DIE NACHT DER SEELE - TANTRIC SONGS

This album is steeped in Florian Fricke's fascination with ethnic musics, and his deep spirituality. The instrumentation is largely acoustic, with the exception of a few discreet electric guitar flourishes from Daniel Fichelscher, and the overall sound is closer to world music than to rock. Tracks 1 - 5 were side 1 of the original vinyl, and are bookended with Mantram der Erdberuhung, on which Fricke's vocal is multi tracked to sound like a temple full of Tibetan monks chanting. Engel der Luft is a beautiful, drifting melody (which also crops up in a slightly different version on Nosferatu) carried by oboe and cymbals. This leads us into the sitar dominated Mit Handen, Mit Fussen which draws on North indian classical music. The next track is the longest on the album, and here Fichelschers multi tracked guitars are to the fore with some of Popol Vuh's trademark vocals floating serenely above, before the reprise of track 1 brings us back to where we started. This short cycle (about 17 minutes) conjures up images of ancient temples and arcane rituals and reveals new subtleties every time you listen to it.

The second half of the album keeps up the atmosphere, but does not have the same cohesion as the first half. The highlight is probably Fichelscher's Im Reich Der Schatten, which is an impressive percussion work out. This was the last great Popol Vuh album, and were four and a half stars available as an option that's the rating I would give it.

Florian Fricke seemed to be such a genuine, gentle and peaceful man. Klause Schulze said that "Florian was and remains to be an important forerunner of contemporary ethnic and religious music. He chose electronic music and his big Moog, which I bought from him later, to free himself from the restraints of traditional music, but soon discovered that he didn't get a lot out of it and opted for the acoustic path instead." This particular album is of the acoustic variety with aboe, piano, sitar, percussion and acoustic guitar leading the way. Daniel Fichelscher as usual plays an important role on guitars and percussion. He formally played drums with AMON DUUL II. As crazy as this sounds the music of POPOL VUH needs to be felt. The heart and love behind it comes through the sounds of the instruments and that is what makes Florian's music special.

"Mantram Der Erdberuhrung I" and "Mantram Der Erdberuhrung II" (song 5) are unusual in that they both convey a dark atmosphere with eerie sounds. The three songs in between are nothing short of incredible, beginning with "Engel Der Luft". It feels like the sun is rising as I listen to this track after the darkness of the song before it. I'm not sure why this song is so moving, but it is. Piano ends it. "Mit Handen,Mit Fussen" features sitar and acoustic guitar as the sound builds. "Wo Bist Du,Der Du Uberwunden Hast ?" is my favourite with piano, 2 acoustic guitars and cymbals. Female vocals come in after a minute.

"Im Reich Der Schatten" features some cool sounding percussion throughout. "Wanderer Durch Die Nacht" is darker sounding as drums beat slowly and cymbals clash. The sound calms down a notch with some piano sprinkled in. "Mantram Der Herzberiuhrung I" has some gentle piano with cymbals, while the second part of this song (song 10) has acoustic guitar added to that melody. "Auf Dem Weg" has some beautifully played acoustic guitar with a second acoustic guitar coming in a minute and a half in. Nice. "In Der Halles Des Lernens" has some strummed acoustic guitar, aboe and a faint vocal melody.

I could see people describing this as boring but for me this is beautiful music that is very far from being boring.