Aguirre [Digipak]

Performer: Popol Vuh
Producer: Popol Vuh
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Contains a bonus track. Popol Vuh: Djong Yun (vocals); Daniel Fischelscher (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion); Florian Fricke (piano, spinet). Aguirre gathers recordings made between 1972 and 1974 embodying the distinctive characteristics of Popol Vuh's early-'70s sonic identity: austere analog synth textures that inspired subsequent ambient artists and organically crafted, ethnically nuanced proto-new age music. The most memorable material here derives from the soundtrack to Werner Herzog's film Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes, which chronicles an ill-fated 16th century Spanish quest for El Dorado. The film's central motif blends pulsing Moog and spectral voices conjured from Florian Fricke's Mellotron-related "choir organ" to achieve something sublime, in the truest sense of the word: it's hard not to find the music's awe-inspiring, overwhelming beauty simultaneously unsettling. The power of the legendary opening sequence of Herzog's film (a breathtaking shot of the conquistadors descending a mountain path, dwarfed by the natural beauty that ultimately consumes them) owes as much to Popol Vuh's music as it does to the director's mise-en-sc�ne. This musical motif appears in two slightly different incarnations: "Aguirre I," which closes with Andean pipes, and "Aguirre II," featuring Daniel Fichelscher's soaring guitar melodies. Elsewhere, the cosmic sensibility of those tracks is replaced with an earthbound orientation, but the results are no less mesmerizing. Built around acoustic guitars and percussion (and a fleeting contribution from vocalist Djong Yun), the 15-minute triptych "Vergegenw�rtigung" blurs the boundaries between East and West while incorporating nuances of early music. The album also includes "Morgengru� II" and "Agnus Dei," versions of which appeared on Einsj�ger & Siebenj�ger. Compared with In den G�rten Pharaos or Hosianna Mantra, Aguirre doesn't stand up as a consistently great album, but that's not to say that it doesn't contain some great pieces of music. ~ Wilson Neate

With their early experiments in sky-touching electronic music, German group Popol Vuh are sometimes lumped in with the Krautrock bands of the 1970s, but they had been working their own territory from the beginning. Less interested in classical forms and intellectualism, keyboardist/composer Florian Fricke crafted mind-expanding ambient Moog pieces supported by tribal percussion that mimicked Indian ragas, African drum circles, and other ethnic influences. It was one of the first examples of "world fusion," uniting the best aspects of Western technology with second- and third-world sounds and forms. The band pursued this track into the '90s, and released 22 albums, including soundtracks to several Werner Herzog films.

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