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Sean Trane View Drop Down

Special Collaborator

Prog Folk

Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 19614

Posted: March 06 2010 at 19:04

WalterDigsTunes wrote:

I remember having to watch the opening scene from Wener Herzog's "Aguirre" in one of my classes. Said film (like several other Herzog productions) has a soundtrack made by none other than Popol Vuh. Do yourself a favour and look up that scene. It's amazing.

I ended up downloading the album off eMusic as soon as I got home from class.

my advice is to stay away from the Original Movie Soundtrack albums and watch the movies instead

love the first two albums.... but it is in seiligpreisung and other such albums where PV makes the difference.

Love-making music.

let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword

moshkito

Forum Senior Member

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16148

Posted: March 09 2010 at 19:27

Sean Trane wrote:

my advice is to stay away from the Original Movie Soundtrack albums and watch the movies instead

love the first two albums.... but it is in seiligpreisung and other such albums where PV makes the difference.

Love-making music.

What makes it in that film, is that it is an insane long shot that goes forever ... and the whole thing is so like the whole film, and what it is really about ... and it made sense.

If you know the films, listening to the music makes sense ... afterwards, but in general, I guess that I would agree that ... see the films and then the music might make more sense ... but in general, I did not think that when I listen to the Aguirre album that I find it ... off kilter ... but yes ... it is massively different from all the other more spiritual work that they did.

The Nosferatu soundtrack is the same thing ... most of the music makes sense with the film ... but by itself, it's almost a little empty and you want to look around to find what is missing ...

One weird bit on this ... on the interview that you can find here in the Prog Archives, the suggestion is that the film stuff was not exactly what Florian liked to do ... and reading this now ... I think that I agree, although I really think that he was being just a bit overly selective and critical of his music and what he wanted to do with it ... but I would give Werner Herzog then, some credit for "seeing" something in many of those sounds, enough ... to give you a shot like that one in Aguirre ... this part, may not be something that Florian can relate or understand ... but makes sense to a film maker ... to whom the music helps create the environment ... and there are very few of those film makers around .... very few!

It's still very good stuff ... and the accoustic stuff that was done for the jungle scenes is no less amazing and strong.

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

machinemusic View Drop Down

Forum Newbie

Joined: October 28 2009
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 29

Posted: March 09 2010 at 23:29

Keep in mind that very little of the Aguirre soundtrack album was actually written for - and used in - the film.

(…) Aguirre (1975) featured some of the music from Werner Herzog’s film of the same name. Herzog and Fricke were long term friends from Fricke’s days as a film reviewer. This was a strange release, as it compiled recent alternative studio takes with the original music for the film. The long piece “Vergegenwaertigung” was a solo Fricke electronic number, a throw-back to the first two Popol Vuh albums, probably recorded in late 1972. Also “Aguirre I” was recorded before Fricke discarded the moogs and mellotrons. This was a majestic and floating large scale track. “Morgengruss II”, “Agnus Dei” and the guitar part of “Aguirre II” were probably recorded in May 1974 at the sessions for the forthcoming album Einsjäger & Siebenjäger and were fine examples of Fichelscher’s brilliant guitar work. The album was originally only released in France and Italy. To add even more to the confusion, the German re-release on Pop-Import 1982 had three later Popol Vuh tracks (…) replacing “Vergegenwaertigung”. This is not mentioned on the cover nor the label. Either it was a mistake or an illegal replacement due to the loss of master tapes. (…) – Dag Erik Asbjornsen’s Cosmic Dreams At Play

http://machinemusic.org

The Whistler View Drop Down

Prog Reviewer

Joined: August 30 2006
Location: LA, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 7113

Posted: March 09 2010 at 23:46

Don't know much about the band...big fan of the Herzog film Aguirre, however, and the music was quite nice.Heard the album. Relaxing and Eno-esque, with a couple of cute folksy bits thrown in to keep me interested.

"There seem to be quite a large percentage of young American boys out there tonight. A long way from home, eh? Well so are we... Gotta stick together." -I. Anderson

moshkito

Forum Senior Member

Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 16148

Posted: March 10 2010 at 15:18

machinemusic wrote:

Keep in mind that very little of the Aguirre soundtrack album was actually written for - and used in - the film.

(…) Aguirre (1975) featured some of the music from Werner Herzog’s film of the same name. Herzog and Fricke were long term friends from Fricke’s days as a film reviewer. This was a strange release, as it compiled recent alternative studio takes with the original music for the film.....

There are some nice comments ... about the film and the music from the man himself ... and it is on an interview that is posted in the Prog Archives board ... I recommend reading it ...

Florian mentions that he had stuff written and that Werner would say ... I can use that ... and some film makers are very good at visualization ... off various things ... some do it with music, some do it with visuals and some do it other ways.

And a lot in film (and most arts) evolves from someone's inner sight ... film for me is like that ... I hear some music and it creates visuals and I can film those all day! ... it's not surprising.

What is strange is people not seeing the parallels in those areas ... and I'm sure that there is a lot of that in music and that "progressive" music is a much better vehicle for "visuals" than lyrics are ... which tend to be kinda like make belief ... and unffortunately I was not born in the Star is Born and Walt Disney area and days ... which means that my visualizations are better with a lot of the European styles ... often less lyrics ... that allow your imagination to fly ... adding these to film, does not always deter from the concept or story, and often makes it better (David Lean, Blade Runner, Terry Gilliam) ... but it is something that only a few people can do ...

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com