HOSIANNA MANTRA

After seeing this and several other Popol Vuh albums on the Krautrock top 20 in my early days as a member of ProgArchives, I decided to check them out. It took me until last year to finally order anything by the group, though. This album was my first experience with the group, and I must say it's sufficiently impressive.

On this album, using almost exclusively acoustic instrumentation (the only exception being Conny Veit's guitar), Fricke and company set out to mix East and West, and to create some very beautiful music. They largely succeed, especially on the second point. The album has an airy, almost angelic sound throughout, in large part due to Fricke's piano playing and the beautiful, serene vocals courtesy of Djong Yun. It is surely spiritual without being very religious, and listening to it always brings me serenity.

It's albums like this one that prove not all prog is over the top or pretentious - on the contrary, this one is very introspective and elegant. Forget outer space - this is music which travels to inner space and explores around a bit. It's definitely a good starting point for Popol Vuh's brand of Krautrock, as it's got me hungry for more of their kind of music. I don't think it's a great starting point for the Krautrock genre as a whole though, as the band's sound is pretty far removed here from other bands under the same umbrella. Still, if you want an album which exemplifies quiet serenity, keep Florian's music in mind - he seems to have been a master of the style. Four (and a half) stars from me for this one.