FITZCARRALDO

This is hardly a work by Popol Vuh, but as a fan of FITZCARRALDO, I think it's worth owning. There're actually only 4 tracks from Popol Vuh (I think they're all from other albums), and the rest are works from various composers and songs sung by Caruso. There's certainly a unique mood that's created by all of this. It's epic, mysterious, and appropriately operatic.

I would consider this more like 3.5 stars, since I love the movie (it's among Herzog's finest films), and I like many of the pieces of music, but unless you're a fan like me or want to own anything associated with Popol Vuh, it may seem more like a curiosity, but there's a good deal of fine music here.

And he (Fitzcarraldo) did it!

First of all, it's very curious to be in a forum where there are a lot of people with their respective nick names, and then to discover for some reason the why of some of those nicknames, i am saying this because we have a fellow collaborator with the nickname of Fiztcarraldo, which i found to be a very cool one, but i didn't know the reason of it. So voila, someday i realized it was a film by German Director Werner Herzog, but not just that, but that the soundtrack was composed by Popol Vuh, so everything has a sense and it's cool to discover these kind of little details.

And yes, i was interested in both the film and the music, and was lucky enough to find a copy of the movie in a really cheap price. Since what i am really reviewing here is the music, i will be short about the movie, it is just about a man (Fitzcarraldo) who had a great passion for the opera, who wanted to build an opera house in the jungle, and for that he was determined to do anything just to reach his goal (and he did it), the history is based in the Peruvian jungle, and in the city of Iquitos, an excellent film i have no doubt about it.

Now let's go with the music, due to my lack of knowledge i didn't know that Aguirre (the first Popol Vuh album i heard) was just another soundtrack made for a film directed by the same Herzog, so they worked together in several projects. As we know, Popol Vuh are a german band that you may label as a krautrock one, or in the other hand as an ambient/new age one, this album goes towards the latter.

As i told you earlier, the opera has a direct role in the film, so in this soundtrack. Featuring 15 tracks and a total time of 47 minutes, this album does not have only one musical style, but 3, it has the ambiental, enviromental and new age music of Popol Vuh, the traditional music from the peruvian ethnic regions, and the predominant opera sound with Verdi compositions performed by Enrico Caruso.

Music is very important in films in my opinion, so if you will watch Fitzcarraldo i bet you will be pleased by the Popol Vuh tracks due it's perfect sound in the right scene, but just that, this is not an album to listen frequently provided you love Opera, since the true Popol Vuh's tracks are just 5 at most, and knowing that we are in a progressive rock site, this will not make you happy if you are looking for the prog side of this german band.

My final grade are 2 stars, nice for those who like collecting every single album, and nicer for the ones who already watched the film (highly recommended by the way). But not for us who are looking for prog rock.

Anyway...enjoy it!