It must have been in 2002, shortly after Florian Fricke –, founder and mastermind of the band POPOL VUH – passed away, when we got in contact with Aphex Twin. Richard James, aka Aphex Twin, a key figure within the worldwide Ambient-Electronica scene since the 90s, had expressed interest in re-releasing POPOL VUH’s pioneering Moog III synthesizer records Affenstunde (1970) and In den Gärten Pharaos (1971). Meeting through mutual friends in London, we discussed possibilities for prospective collabora-tions. It was then, that the idea to remix POPOL VUH was born. In the past years, several electronic musicians have repeatedly expressed interest in reworking POPOL VUH tracks. Particularly, they were interested in their Ambient-Elec-tronica oeuvre and the POPOL VUH soundtracks written for Werner Herzog’s feature films, such as Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Heart of Glass, Nosferatu and Cobra Verde. At the same time, we noticed that independent electronic labels like Recordmakers in Paris, as well as DJs and bands in Berlin, Paris, and New York seemed to reshape something like a new “Kosmische” movement with 70s ambient music and progressive rock bands

including CAN, Cluster, Neu, Tangerine Dream, Ashra Tempel, Harmonia, POPOL VUH and alike as influencing musical sources.In 2010, Frank Fiedler from POPOL VUH, myself and Roland Appel decided to digitalize single stems of POPOL VUH’s music and to ask a group of DJs, producers and bands that understood this heritage, to create remixes. This open call resulted in a variety of tribute remixes from the likes of Peter Kruder (Kruder & Dorfmeister) from Vienna, Ambient producer Thomas Fehlmann (The Orb), Berlin-based electronic combos Mouse on Mars and Stereolab, Dub experts Moritz von Oswald and A Critical Mass, house music pro-ducer Roland Appel and Alex Barck (Jazzanova), minimal-techno composer Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic), and Haswell / Hecker. Some called on POPOL VUH’s electronic albums and soundtracks, whereas others decided for remixes of more Prog Rock-oriented tracks from albums like Hosianna Mantra (1973) or Letzte Tage, Letzte Nächte (1976), recalling the typical POPOL VUH sound including piano journeys, cosmic guitars strings, hypnotic conga drums and lyrics. As a consequence, POPOL VUH is now the second German Prog Rock band, after CAN to be remixed by a younger generation of musicians. One could say that this album brings POPOL VUH’s music into the present. Featuring both POPOL VUH original tracks and electronic remixes by bands and musicians of today, it introduces the music to a next generation. In conjunction, Side A of this double-album features original POPOL VUH tracks, highlighting their original Ambient-Electronica oeuvre and soundtracks of Herzog’s movie-classics.

POPOL VUH are considered one of the most influential German 70s progressive rock, avant-garde acts and are known as a pioneering band in Ambient-Electronica and pro-gressive rock music as a whole. Their records Affenstunde (1971) and In den Gärten Pharaos (1972), are claimed to be fundamentally influencing works in their field. They went down in the annals of German film music history with their soundtracks for legen-dary cinema classics by director Werner Herzog and composed more than 15 sound-tracks, with the majority of them for Herzog’s feature films with Klaus Kinski as the leading character. Since 2004, the complete back catalog of 19 original Albums by POPOL VUH was rereleased.With a rebirth of Ambient-Electronica and Prog-Rock over the past decade, POPOL VUH’s music has inspired a younger generation of composers, bands and electronic musicians. We embrace this as a welcoming homage to POPOL VUH’s original music. A decade after Florian Fricke’s death, this is a tribute to both himself and the band’s legacy. Thus, this album conflates the music of a German avant-garde band of the 70s with today’s electronic avant-garde. Produced by EDITION POPOL VUH, Johannes Fricke, and Roland Appel, with artwork support by Chris Rehberger, this album is a deep listening journey into POPOL VUH’s Electronica and Soundtrack world. With deep and sincere thanks to all current and former POPOL VUH members, to all contributing bands and artists, and the ones who were so supportive in this album’s creation, this record allows a younger generation of music lovers to rediscover the variety of POPOL VUH’s original catalog.

