DAS HOHELIED SALOMOS

Another from many sweets by POPOL VUH! This is a concept album dedicated to love and based on the text from the Bible (like the "Seligpreisung" album). But it's more like an instrumental album. Fine arts lovers shouldn't miss the beautiful cover art by Ulli Eichberger. It's reminding me of Henry Rousseau.

The collaboration with the guitarist and drummer of AMON DÜÜL II already started on "Seligpreisung" but on this album the guitar became the driving-force. The meditative style with multilayered guitars reminds me of MIKE OLDFIELD's "Ommadawn" to some extent. A good example of beautifully interwaving guitar lines is the last track "Du tränke Mich mit deinen Küssen".

Female serene vocal is pleasant but used sparsely. The guitar dominated sound gives very little room for piano, which is used mostly for background riffs. I miss Fricke's nice piano playing from the previous albums a little. But Fichelscher's guitar makes it up!

The music is less explicitly Oriental than on previous albums. They seem to find their own minimalistic style out of fusion of Western and Oriental music. The atmosphere is more spaced out and peaceful than on "Einsjäger" album. There are still a few very Oriental tracks. The most notabe is "Der Winter ist vorbei" with sitar and tabla.

Some may prefer more diverse previous two albums but "Das Hohelied Salomos" is an excellent album on it's own. Highly recommended to fans of minimalistic music and folk prog!