Customer Reviews

Aguirre

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My first encounter with Popol Vuh was through soundtracks for Werner Herzog films, and the sountrack albums remain excellent introductions to the art of this groundbreaking German band. This CD contains material from the movie =Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes= and some additional material that is very welcome indeed. At 55:39 it is one of the longer Popol Vuh releases.

The disk contains the wonderful floating-down-the-Amazon-into-a-world-of-otherworldly-beauty music from the movie, with synthesized voices flowing over a riverbed of electronic keyboard music. It includes the panpipes-solo from the movie in the cut Morgrengruss II, which develops into a cheerful and meditative guitar salutation of a morning garden/the garden of Creation. (Reference Morgengruss I on Einsjager & Siebenjager.)

The cut Agnus Dei is beautifully flavored with the East Indian influences of the time and is emphatically suitable for euphoric meditation.

Also included are three cuts that will turn up from time to time on other releases: Spirit of Peace I, II, and III. These may have been originally released on this CD; portions of these have also been subsequently recorded/released.

The track Vergegenwaertitung is a long (14" plus) cut containing, among other things, the chillingly powerful Die umkehr from the Bruder des schattens album. Taken as a whole the track is a musical meditation journey into a landscape characterized by its stunning virginal beauty, into which we go as the Lords of this Creation, as Adam and Eve into the Garden.

Tracks: Aguirre I; Morgengruss II; Aguirre II; Agnus Dei; Vergegenwaertitung; Spirit of Peace part 1; Spirit of Peace part 2; Spirit of Peace part 3.

This is one of my favorite albums of all time and along with Spirit of Peace, Hosianna Mantra & Seligpreisung, one of my favorite Popol Vuh albums. Popol Vuh (for most of their career) were pure magic. I first read about them in the early 80's before the CD re-issues which prompted me to buy some albums. This was the first one I purchased and it is truly stunning. I play this for some people and they are quite WOWed saying what is THAT? The mixture of acoustic and electric guitar that prevade much of the album is so beautiful and intense and the angelic voices on the first track (is it a choir or a synthesizer? I could never tell) has to be heard to be belived - I have heard a good bit of what some people call "sacred music," but none of it touches the first track - I could say a lot, but mostly I would be saying GO BUY THIS CD. The three extra Spirit of Peace tracks are some of the nicest solo piano pieces I've ever heard - as a purist I would have rather had them on a separate CD, but they're really very nice tracks - e-mail me if you want other Popol Vuh recommendations - this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I've gone back and forth on a rating for this. I love this band and despite the three stars I highly recommend this CD. Florian Fricke and Daniel Fichelscher made some incredible and beautiful recordings in the 70's. This one might not be the first to buy (that would be Einsjager & Siebenjager,) but it's quite good.

So why only 3 stars? Mainly because two of these songs are already on Einsjager & Siebenjager, one of them under a different name. That kind of burns me because I bought them the same day and was dissapointed in the repetition. Also there are 3 versions of "Aguirre" all of which are good, but in the final analysis 3 versions of the same song plus 2 songs from another album doesn't add up to a classic in my book. That leaves the looong "Vergegenwartigung," which goes absolutely nowhere for 17 minutes. It's the polar opposite of E & J's epic title track which is simply brilliant.

And finally, Djong Yun is nowhere to be found on this all-instrumental CD, yet she's in the credits on vocals. I hate blatantly wrong liner notes, and almost always deduct a star for that offense. I know it's not the fault of the bands, but I try to remember I'm reviewing a piece of commercial product, not the band.

But I don't want to be too negative here. Popol Vuh is well worth getting into but Einsjager & Siebenjager is a better buy and has 2 tracks from this one to boot. Mellotron lovers alert: Fricke plays some killer 'tron on this CD. Listen to the opener, "Aguirre 1." He used that vocal-y sound instead of the more common string-section sound. Really nice.

This record is a monument of genius. Fricke and Fichelscher gives us the good stuff; mellotron, guitars, sound effects that takes the light from the world and moves it to the inner realms of the stars... Listen to the serene title track or the spooky 17-minute "Vergegenwartigung", 'n' you'll get starry-eyed and figure there exists something out or in there that's not yet explored or experenced. Five Stars!
Only the bonus track falls a bit under, but "bonus tracks" were just an attempt of record companies to detriment an original recording.

First you watch the movie "Aguirre, the wrath of God", by Werner Herzog. Watch the opening sequence shot from Machu Pichu in Peru, with the absolutely majestic soundtrack creeping in. Be mesmerized by Klaus Kinski's performance. ( I strongly reccomend viewing the documentary by Herzog: "My best fiend"). Then you buy this cd and trip forever. Hallucinanting music that will keep you in a permanent trance. For $15, what else you want? If you are into mellotron and its eerie sounds, you can't live without this cd. Be aware though: don't buy the Spalax version which is NOT the Aguirre ST, just a few song plus fillers, in spite of the jacket sleeve and all. Apparently the lost master tapes have been finally found. By the way: if you watch "Befor Night Falls" by Julian Schnabel, there's a sequence where he used this ST. A very rare occasion of an OST being used in another movie!

I was a kid when I first wandered into an art-house screening of AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES, and I was fortunate enough to be making my way to my seat just as the conquistadors in the film were making their way down the mountains and into the jungle that would swallow them forever. "Aguirre 1" was playing, and the result was the sort of mind-blowing experience every kid should have at least once. I had the LP for many years, but had trouble finding a CD version that was close to the LP in content and quality. This soft-pack version does the trick. As the other reviewers have mentioned, it contains extra material as well, so you get a nice Popol Vuh sampler for a super price.

South America must have had a profound effect on this band -- they named themselves after the Quiche Mayan book of creation, the Popol Vuh. I've heard that the filmmaker, Werner Herzog, had almost as much difficulty when he went to South America to make this movie as the conquistadors who got lost there. It's a good thing he was friends with Florian Fricke -- together they made a masterpiece.

If you saw the Herzog film "Aguirre Der Zorn Gottes", then you probably remember the haunting music played throughout. This album contains some but not all of the music found in the film. Notably the 2 "Aguirre" tracks, and little else. The 16 minute track Vergegenwärtigung belongs to and is a rehash of the "Nosferatu" soundtrack. Morgengruß II and AGnus Dei are not anywhere in the film. And Aguirre III is Aguirre I + Aguirre II. Nothing new here. Missing is the slide guitar or keyboard (can't tell which) solo found in the very beginning of the film, and in the end when Aguirre (Kinski) goes mad and recites a speech declaring himself emperor. While the music contained herein is good, this is not a real soundtrack of the film, but rather an incomplete set of tracks. The same can be said of the Nosferatu album, passing itself as a soundtrack, but is also missing some tracks and giving us only incomplete pieces of longer songs available on previous albums. Maybe somewhere out there there is a bootleg album that will fill in the holes.

Popol Vuh often does soundtrack work for the great German film director Werner Herzog. This CD contains a few excerpts from the film: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The sounds of the band have evolved from their earlier electronic experiments, to a configuration of piano, guitar, percussion, vocals and mellotron. Though the film chronicles the adventures of a difficult figure such as Aguirre, Popol Vuh have found a serenity/surrealism to successfully contrast him. As a result, this is one of the band's best efforts. A particular highlight is a South American Rainforest inspired pipe tune. The final tracks of this CD are devoted to a Hindu inspired work titled The Spirit of Peace. This track was not featured in the Aguirre film and is included to bring up the total disk playing time.