Florian Fricke R.I.P.

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Florian Fricke of Popol Vuh died on 12/29/01. Popol Vuh made some excellent music (Letzte Tage - Letzte Nachte, Aguirre, and Einsjager und Siebenjager are personal favorites), Florian will be greatly missed...

Memorial Site: http://raq491.uk2net.com/florian

― Joe, Monday, 31 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow, this received zero press. RIP. I have In The Garden of the Pharoes and I like it. Very similar mood to Gas' Zauberberg. Any other great records worth checking out?

― Mark, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i liked the s/t to Aguirre Wrath of God... — but are there not two (unrelated) bands called Popul Vuh?

(this possibly false factoid has been festering in my head fr about a quarter of a century, and is possibly responsible for everything that's wrong with my life: dislodge or burnish it today!!)

― mark s, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, Florian's Popol Vuh was from Germany, and there was another band in the early 70s called Popol Vuh from Norway that made two albums. When they became aware of each other, the latter changed their name to "Popol Ace", and made three more albums.

As for the best of the former, out of the ones I've heard so far I would cast my vote for "Letzte Tage - Letzte Nacht" (only 30 minutes long, mind you, but great!), "Einsjaeger und Siebensjaeger", and "Aguirre". "In Den Garten Pharoahs" is a good example of their earlier music phase.

― Joe, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And Jahn Teigen of the Norwegian Popol Vuh/Ace went on to become the first to score zero points in the Eurovision Song Contest, AFAIK.

― OleM, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't have many heroes, and Florian Fricke was one of them. What a fucking bummer.

― Norman Phay, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think Popol Vuh has put out an album in almost 10 years, but Florian Fricke was an old favorite of mine and I'm saddened by this news.

"Brueder des Schattens, Soehne des Lichtes" has always been my favorite. "Das Hohelied Salomos," with choral vocals by Djong Yun is terrific, too.

Popol Vuh's music was a major component of Werner Herzog's films, like Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Nosferatu.

― Kimberly, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

Florian completed a new album just before his death. I have a pre-release of it and it is simply called "Piano Music", no track titles but apparently they do exist. It is absolutely beautiful music! His wife tells me that she expect to release it in the summer of this year.

Florian did release another album in the late nineties, this was called Mesa di Ora (i think) and was a recording of a live concert held to open a new cultural center in Italy.

Sadly, Florian was treated less than fairly by most of the record companies he dealt with during his long career and the market for his music was poorly served. I understand that his son will take the bull by the horns as soon as he has sorted out the legalalities surrounding Florian's work.

To my knowledge there is a Video shot in Tibet with Florian's music as the back drop that has not been released and there is also some interpretations of Bach that have also never seen the light of day.

Brian

― Brian Williams, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

We love Popol Vuh and Florian Fricke, Is so sad that genius like him die. We'll miss him.

We are from Barcelona, we'll want to know if there is some video, images in concert or something like that.

― Xavi&Eva, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, you could rent Werner Herzog's film "Every Man for Himself and God Against All" (also known as "The Enigma of Kaspar Hausar")--in the film, Fricke plays a blind piano player (named "Florian," of course), and there are some shots of him playing the piano and singing and generally looking very Beethoven-like (very brief footage, though).

― Joe, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

Just learned of Florian's passing. Very sad day. He was one of my musical heroes. Florian's music took you to another world, a paradise that you yearned to be able to walk into to escape real life. What was my favourite Popol Vuh track? Difficult to answer - possibly the first I ever heard, back in around 1977. It was "Ah!" That piano just blew me away. Close second, "Behold The Drover Summons, Why Do I Still Sleep?" There was never bliss like it. We often think of angels as being musical. Well, they've now got some serious competition.

― Antony M. Carlyon, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four weeks pass...

I think that Daniel Fichelscher was an important element of Popol Vuh. Does anyone know what he has become ?

― Alexandre Jaisson, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

It was really sad to hear about Florian Fricke's passing away. Although I live too far from germany I felt as if he was a close friend...I'll think of him by listening to one of my favorite songs which is Departure from Hosianna Mantra (in fact my first contact with Popol Vuh).

― Luiz Santos, Friday, 13 September 2002 21:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Was alerted to this a few weeks ago on www.progressiveears.com--a rare interview with Florian, conducted before his death...

http://www.eurock.com/florian.html

Harum dei rarum dei harum dei ra...

