Popol Vuh Hosianna Mantra CD

A meditational feast halfway between religious/classical trance music and Germanic space music of the time, this reissue of 1972's Hosianna Mantra and 1979's Die Nact der Seele - Tantric Songs on Celestial Harmonies includes some of the most beautiful music Popol Vuh ever recorded. Though the electronics had been forsaken, the music is still quite evocative -- "Mantra of the Touching of the Earth" and "Angel of the Air" (both from Tantric Songs) present slow-moving piano passages, punctuated by sitar and tambura. Hosianna Mantra includes much beautiful work by Fricke on piano and harpsichord, Conny Veit on electric guitar, and Djong Yun reciting Biblical passages on "Kyrie," "Blessing" and the title track. Most of the best new age music was recorded before the term was even coined, and these two albums easily hit that mark. ~ Jenna Woolford

Florian Fricke pioneered the use of synthesizers in German rock, but by the time of Hosianna Mantra he had abandoned them (eventually selling his famous Moog to Klaus Schulze). While In den Gärten Pharaos had blended synths with piano and African and Turkish percussion, Hosianna Mantra focuses on organic instrumentation. Conny Veit contributes electric guitar, but other than that, Fricke pulls the plug and builds the album around violin, tamboura, piano, oboe, cembalo, and Veit's 12-string, often with Korean soprano Djong Yun's haunting voice hovering above the arrangements. As the album's title suggests, Fricke conceived of Hosianna Mantra as a musical reconciliation of East and West, a harmonization of seemingly opposed terms, combining two devotional music traditions. That notion of cultural hybridity resonates throughout. On "Kyrie" droning tamboura, simple piano patterns, ethereal, gull-like guitars, and yearning oboe ebb and flow before coalescing in a passage of intensity and release. The epic title track adds another dimension to the fusion, emphasizing a Western rock sound with Veit's spectacular playing to the fore, simultaneously smoldering and liquid, occasionally yielding to Djong Yun's celestial vocals. Above all, Fricke envisioned this as sacred music, intimately linked to religious experience; however, as his musical synthesis of disparate religious traditions indicates, he was seeking to foment a spiritual experience beyond the specificity of any particular faith. Indeed, Fricke called this album a "mass for the heart" and that aspect can be heard most succinctly on the melancholy "Abschied" and the gossamer-fragile "Segnung," which blend an austere hymnal sensibility with a more mystical vibe. Julian Cope has said that Hosianna Mantra sounds like it was made in a "cosmic convalescent home" -- an excellent description underscoring the timeless, healing quality of this music, which is far removed from the everyday world and yet at one with it. ~ Wilson Neate

Liner Note Authors: Michael Fuchs Gamböck; Gerard Augustin.

Author: Michael Crétu.

Photographers: Frank Fielder; Bettina Fricke.

Popol Vuh: Klaus Wiese (tambora); Florian Fricke (percussion); Robert Eliscu, Djong Yun, Conny Veit.

Personnel: Djong Yun (soprano, saxophone); Conny Veit (guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar); Klaus Wiese (tamboura); Fritz Sonnleitner (violin); Robert Eliscu (oboe); Florian Fricke (piano); Klaus Weiss (percussion).

Additional personnel: Fritz Sonnleitner.