THE WERNER HERZOG SOUNDTRACKS

A fairly luxurious boxset that features Popol Vuh's music for the different Werner Herzog films that were made over the course of 25 years. Of course, the relation between the Florian Fricke dates from the 60's (they met at art school), but it wasn't untim Aguirre in 76 when the two started an official colaboration, though there were a previous experience in the late 60's. Having four of the five movies which are "featured" here, this writer can more or less judge how pertinent the music was to the movie, whether the OST are fideland relevant to what's to be heard in the actual movies (not very often the case in my experience) and how much of it is really up to Fricke/Popol. Past the lush box that opens from the bottom (hence the risk of dropping the content on the floor), a second desappointment quickly appears... The five booklets of the five individual didipak Cds are exactly the same, thus driving the price uselessly high. For that matter, the content of this booklet is included in the luxurious other booklet, which is much more complete, and talks of Popol Vuh's entire discography until Cobra Verde (their last film together), but nothing going deep.

Aguirre : Of the four Herzog/Popol films I have seen, this one is my fave, but let's face it: Spanish Conquistador speaking German in the middle of the Amazon tropical forest in the early XVIth C does not give much credibility to the film. Otherwise, I've been left with such a lasting impression from this movie that makes it useless to ever see it again. This is the only PV OST that I've ever owned historically, and I was kind of curious when buying it, because the movie was very silent and oppressively so. So I recently revisited the movie, and still haven't found most of the music on the OST. To be quite honest, when I revisited the CD of this boxset (my vinyl was long gone), I still don't know where this music comes from and I don't find it particularly apt to fit the movie itself. The opening celestial-sounding Aguirre could fit the intro and descent into the Green Inferno of the film, the short Inca flute piece could find its place as well. While the Morgengruss piece is close to what Popol was doing on their studio albums, it bears little sonic relation to the Conquistador's flight to extermination of the movie. The second Aguirre piece is starting as celestial, but slowly develops to the usual superb Popol music developped in the official albums. There is nothing oppressive about the music (quite the opposite) that would match the movie's sinister (but hypnotizing) ambiance and storyline. Even the album's artwork bears nothing resembling the movie's universe. The only piece that nears the oppressive and sinister ambiances of the movie is the 16-mins Wärtigung, that sounds more like their early works of Affenstude or In Den Garten. The bonus third Aguirre track returns to the celestial layers of the opening track.

Heart Of Glass: One of the most boring movie ever made, but t least the Euiropean setting for the German-speaking movie is not nearly disturbing as its predecessor. However, this real visual bore happens also to be an immense yawner as far as sound is concerned. Again, the flim features little music - whether part of the story or in terms of ambance setting. So the actual music featured on this "OST" seems to come from unknown heavenly origin (the movie is shot in severe or dastic protestant circles of the XVIIIth C, if memory serves), but we're not far from Fricke Fichelser's usual trippy jammy music with sitar or tambura. Nothing pertinent to the movie, and as the French would say: "du n'importe quoi" (anything goes) or even "du foutage de gueule" (face- screwing scam), IF the music wasn't the usual Popol quality.

Nosferatu : the only movie that I haven't seen in this boxset (never a fabn of dumb vampire myths anyway), so it will be difficult for me to judge , espcially that there is miore than one version of this album, the second being released under the Brüder Des Schattens album of the following year. Don't expect from me a judgment of valor on this album, since I have too little background, but the music is very Popol-esque, though sometimes very slow and calm. Again, most of it is happy and serene, a bit the contrast of the movie's sinister gloom and doom (says the booklet). I am tempted to believe that this OST is like the previous two, not faithfully repecting the movie's sonic reality. But then again, the music is so much better on these first three OST than in the movies (when there is any at all) that one may not care that the it does respect those movie's sonic characteristics or not.

Fitzcarraldo: the first Herzog film I saw at theater release time, and maybe the most accessible of the five here, but again a ggod part of the movie is spoken in German in the heart of the Amazon forest, which causses credibility issues. As for the music on the OST , it's the first time that it is true to the movie's sonics, but there is fairly little of Popol's music in there. Indeed, we're given most of the movie's operette music , even sometimes reprocing the scratchy 78 RPM record player. By this time, Popol's line-up featured three Amon Duul 2 member, including the now-old addition of Fichelscher, but also Renate Knaup and Chirs Karrer; but it's not like you'll be notocing their contributions much, because there is maybe four, max five, tracks (out of 15) that are Popol's. Fitzcaaldo's OST is of little relevance to Popol fans, but much more in Herzog's sphere. This disc is the weak link inside this boxset's about the Popol universe.

Cobra Verde: This might be the last Herzog movie I saw in the theaters, and it was a long mother...er too; and it was mega-ambitious too, if only by the huge crowds featured in the story. Not as accessible as Fitzcarraldo to the mainstream crowds, it again features German text, this time in Africa as well as Brazil. And again, the OST is not really fitting the movie's overal sonics (except for one track called Ziavi), as we're missing all of the tribal dances (which didn't bear Popol's paws anyway). Most of the music from Popol is almost new-age/ambient type, which contrasts with the sometimes very intense and violent and poignant scenes of the movie. Again, this soundtracks doesn't reflect faithfully what I remember from the movie (last sen partially five years ago on TV), but unlike Fitzcaraldo's OST, this is more of a real Popol album.

In conclusion: If you except for the outer packaging, this boxset (released in '11) is nothing new in its content. Indeed, outside the big booklet, the five digipak CDs are the one that were released in '04 to '06 on SPV, and just crammed into this dark blue package to sucker unaware fans into buying the whole thing at once. But once again, this is nothing new as it is again obvious that Popol's musical oeuvre has neen often messed with (re-worked as some would pompously say), and I am kind of totally lost (and disgruntled) by these sometimes dishonest tamperings. Better avoid if you already own the classic Popol album, there is not much new under the sun that these OST can bring to PV's musical universe.