Popol Vuh

德国最经典的前卫迷幻乐队Popol Vuh，1969年成立于慕尼黑，乐团名字来自玛雅文化关于人类起源的神圣之书，意指“相约之处”。乐队广泛涉足於摇滚，电子，民谣，世界音乐，New Age ...作品风格大多飘渺出世，充满神秘主义，并融合不同民族元素。提起Popol Vuh，总让人自然想起另一个传奇的名字，那就是德国导演Werner Herzog。他的电影几乎都是由Popol Vuh创作配乐，Aguirre，Fitzcarraldo，Cobra Verde， Nosferatu……电影与音乐相得益彰，都是同样的经典。
 
乐队灵魂人物Florian Fricke，是德国最早在音乐中使用MOOG合成器的人，创新一派的德国电子乐先锋，制作了Affenstunde，In den Gärten Pharaos 这两张MOOG乐史上的杰作，并包揽了Tangerine Dream乐队Zeit专辑的MOOG演奏部分。（之后Popol Vuh转变风格，把MOOG琴卖给了Klaus Schulze；Klaus Schulze拿到MOOG以后当年就做出了震古烁今的Irrlicht，而没有了MOOG琴的Florian Fricke领导Popol Vuh在年尾做出了几乎不插电的Hosianna Mantra。就是在那架传奇的MOOG琴上Klaus做出了一张又一张的宇宙交响，想想如果没有那戏剧性的一转又如何？历史就是这么回事儿）。 Fricke 同时也是一名专业影评人。
 
2001年12月，Florian Fricke于家中去世。（据说是平静地躺在床上往生的，这倒很符合popol vuh的风格)。
 
Of the many now-legendary artists to emerge from the Krautrock movement, few anticipated the rise of modern electronic music with the same prescience as Popol Vuh — the first German band to employ a Moog synthesizer, their work not only anticipated the emergence of ambient, but also proved pioneering in its absorption of worldbeat textures. At much the same time Popol Vuh was formed in Munich in 1969, another group, of Norwegian descent, adopted the same name, an endless source of confusion in the years to follow; both were inspired by the holy book of Guatemala's Quiche Indians, and according to Mayan researchers the title roughly translates as &meeting place.& Keyboardist Florian Fricke was deeply immersed in Mayan myth at the time he formed the group with synth player Frank Fiedler and percussionist Holger Trulzsch, and his interests were reflected in the spiritual themes of their 1970 debut, Affenstunde.
 
The follow-up two years later, In den Garten Pharaos, was Popol Vuh's creative breakthrough, an intensely meditative work fusing ambient textures with organic percussion. In its wake, however, Fricke converted to Christianity, a move which sparked a rejection of electronics in favor of traditional ethnic instrumentation including guitars, oboe and tamboura; he then tapped korean soprano Djong Yun to lend vocals to 1972's lovely Hosianna Mantra. Fricke next teamed with onetime Amon Duul II drummer Daniel Fichelscher for the next Popol Vuh LP, Seligpreisung; its follow-up, 1975's Einjager und Siebenjager, remains widely considered among the group's most stunning efforts. That same year, they began a lengthy creative partnership with the celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog which yielded soundtracks for features including Aguirre, Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu.
 
Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, Popol Vuh's fascination with global sounds and instruments continued, with the prominence of sitars, tablas and tamboura percussion on LPs like 1977's Herz aus Glas and 1979's Die Nacht der Seele: Tantric Songs earning their latter-day sound descriptions like &raga rock.& In 1978, Fricke founded the Working Group for Creative Singing and also became a member of the Breathing Therapy Society, travelling the world to lecture on both subjects; ultimately, his outside passions began to overshadow his work in Popol Vuh, and as the 1980s dawned the group began losing steam, calling it quits after 1983's excellent Agape Agape. After reuniting two years later for Spirit of Peace, Fricke again reassembled Popol Vuh for the 1997 LP Shepherd's Symphony.