Johannes Fricke, Berlin, April 2011

When I moved from San Francisco to Munich in 1969 to breathe new life into the German recording scene for the American record company, Liberty / United Artists, groups like Amon Düül II, CAN, Embryo, and Krokodil soon became my business partners in the “new German music” genre. To complete the picture, I tried to continue my original Moog III synthesizer experiments, which I had embarked on together with Santana and bassist David Brown, back in California.My friend, the director Rüdiger Nüchtern, introduced me to Florian Fricke, who, next to Eberhard Schöner, was the only German to call one of these fantastic electronic toys his own. This new four-part electronic musical instrument developed by American electronics tinkerer, Robert Moog, was the result of years of preparation and became a forerunner in the sector of new music. Here was an instrument capable of reproducing human and natural sounds electronically – provided you were able to speak and understand the lan-guage of electronics.Florian Fricke, who owned such a “device”, had already taught himself this new musical

language, having originally had anything in mind but making records with the sounds that he created on his Moog III and entering into competition with other musicians.Since this kind of new music was only accessible to a small audience, I, being an A&R man, was met with little understanding from my colleagues, was smiled at alongside Florian, Frank Fiedler and Holger Trülzsch, and, with the reputation of being a “madman”, had to overcome many hurdles in order to get their first album, Affenstunde, into a record store. Today, the first POPOL VUH recording is considered a milestone in electronic music, and I am proud to have combined an important part of my professional life in the music business with POPOL VUH and their mastermind, Florian Fricke.I wink with one eye, and with the other I look back at a musical career that spans over 20 albums, which in the life of composer Florian Fricke are a monument devoted to an unu-sual person who always looked for and always found his way. It was important to him to stay true to himself. Together we lived through unusual experiences, and it seems a shame that he died so early without witnessing the legend that is now being created around him.

ON FLORIAN FRICKEGERHARD AUGUSTIN

R E V I S I T E D

It’s always sad to write about colleagues who have left our midst too soon. We revolu-tionised music in many ways during the Sixties and Seventies influencing many musicians who came after us, who are famous today and will have an impact on on the music of generations to come. Florian was and remains an important forerunner of contemporary ethnic and religious music. He choose the electronic music and his big Moog, which I bought from him later, to free himself from teh restraint of traditional music, but soon discovered that he didn t get a lot out of it and opted for the acoustic part instead. Here he went on to create a new world, which Werner Herzog loves so much, transforming the thought pattern of electronic music into the language of acoustic ethno music.

All this can only be achieved if you invest al your soul and devote yourself totally to your music. Energy and vitality are sacrificed, without compromise...something that I miss very much amongst today’s musicians and composers – but perhaps things are perceived on a more superficial and frightened level these days. Our attitude was very radical and very incon-siderate, even when it came to our own health and moral...nothing but the music mattered!Today I realize that dedicated musicians from those days, like ourselves, live on borrowed time from the age of 50; some more, others less. But what we have created makes up for spending less time on this planet. Farewell, Florian!

KLAUS SCHULzE ON FLORIAN FRICKE

Klaus Schulze, Oldau, Oktober 2003

1970 AFFENSTUNDE1971 IN DEN GäRTEN PHARAOS1972 HOSIANNA MANTRA1973 SELIGPREISUNG1974 EINSJäGER & SIEBENJäGER1975 DAS HOHELIED SALOMOS1975 AGUIRRE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR “AGUIRRE“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1976 LETzTE TAGE LETzTE NäCHTE1977 HERz AUS GLAS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR “HERz AUS GLAS“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1978 BRüDER DES SCHATTENS – SöHNE DES LICHTS FIRST VERSION OF ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR “NOSFERATU“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1978 NOSFERATU ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR MOVIE “NOSFERATU“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1979 DIE NACHT DER SEELE1981 SEI STILL, WISSE ICH BIN1982 FITzCARRALDO ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR MOVIE “FITzCARRALDO“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1983 DIE ERDE UND ICH SIND EINS1983 AGAPE-AGAPE1985 SPIRIT OF PEACE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR “GASHABRUN, DER LEUCHTENDE BERG“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1987 COBRA VERDE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FOR “COBRA VERDE“ BY WERNER HERzOG

