For me, Popol Vuh from Munich, Germany, led by Florian Fricke, are the pinnacle of what is loosely classified as Krautrock. Known more widely for their contributions to the film scores of Werner Herzog, their febrile, majestic and wandering compositional work throughout their varied career have inspired me continually. Perhaps most significantly of all is their selection of instrumental palettes; initially engaging with the enormous Moog synthesizer on 1970’s ‘Affenstunde’, interweaving it with acoustic percussion and folk instrumentation.
This meld of the synthetic and the earthen, the simple electric and acoustic is a subject of fascination for me. Despite the dearth of reference material or direct information about Fricke’s creative practice, Herzog (2002, pp. 80) spoke of Fricke using a presumably self-built ‘choir-organ’, an instrument akin to a Mellotron for ‘Aguirre, the Wrath of God’: ‘For the music, I described to Florian Fricke what I was searching for, something both pathetic and surreal, and what he came up with is not real singing, nor is it completely artificial either. It sits uncomfortably between the two… the music has an artificial, eerie quality to it.’ In many ways, this same uneasy combination of the artificial and the authentic is an aspect I am reaching for in my final project work.
‘Wehe Khorazin’ from 1981, used the year after in Herzog’s film ‘Fitzcarraldo’, could be one of my most treasured pieces of music ever. In contrast to the elegiac tone of their earlier albums, this is a leaden, earthy and operatic dirge that carries a true sense of darkness and wonder. Daniel Fichelscher’s playing in the second half is inspirational in it’s pace and the guitar’s primitivist tone and suggestion of rhythm. The almost baleful overall yet worshipful chanting and suggests Fricke’s more overt exploration of Christian themes, rather than the sense of spirituality present in Popol Vuh’s prior work. Also inspirational is its combination of orchestral and acoustic with the electric, uniting two potentially disparate worlds.
Despite not appearing on the recording of ‘Wehe Khorazin’, with the incorporation of guitar on my piece, and as a guitarist first, I wanted to reference the work of Conny Veit. Notable here during the opening sequence of Herzog’s documentary ‘The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner’ His liquid, gestural performative and playing style suggests a violin, in using the volume knob to ramp up the signal. It’s a very elegant, mysterious tone paired with the glacial visual. I am interested in unorthodox guitar technique, and still passionately believe in the guitar as a relevant sonic tool in the contemporary overwhelm of digital tools.
This sonic combination also leads me to digress about Ennio Morricone’s work, in particular his score to ‘The Great Silence’, Sergio Corbucci’s unconventional 1968 western. Similarly centring the guitar as a primary instrument in many of his scores, Morricone sculpts a landscape from their versatile sound-generating properties. They are often core to the emotional expression and characterisation of the film and it’s environment.
A theme, or recurrence, I am becoming aware of, is my interest in soundtracks. Another minor connection, Klaus Kinski stars, madman lead of a number of Herzog films, including ‘Aguirre, the Wrath of God’, ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo’, whose scores contain music by Popol Vuh.
The myth and sacrality of the mountain, as explored often in Herzog’s work, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount alluded to by Fricke in ‘Sei still, wisse ICH BIN’, is increasingly apparent as an influence on me. I recognise this elusive, ill-defined icon to be an important driving factor in my own creative work and artistic imagination. The landscape speaks, and we interpret.
Bibliography:
Herzog, W. and Cronin, P. (2002) Herzog on Herzog: Conversations with Paul Cronin. London: Faber and Faber.
Red Bull Music Academy (2017) Werner Herzog on Krautrock, Silence and Music in Film|Red Bull Music Academy. 1 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFiVzWAWyaw&t=385s (Accessed: 25 May 2024)