Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972/2004 Remastered Expanded Edition)
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Album: Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (Remastered Expanded Edition)
Released: 1972 (2004)
Genre: Electronic Krautrock
SPV 085-70122 CD
“Hosianna mantra”, released in 1972, is one of the very best Popol vuh albums, from their golden era. The most spiritual, ethereal, thanks to the guitar weaving delicate and hypnotic arabesques and of Djong Yun celestial vocals, helped by quiet meditative piano and peaceful oboe parts. The mood is cerebral and the music carries vibrations of spiritual harmony. A must have from this essential band. - ProgArchives.com
Popul Vuh's third album from 1972 with a slight ethnic touch, angelic vocals, guitars, oboe, tamboura, glissando guitar, violin etc. This same line up had connections with the second Gila album. Fluid and refreshing.High quality digi pack and bonus material. - Freak Emporium
The first thing I noticed when I first heard Popol Vuh was the uniqueness of their style. This can also be heard on "Hosianna Mantra". It's actually a landmark album in their discography. The first two albums were more typical experimental electronica. "Hossiana Mantra" was a big change in style. Fricke stopped using electronic instruments. Instead his music started to focus more on the piano and acoustic instruments (oboe, violin, tambura). The only electrical instrument remained is the electric guitar which has a pleasant clean atmospheric tone. Overall, the music sounds very meditative and elegantly textured. A good listen before going to bed. The peaceful style can be described as a fusion of classical impressionism, Indian classical and krautrock. The only similar group I know is another German group BETWEEN. If you want to listen to some original and beatiful prog this album is a must! - Matej Luketic, ProgArchives.com
Florian Fricke pioneered the use of synthesizers in German rock, but by the time of Hosianna Mantra he had abandoned them (eventually selling his famous Moog to Klaus Schulze). While In den Garten Pharaos had blended synths with piano and African and Turkish percussion, Hosianna Mantra focuses on organic instrumentation. Conny Veit contributes electric guitar, but other than that, Fricke pulls the plug and builds the album around violin, tamboura, piano, oboe, cembalo, and Veit's 12-string, often with Korean soprano Djong Yun's haunting voice hovering above the arrangements. As the album's title suggests, Fricke conceived of Hosianna Mantra as a musical reconciliation of East and West, a harmonization of seemingly opposed terms, combining two devotional music traditions. That notion of cultural hybridity resonates throughout. On "Kyrie" droning tamboura, simple piano patterns, ethereal, gull-like guitars, and yearning oboe ebb and flow before coalescing in a passage of intensity and release. The epic title track adds another dimension to the fusion, emphasizing a Western rock sound with Veit's spectacular playing to the fore, simultaneously smoldering and liquid, occasionally yielding to Djong Yun's celestial vocals. Above all, Fricke envisioned this as sacred music, intimately linked to religious experience; however, as his musical synthesis of disparate religious traditions indicates, he was seeking to foment a spiritual experience beyond the specificity of any particular faith. Indeed, Fricke called this album a "mass for the heart" and that aspect can be heard most succinctly on the melancholy "Abschied" and the gossamer-fragile "Segnung," which blend an austere hymnal sensibility with a more mystical vibe. Julian Cope has said that Hosianna Mantra sounds like it was made in a "cosmic convalescent home" - an excellent description underscoring the timeless, healing quality of this music, which is far removed from the everyday world and yet at one with it. - Wilson Neate, AMG
My first experience with POPOL VUH was in the films done by Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. I really liked those films, and I also liked their soundtracks, so I thought to check out other records by this artist. "Hosianna Mantra" album concists of beautiful ethereal music, maybe little resembling VANGLEIS (or him resembling POPOL VUH). The piano runs on the first track sounded bit weird to my ears, but otherwise you get here a beautiful, quite eventless journey to the inner void of Florian Fricke's mind, acompanied by orient sounding strings and angel like female voicals. I'm really fond of the sound of acoustic piano, and you get it here in large amounts. This kind of music really needs the correct mood for listening to avoid irritation or boredom. I like to play this kind of music when driving longer distances with a car, or when trying to relax in the night before going to bed. Though I'm not an expert on the field of Krautrock, I believe this album represents a tamer and more acoustic side of that genre. Recommened warmly! - Eetu Pellonpää, ProgArchives.com