1991 FOR YOU AND ME1992 FLORIAN FRICKE PLAYS MOzART1995 CITY RAGA1997 HIRTENSYMPHONIE1999 MESSA DI ORFEO Cerith Wyn Evans on POPOL VUH (2011)

POPOL VUH

created

borderless

atmospheres

forever

resonating

in

the

world

of

today

and

tomorrowPeter Kruder (Kruder & Dorfmeister)

Phot

o co

urte

sy O

lga

Lato

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R E M I X E D

Frank Fiedler (POPOL VUH)

Remastering & Extraction of 24-Tracks for POPOL VUH Remixed & Revisited (1970-1999)

Considering my career as DJ, producer and musician alltogether,

it is coined by a love to records and alike recordings. Now, some

of this music appears differently. No matter what you do, it doesn’t

fit into your own musical universe, which is already comprehensive.

And then there is music, that doesn’t fit anywhere, but nevertheless

finds it’s way from the record stores to your home. You listen to

such music again and again, as it is talking to you, just in another

language than yours. Yet, one day, you spin the record again

and cannot believe it- suddenly the music radiates the warmth of a

good friend, whom you haven’t seen for a long time. Such

phenomena is central to my life. Afterall, POPOL VUH is such a

band, one that can open the door to a completely new universe.

And it never stops. Thank you for that!

Alex Barck

Thomas Fehlmann(The Orb)

Moritz von Oswald (Rhythm & Sound)

Roland Appel on PoPoL VuH

To be involved in a project like this means to acquire as much

knowledge as possible about the music or band or artist,

who created the original.

I thought that I know a lot about POPOL VUH. But I learned

that there is much more behind this project than music. It’s

almost a cosmos and I think that’s the reason why the music

and the project POPOL VUH is such an inspiration for so

many people, including myself. Roland Appel

Mouse on Mars on PoPoL VuH

Rethinking European and German post-war music POPOL VUH

is of particular interest to us, as it seems to derive from another

time yet neither builds up on German musical legacy nor with its

breach. More the contrary, the music of Florian Fricke was more

religiously abstract, radical, not to be cathegorized. It came out

of the blue, from an inextinctable desire to reach out to spiritual,

deeply personal insights.

POPOL VUH’s music is a mess for the mystic joy of existence

itself. Maybe a “Hosianna“ on what was left or at all relevant

of the fucked up German historical heritage in the 1960s.

Something humans cannot destroy: nature and lifeforce,

something that stays forever.

Our Remix from Nosferatu’s “Through pain to Heaven” is a

song, which we d have liked to hear on our new album.

Jan Werner & Andi Thoma(Mouse on Mars)

Timothy Gane (Stereolab)

POPOL VUH guided me into a world of wonder and

awe. At it’s core the music is very spiritual. They just

sounded far-out and mysterious.

The clanging guitar chord of “Wehe Khorazin”

(Fitzcarraldo Soundtrack) will stay with me all my life. At

that moment you really do travel a million miles.

Seems to speak of big things: high mountains and deep.

A terrible and positive provocation.

Henrik SchwarzÂme (Kristian Rädle & Frank Wiedemann)Steffen “Dixon” Berkhahn(A Critical Mass)

Russell Haswell(background)

& Florian Hecker (foreground).

Mika Vainio(Pan Sonic)

Russell Haswell (background) & Florian Hecker (foreground).Photographed by Tommi Grönlund @ CCMIX

(Center for the Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis), Paris, 2004.

