't tend to emote publicly, lol)

this is the second time i've heard PV between sets at a show. last time was probably about 8 years ago.

You mean no-one punched the air and went, "Well, awwllllriiiiight!!!"

aside from me, no

ha i think i would have given a big smile. "aguirre!!"