Led by keyboardist and composer Florian Fricke, Popol Vuh are one of the most unique-sounding bands in the history of progressive rock. To be fair, only a part of their output could be regarded as "rock", rather a lot of their work could be seen as pioneering in such genres as electronic, ethnic or New Age music. They have an extensive and somewhat confusing back catalogue, with a legion of studio albums, soundtracks, compilations and re-releases which don't always match the original versions. Furthermore, same tracks can appear on different albums under different titles (either in English or German) and sometimes different versions of the same song appear on different albums. What follows is a brief introduction to the bulk of their output, roughly in chronological order:
Affenstunde and In den Garten Pharaos -- Ambient and almost free-form music, basically just Fricke experimenting with a Moog synthesizer backed by some ethnic percussion. Reminds of Alpha Centauri / Zeit era Tangerine Dream. The gloomy organ, cymbal clashing and eerie voice on "Vuh" (In den Garten Pharaos) also bring to mind Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful of Secrets". Both are quite abstract works and not really representative of the band's main output. Note: one CD version of Affenstunde actually features the whole first half of In den Garten Pharaos, while another includes the entire Die Nacht der Seele album.
Hosianna Mantra -- Exit synthesizer, enter Conny Veidt on electric and acoustic guitars and Djong Yun on vocals. Fricke's piano paints lush, melodic sound scapes which are filled out by Veidt's echoing, spooky electric guitar lines and Yun's dreamy, whispering vocals, singing Biblical texts. This delicious musical cake is further sweetened with some tamboura, violin and beautiful oboe. A marvellous album of dreamy, mystical music with a subtle menacing undertone, Hosianna Mantra provides the blueprint for the next few Popol Vuh albums... - Kai Karmanheimo, New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
Florian Fricke was born by Lake Constance in 1944. From 1959 till 1963 he studied music in Munich, where he was a pupil of Rudolph Hindemith (Paul Hindemith's brother). At the age of 25 he became acquainted with the Moog synthsizer which leads him to form his band POPOL VUH. This name and inspiration come from the holy book of Guatemala's Quiche Indians. Historically, Popol Vuh's "Affestunde" (1970) is the first experimental rock release entirely built around the Moog Synthesiser (with the add of percussions to provide a mystical flavour).
In 1971, their second album "In Den Garten Pharaos" keeps on fusing ambient electronic textures with traditional, ethnic instruments, but put the stress on spiritual themes. In 1972, "Hosianna Mantra" marked a turning point in POPOL VUH career by rejecting electronic instrumentations in favour of acoustic elements including a lot of oboe, konga, tamboura accompaniment and female vocals (the Japanese soprano Djong Yun and later Renate Knaup, front woman of AMON DUUL II)
In 1974, after the departure of the guitarist Conny Veit (the founder of GILA), Daniel Fichelscher (former drummer of AMON DUUL II) becomes an active member of POPOL VUH ethereal and spiritual adventure. Florian Frike's POPOL VUH was also known from a larger audience thanks to the collaboration with the German director Werner Herzog, providing the soundtracks of many of his classic films, notably the hypnotic and reflective "Aguire, Wrath of God", "Heart of Glass"...In 1978, Florian Fricke founded the "working group for creative singing" and became a member of the society of breathing therapy. He holds lectures all over the world on his work in this field. - ProgArchives.com
Hosianna-Mantra
01 Ah! 04:46
02 Kyrie 05:23
03 Hosianna-Mantra 10:12
Das V Buch Mose
04 1. Abschied 03:14
05 2. Segnung 06:07
06 3. Andacht 00:47
07 4. Nicht hoch im Himmel 06:18
08 5. Andacht 00:48
Bonus Track
09 Maria (Ave Maria) 04:30 Florian Fricke - piano, harpsichord
Conny Veit - guitar
Robert Eliscu - oboe
Djong Yun - vocals
Klaus Wiese - tambura
Fritz Sonnleitner - violin
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