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 14 September 2002 01:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I was very sad to learn the passing of Florian Fricke. The last age of innocence (the 1970's) comes more and more near to its death and it
seems that nothing valuable could replace it.
Florian was very active at this time and was in fact a child of that era...
What's my favorite Popol Vuh's album? Without any doubt the album
Nosferatu. All the pieces in this album are beautiful. My favorite
piece is "Bruder des schattens, sohne des lichts". We can hear this
marvelous song in the Herzog's film also call "Nosferatu" which is my favorite film ever. A marvelous music in a non less marvelous film.
I am a french author and Popol Vuh's music sometimes help me in my writings.
Good bye Florian!

― Jonathan, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

It's nearly a year after the event and I have only just learnt of the death of Florian Fricke. I discovered Popol Vuh quite by chance when I was about 14 or 15 sometime in the early 1980s. I remember being attracted to a PV LP cover at my local public library (a stunning photo of druids (?) standing in a circle) so I borrowed some headphones for a listening post and sat down to listen. It took a few minutes to realise that I had the speed wrong (33 instead of 45), but once I had adjusted that it was a true awakening (especially as I was into punk at the time!). I discovered the films of Werner Herzog through PV and that opened another whole world into contemporary German film.
Later while working as a non-book cataloguer for a local university library while a student (about 1992), I was cataloguing some Herzog videos which had been purchased. I had to create new records for the Library of Congress database as there were none to "copy catalogue". Popol Vuh didn't have an entry either, so I proudly created and submitted "Popol Vuh (Musical Group)" as a Library of Congress Corporate Author heading which will remain in use throughout the world forever more.

Thanks Florian for creating such wonderful music.

Gábor Tóth
Wellington
New Zealand

― Gábor Tóth, Friday, 1 November 2002 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

I was really sad to learn of Florian Fricke's passing. It's a year exactly now I think, and it seems like the world is emptier now. He was a rare artist who had such a singularly unique vision that he kept to, and thus produced such strange and beautiful music. I used to scour the record stores for any new music by Popol Vuh which would mysteriously appear from time to time, but alas those days are gone.
My favorite piece? probably the little devotional "Om" pieces on Hosianna Mantra, or probably all of "Letzte Tage-Letzte Nachte"-also "Brudher der Schattens" and "Sei Still" is beautiful, too. I own an old video of a film shot in Palestine of which that is the soundtrack.

― stephen pobutsky, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

I think that "Vuh" is the most great song in the history of the Rock Music. Monumental

― Guillermo Sniezyk, Friday, 22 July 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

Florian Fricke created music of unique spiritual stillness, that was both of its time and beyond it. The fusion of music and image in the opening sequence of Aguirre is something that will linger forever in the minds of all who see it...

― j. ll. harris, Tuesday, 4 October 2005 02:23 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Ó_Ò

― am0n (am0n), Sunday, 28 January 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

great thread

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 28 January 2007 06:07 (eighteen years ago)

Well I only just learnt he died. I should try aNd order some more PV. RIP.
Andrew

― 808 the Bassking (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 28 January 2007 07:33 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

I've been playing Einsjager und Siebenjager a LOT recently, especially the long title track and 'Wurfelspiel' - such uniquely uplifting music -what other Fricke albs are closest to this kind of ecstatic mor prog bliss?

― Ward Fowler, Monday, 7 May 2007 18:42 (eighteen years ago)

Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht has a similar thing going.

― Trip Maker, Monday, 7 May 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

Geez, I read the thread title and thought "Oh no, the Kraftwerk guy. Another week of ILM mourning for a guy that most normal folks have never heard of." Then realized it was the Popul Vuh guy, and he's been dead several years already. Oh well.

(Not to make light of his passing. I own Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht but don't like it much. No doubt I'd like one of the early Moog-drenched LPs a lot more. RIP all the same.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 03:28 (eighteen years ago)

I think of Einsjager und Siebenjager, Letzte Tage Letzte Nacht and Coeur de Verre/Herz auf Glass/Heart Of Glass as a trilogy. If you like one you're likely to dig the other two. They're all very guitar-centric and glowing with ecstatic noodlage.

― Jon Lewis, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 03:40 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

Noticed from the cast list that Fricke appears in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. Is he the piano player?

― Neil S, Saturday, 11 September 2010 19:53 (fifteen years ago)

if the poster upthread is correct, yes. so many googlers on this thread!

― The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Saturday, 11 September 2010 20:13 (fifteen years ago)

Ah silly me, yes, thanks!

― Neil S, Saturday, 11 September 2010 20:41 (fifteen years ago)

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