"aguirre"
Year: 1975
Country: Germany
City: Munich
Label: PDU
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 5
Genre: rock, electronic
Style: Krautrock
Unlike many film soundtracks, Aguirre genuinely holds up to the test as a standalone album away from the context of the film. Popol Vuh’s music functions excellently as ‘passive listening’, however, paying close attention to the album can indeed evoke powerful imagery that is totally separate from the film that it accompanies. Its transcendent tone is felt from the opening track Aguirre I, which begins with a rather angelic feel to it, before escalating to a darker, somewhat more menacing atmosphere. To me, the images it conjures up are of the final judgement, a notion that is common amongst much Abrahamic theology, in which the listener feels almost pulled back and forth between contrasting hellish and heavenly ethers. The pan pipes at the end of the track almost convey an irrelevance to the investment the listener might have had put into his or her drastically swinging emotions whilst listening to the song up until that point. The Vuh then continue to lull the listener into a false sense of security with Morgengruss II a beautiful, chilled out track with wonderful twanging guitars, before heading back into the unfinished business of the opening track as they jump to Aguirre II.
This song starts the same way as Aguirre I does, but this time the ominous otherworldly ambience is replaced by a much more hopeful and optimistic electric guitar solo. This call-back to the opening song is a way of rewarding the listener that they survived the grim and scary experience of the first Aguirre I and in light of this, they were now being rewarded for their endurance with relaxing and cheerful music. The subsequent track Agnus Dei, my favourite song on the album, starts off with the an oboe solo more akin to what might be heard on a classical music composition, however, the piece momentarily seamlessly flows into a more punky twang reminiscent of Patti Smith, before blending the softer sound of the oboe and potentially a flute with an electric guitar and drums to create a deeply enchanting sound that surprisingly works brilliantly. Perhaps the biggest curveball of the album is Vergegenwärtigung, the nearly 17 minute track that follows it, which sounds more like a soundscape that might be selected to accompany a particular aspect of a niche modern art exhibition. It is different from the music I am usually into, however, as a passive piece of listening it works as the ghost-like quality it gives to the album, due to the wind-like sounds that can be heard from presumably a synthesizer, create a spooky mood which can really be admired as a diversion in style from the three tracks that proceed it. “Overall, whilst this album as a piece of ambient music is at some points jarring, it is most successful on taking the listener on a sonic voyage."
Aguirre III finally lifts its audience out of the desolate world Vergegenwärtigung may have left them in and even though it is somewhat foreboding in its style, it is considerably more active and vibrant, allowing the listener to feel like they can trust that the album and the journey that they have been on is finally culminating for better or worse. Overall, whilst this album as a piece of ambient music is at some points jarring, it is most successful on taking the listener on a sonic voyage. Much like Brian Eno’s work on the ambient half of David Bowie’s album “Heroes”, the album show real musical nous and does so in not curtailing to the masses in simply being a piece of instrumental music that simply pleases its listeners. For Popol Vuh to be spoken of in the same breathe as legends Eno and Bowie is certainly testament to the brilliance of this album (*Review by Joel Dwek & Danny Wiser ).