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Rating: Rock and religion: a true oxymoron. At least before "Hosianna Mantra."
Young long-haired musicians with classical training – Conny Veit on guitar (acoustic and electric), Robert Eliscu on oboe, Fritz Sonnleitner on violin, Klaus Wiese on tambura, leader Florian Fricke on piano and harpsichord, and Korean soprano Djong Yun to blend it all – Popul Vuh combined their conservatory studies with rock (psychedelic) and sacred music, in an unprecedented synthesis. Never before had an electric guitar supported a Gregorian chant.
Respected representatives of the German musical strand called "Kraut-Rock" (alongside groups like "Neu!", "Kraftwerk", "Can", "Faust", "Schulze", "Czukay"), in composing "Hosianna Mantra," Popol Vuh set themselves apart from the movement's poetics, putting aside electronics (not the electric guitar) and maintaining everything at an absolute level of sobriety, given the themes: on one side, the Ascension of Christ to Heaven and the "Hosanna" of Paradise that welcomes Him (side 1); on the other, the biblical narratives of Moses' V Book (side 2, titled Das V. Buch Mose). "Electronic music could not have expressed the spiritual potential and purity contained in this work" (Florian Fricke).
The opening is entrusted to "Ah!", an enchanting rock-classical fusion. Three piano notes merge with the violin and the sparkling harpsichord. The beginning is solemn but almost uncertain, almost to show the sense of respect and the inability to express the themes. A few sweet and imperceptible notes of electric guitar (1:19 – 1:20; 2:10-2:11) before the famous cascade of notes, accompanied by the harpsichord. Peace again, before the second cascade of notes that concludes the track. Sublime, but this is not the novelty of "Hosianna Mantra."
The "Kyrie Eleison" ("Lord have mercy" in Greek) could not be missing. Here, it's the electric guitar that creates psychedelic effects, with the tambura supporting it. Then Djong Yun's voice makes her entreaty. The piano enters to support the solemn oboe that the soprano almost tries to follow. The guitar returns with almost cacophonic phrases (yet marvelous to the ear) supported by the piano and tambura. A sober guitar-voice finale.
The oboe is the absolute protagonist in "Abschied," supported by the tambura. The guitar makes its entrance after fifty seconds to leave the scene again to the oboe and tambura.
"Segnung" is perhaps the most imaginative track. Opening with electric guitar with classical guitar counterpoints. Yun's voice is fervent and humble, with supportive violin and acoustic guitar filling in, before the arrival of the piano and electric guitar playing in unison before the oboe's entry. Then voice, violin, and acoustic guitar again. Then piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, oboe, and violin all together express a kind of joyful conquest of celestial joy. Then a humble song again.
"Nicht Hoch Im Himmel" starts with Yun's voice finding a pause in Fricke's piano. Her voice returns, then the piano again. Then a cascade of notes similar to "Ah!" also reappears here with a delicate hint of psychedelic electric guitar (2:44). The guitar, shortly after, joins the violin and the piano in a fragment of about a minute, one of the most beautiful on the album (3:00 – 3:58).
And, last but not least, the ten-minute suite, "Hosianna Mantra" that merges the Hosanna dedicated to Christ at the moment of Ascension into heaven with the meditation contained in the endless devotional practice of the "mantra" (one or more words repeated infinitely) – a practice of the great Christian fathers of the Egyptian desert (III century AD) (cf. Luciana Mortari, "Sayings and Deeds of the Desert Fathers," Ed. Città Nuova). This suite is one of the greatest summas of music: Gregorian chant (with Yun's moving and celestial vocalizations), Indian folk, classical music (with well-studied piano notes serving as a sonic backdrop) and great use of the electric guitar with psychedelic effects forever entrusted to posterity wishing to find inspiration in this suite to continue this wise fusion of sacred, classical, and profane. Cruelly said, we are still waiting for another "Hosianna Mantra."
Surprising album but also surprising cover with a smile expressing satisfaction.After forty minutes the effect is that of a prayer: peace in the spirit. "Hosianna Mantra" is exactly that: music to pacify the soul.
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Other reviews
By DanteCruciani
The entire work should be considered: a celebration of the soul, of joy, and of light that makes the mind vibrate, floating in the most absolute stasis and calm...
More than the individual songs, the entire work should be considered: a celebration of the soul, of joy, and of light.
By insolito
Hosianna enchants you, devours you inside, like a thousand arches of fire.
It’s our fear of living. It’s the fear of masturbating while listening to the sweet notes produced by drugged and cultured musicians like no one before.
By Neu!_Cannas
I just have to hit play and hope to find once again those angels whispering Hosianna Mantra in my ear.
A Sunday in the spirit of relaxation... you find yourself before a celestial vision. A pure waterfall, tall, paradisiacal.
By Rocky Marciano
Florian Fricke raises a sound wave that nullifies the distance between earth and sky, his celestial sound hovers among the runes, a magniloquent and glorious song of Hecate...
Ecstasy and wonder, suggestion and solemnity, a cascade of pure light like spring water, crystalline and dazzling.
By caesar666
"Hosianna Mantra was a mystical hymn imbued with cosmic purity that marvelously united Christian and Eastern religiosity."
"It is impossible to remain indifferent if you manage to enter into the pan-cultural mysticism of this record."