POPOL VUH

Of the many now legendary artists to emerge from the Krautrock movement, few antici-pated the rise of modern electronic music with the same prescience as POPOL VUH – the first German band to employ a Moog synthesizer. Their work not only anticipated the emergence of ambient, but also proved pioneering in its absorption of worldbeat textures. POPOL VUH was formed in Munich in 1969. The band’s title was inspired by the holy book of Guatemala’s Quiche Indians. According to Mayan researchers, the title roughly translates as “meeting place.” Classical composer and keyboardist Florian Fricke was deeply immersed in Mayan mythology at the time he formed the group with synth player Frank Fiedler and percussionist Holger Trülzsch, and his interests were reflected in the spiritual themes of their 1970 debut, Affenstunde.

The follow-up two years later, In den Gärten Pharaos, was POPOL VUH’s creative break-through, an intensely meditative work fusing ambient textures with organic percussion. In its wake, however, Fricke and the band shifted radically from electronics in favor of ethnic instrumentation including guitars, oboe, and tamboura.

He then tapped Korean soprano Djong Yun to lend vocals to the 1972’s lovely Hosianna Mantra. Fricke teamed with former Amon Düül II drummer Daniel Fichelscher for the next POPOL VUH LP, Seligpreisung. Its follow-up, 1975’s Einsjäger & Siebenjäger remains

widely considered among the group’s most stunning efforts. That same year, they began a lengthy creative partnership with the celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog, which yielded to epic soundtracks for features including Aguirre – Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu, and Cobra Verde.

Throughout the latter half of the 70s, POPOL VUH’s fascination with global sounds and instruments continued, with the prominence of piano, guitars, sitars, tablas, and tamboura on LPs like 1976’s Letzte Tage Letzte Nächte, 1977’s Herz aus Glas, and 1979’s Die Nacht der Seele: Tantric Songs, earning their latter-day sound descriptions like “raga rock.” In the 80s, the band teamed up for 1983’s excellent Agape Agape with Renate Knaup’s vocals, and two years later for the stunning piano record Spirit of Peace. During that time, Fricke founded the Working Group for Creative Singing and also be-came a member of the Breathing Therapy Society, traveling the world to later lecture on both subjects.

In the 1990s, Fricke reunited POPOL VUH for the worldbeat record For you and Me and for three ambient-electro-worldbeat fusion albums: together with Frank Fiedler and Guido Hieronymus, Fricke realized the band’s last, again more electronic albums with City Raga in 1995, the 1997’s record Shepherd’s Symphony, and Messa di Orfeo in 1999.

BIOGRAPHY

POPOL VUH REVISITED & REMIXED (1970-1999)

Produced by Johannes Fricke and Roland Appel for EDITION POPOL VUH (2011) Licensed to SPV Records (2011)

Mastering POPOL VUH Revisited (Planet-Side)Frank Fiedler, POPOL VUH (München 2011)Remastering & Extraction of 24-tracks: Frank Fiedler, Jan KrauseSound-Design & Mixdown: Affenstunde, In den Gärten Pharaos, Ich mache einen Spiegel, Train Through Time: Frank Fiedler, POPOL VUH

Mastering POPOL VUH Remixed (Cosmic Side)Götz Michael Rieth, East Side Mastering Studio (Berlin 2011), Roland Appel, Johannes Fricke

THANKS TO ALL REMIXERSRoland Appel, Peter Kruder, Thomas Fehlmann, Jan Werner & Andi Thoma, Timothy Gane, Moritz von Oswald, Henrik Schwarz, Alex Barck, Âme (Kristian Rädle & Frank Wiedemann), Steffen “Dixon” Berkhahn, Mika Vainio, Russel Haswell, and Florian Hecker

