Einsjager & Siebenjager [EXTRA TRACKS]

Popol Vuh

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 2004)
• Original Release Date: May 4, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: SPV
• ASIN: B0001ZWKBQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,212 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A sterling example of Popol Vuh's sound in their prime, and one of their more energetic albums. "Einsjäger & Siebenjäger" is a phantastic mix of rippling piano and fluttering blues guitar solos and cymbal-happy drum crashes. Compositions like "King Minos" and "Würfelspiel" present the latent, rockier side of the band, and are just as much a joy to listen to as the more commonly manifested mellow side represented by "Morgengruss." The side-long title track, featuring all-too-intermittent visits from the beatific vocals of Djong Yun, nonetheless is a sophisticated composition and a piece of simply gorgeous music.This re-release features 2 bonus tracks: "King Minos II" (01:55 min) and "Wo bist Du?" (05:42 min).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprisingly Great Find!, January 5, 2005

By	William Scalzo (Niagara Falls, NY) - See all my reviews

Wow, do I love this album! I got into Popol Vuh in my never-ending search for great obscure Prog records from the 70's. Popol Vuh sort of fall into that category of "German Art bands that were not really progressive but people called them progressive anyways" (like Can and Amon Duul ll.) Of course that's going by the more common definition of Prog Rock which was really Symphonic Prog (i.e. Genesis and Yes.) Using it's basic definition, this music is indeed progressive, and should appeal to adventurous Prog fans. PV don't sound anything like Can, or Kraftwerk for that matter. Their music is mostly instrumental, sometimes rocks but doesn't "RAWWK," instead being by turns very reflective, gorgeous, spiritual, spacy and uplifting. Fricke was apparently quite religious and that definitly comes through on record, despite the language barrier.

The entire record is just pianist Florian Fricke and guitarist/drummer Daniel Fichelscher, with some (very) occasional vocals by Djong Yun. Together they make some magic on this CD. Several very nice short pieces lead into the title epic, the heart and soul of this record. A long, involving and emotional jam with none of the pitfalls of most 20-minute jams: it never gets boring, and I often hit repeat and listen to it for another 20 minutes. The vocals are just beautiful, if too seldomly used. One thing you will not believe is that the same guy plays both guitar and drums. I scratch my head wondering how one instrument can be dubbed when they mesh so organically perfect that they just had to have been recorded together? On this track you can hear Florian and Daniel yelling to each other in German, probably giving each other encouragement and/or cues. You can even hear them singing along with their own jam. This must have been picked up by the drum mics, because it's way down in the mix and just adds ambience to an already great track.

The bonus tracks are good and the second one features Yun's return. They really should have used her voice more, but I won't quibble. This is a great find and for me it has incredible playability-I listen to it all the time. Recommended for the adventurous. Also great for reading, meditating, or as a late-night or...um..."romancing" CD (you know what I mean!)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Einsjager und siebenjager, December 12, 2007

By	Stavroula Avgousti (Athens Greece) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Einsjager und Siebenjager" is a more rock-oriented Popol Vuh album, with the ringing guitars being a characteristic of it, in more than one tracks. Moreover, two of the compositions are written by Daniel Fichelscher, who shares in this album the composition task with Florian Fricke.(These two tracks are the very beautiful "Kleiner Krieger" and "Morgengruss"). The title track is one of the highlights of the album, where the beautiful vocals of Djong Yun can be vaguely heard. I liked also very much the two bonus tracks "King Minos II" and "Wo bist Du?"
A very nice album indeed.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less experimental pieces of gentle jazzy rock, February 17, 2008

By	Geoffrey R. Balme (raleigh NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Popul Vuh does it for me best when hitting with waves of mesmerizing Moog, and other keyboard splendor. In the Garden of Pharoah is probably the best example of this. EinsJager and Siebenjager is MUCH more in the vein of well executed, attractive, rather crisp and clean, progressive blues rock, albeit without anyone howling any distracting vocals.
The keyboards are limited mainly to acoustic piano and the lead instrument is a very accurately played guitar, very little is sloppy on this record.
The drumming is busy, and the entire ensemble sort of bury my preconceived notions of what I was to expect from Popul Vuh.

I was not anticipating this sort of pop from the creator of the soundtracks of Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo.

Enjoy!