Popol Vuh
Affenstunde

Thus, Julian Cope, in Krautrocksampler, writes about Affenstunde by Popol Vuh: "It's 1970, we're ahead of our time, but Florian Fricke rather than being ahead was out of time: that is, behind the avant-garde appearance was a Visionary with a traditionalist heart".

Affenstunde ("The Hour of the Monkey") - the debut work of the legendary Popol Vuh published in 1970 by Liberty - is a "historic" record in the evolution of electronic music. It was the first album where the Moog synthesizer (specifically the Moog III Modular Synth) was used artistically and creatively (two years earlier, in 1968, Wendy Carlos had used it in the famous Switched On Bach where she had adapted with the synthesizer and made some of J.S. Bach's most famous arias "popular" for the general public).

The intentions of Florian Fricke (1944-2001), the undisputed guru of Popol Vuh (the name derives from the sacred book of the Maya tribe of the Quiché, which also curiously inspired the name of a fine Norwegian prog group, which, for this reason, changed its name to Popol Ace), are instead deeper and more mystical. Interested in religions, Fricke studied sacred books and sought the esoteric truths of all doctrines, arriving at a kind of cultural syncretism. This philosophical and spiritual background translates into a mystical musical conception: he wants to create with music a state of catharsis, making interior what is exterior.

The first part of the suite "Ich Mache Einenem Speigel" ("Dream Part 4"), introduced by bird songs and the sound of a stone thrown into a pond, is characterized by dark minimal electronic pulsations that evoke a state returning us to the origin of the Cosmos. In the subsequent "Dream Part 5," the percussion of Holger Trulzsch, with Frank Fiedler (on synth) one of the other members of Popol Vuh in this work, continue to lead us on a "journey beyond time and space". "Dream Part 49" is instead quiet and Cosmic and transports the mind to remote Tibetan monasteries.

The title track "Affenstunde" begins again with tribal percussion and electronic effects until otherworldly voices make way for Florian Fricke's Moog: at this point, the Veil of Maya opens to the listener, revealing reality in its essence, freeing your personal demons and connecting you with your personal God. We are in the realm of pure electronic mysticism that surpasses all subsequent new age.

The intensity and transcendence of this music have probably not been achieved by anyone since. The subsequent In Den Garten Pharaos (1971) will be another great mystical and esoteric classic that will confirm the genius of Florian Fricke.

However, the timeless charm of Affenstunde - considered unjustly by some as a raw album - remains unchanged. It is a rough diamond that continues to spread its transcendent light even today. An album for visionaries and Cosmic travelers.