SPECIAL THANKSFrank Fiedler, Daniel Fichelscher, Renate Knaup, Holger Trülsch, Djong Yun, Conny Veit, Guido Hieronymus, and all former POPOL VUH Band MembersJohannes Fricke, Bettina von Waldthausen,

Gerhard Augustin, Anna Fricke, Werner Herzog and Lucky Stipetic (Werner Herzog Film), Ama Walton, Roland Appel, Bernd Krüger, and Gero Herrde

PRODUCTION THANKS & CREDITSRoland Appel, Frank Fiedler, Götz Michael Rieth, Gero Herrde, Frank Uhle, Chris Rehberger, International Double Standards, Manuel Schönfeld, André Herrmann, Jan Krause

PHOTO CREDITSBettina von Waldthausen

ARTWORK THANKS & CREDITSChris Rehberger, Cerith Wyn Evans

SUPPORT THANKSRoland Appel, Verus von Plotho, Marc Tessier du Cros, Stephane Elfassi, Bernd Krüger, Peter Rehberg, Joana Seguro, Russel Haswell, Mika Vainio, Alex Barck, Moritz von Oswald, Richard James, Xaver von Treyer, Mani & Thorsten (RBMA), Milena Muzquiz, Christine Macel, Johanna von Halem, and Sarah

IN MEMORY OF Florian Fricke I POPOL VUH EDITION POPOL VUH & SPV Rec. (2011)

POPO

L VUH ReVisited&Rem

ixed 1970 – 1999

PLANET SIDE (REVISITED)Aguirre i Lacrima di Rei 06:15 Aguirre (soundtrack) (1975) POPOL VUHAffenstunde 15:42 Affenstunde (1970/71) POPOL VUHin den Gärten Pharaos 17:22 in den Gärten Pharaos (1972) POPOL VUHich mache einen spiegel 03:07 Affenstunde (1970/71) POPOL VUHNachts schnee 01:51 Cobra Verde (soundtrack) (1987) POPOL VUHeine andere Welt 04:16 Cobra Verde (soundtrack) (1987) POPOL VUHin your eyes 01:02 For You and me (1991) POPOL VUHtrain through time 06:15 Affenstunde (Bonustrack) (1998) POPOL VUHNascita 02:00 messa di Orfeo (1999) POPOL VUHBrüder des schattens 05:44 Nosferatu (soundtrack) (1987) POPOL VUHthrough Pain to Heaven 03:43 Nosferatu (soundtrack) (1978) POPOL VUHKailash: Last Village 05:40 Bonustrack (unreleased) (1998) POPOL VUHPlanet Time 73:55

COSMIC SIDE (REMIXED)Aguirre i/ii (Lacrima di Rei edit) 07:22 Aguirre (1975) Peter Kruder Remix (Kruder & dorfmeister)schnee (Flow edit) 06:38 Cobra Verde (1987) thomas Fehlmann Flow mix (the Orb)Heart of Glass (sei still Wisse ich Bin edit) 06:01 Heart of Glas (1977) A Critical mass Remix (schwarz/dixon/Âme)Haram dei Haram dei (ProgRock edit) 06:21 Letzte tage Letzte Nächte (1976) Alex Barck Remix through Pain to Heaven/Kyrie (edit) 05:52 Nosferatu/Hosianna mantra (1978/1972) Roland Appel RemixNachts schnee (Ambient edit) 09:59 Cobra Verde (1978) mika Vainio Remix (Pan sonic)Gärten Pharaos (dark development edit) 06:20 in den Gärten Pharaos (1971) moritz von Oswald Remixthrough Pain to Heaven/dopeful Vuh (edit) 05:20 Nosferatu (1978) mouse On mars RemixHosianna mantra (Lyrics edit) 05:24 Hosianna mantra (1972) stereolab RemixAguirre i/ii (endless edit) 08:15 Aguirre (1974) Haswell & Hecker Remix

train through time (long version) 10:29 POPOL VUHCosmic Time 78:24