Popol Vuh
Hosiana Mantra
1972
CD / 2004 / 320Kbps
Tracklist:
Hosianna-Mantra:
1 Ah!
2 Kyrie
3 Hosianna-Mantra
Das V. Buch Mose:
4 Abschied
5 Segnung
6 Andacht
7 Nicht Hoch Im Himmel
8 Andacht
Bonus Track:
9 Maria (Ave Maria)
Personnel:
Florian Fricke – piano, cembalo
Conny Veit – electric guitar, 12-string guitar
Robert Eliscu – oboe
Djong Yun – vocals
Klaus Wiese – tamboura
Guest:
Fritz Sonnleitner – violin
Hosianna Mantra is the third album by Popol Vuh, released in 1972.
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 Gärten 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.
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.