Florian Fricke

Florian Fricke (1944–2001) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer, and was a founding member of the German rock group Popol Vuh.

Florian Fricke
Fricke (centre) in the studio with Popol Vuh, ca. early 1970s
Background information
Born(1944-02-23)23 February 1944
Lindau am Bodensee, Germany
Died29 December 2001(2001-12-29) (aged 57)
Munich, Germany
GenresRock; electronic music; progressive rock; psychedelic rock; art rockambient; neo-classical music; world music
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Piano; synthesizer; keyboards
LabelsLiberty; Pilz, Kosmische Musik; United Artists; PDU; Milan Records; Spalax; Ohr; Brain

Early life

Born on 23 February 1944, to an affluent Bavarian family,[1][2]: 187  on the Lindau island of Lake Constance, Germany, situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet, Fricke started playing the piano as a child. He studied piano, composition, and conducting at Conservatories in Freiburg and Munich.

While in Munich, at 18, he began exploring avant-garde music such as free jazz.[3] At around that age, he also shot a few short films.

Career

Werner Herzog films and soundtracks

In the early 1960s, Fricke befriended future film director Werner Herzog. In the 5th issue of David Elliott's fanzine Neumusik, in 1981,[4] Garry Scott related that the two young men "shared similar ideas and beliefs" and "dreamed of changing the world."

Fricke appeared in the small part of an unnamed pianist in the 1968 movie Signs of Life, Herzog's first, which was shot in Greece. Fricke subsequently edited the soundtracks of several Herzog's movies, among which were Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night, starring Klaus Kinski and Bruno Ganz, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and Heart of Glass.[5] In Herzog's 1974 film The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fricke made a cameo appearance as a blind pianist named "Florian."

Popol Vuh
Main article: Popol Vuh (German band)

One day, in the 1960s, while in the Munich University's library, Fricke and Herzog came across a religious book of the Maya, titled Popol Vuh.[6] In 1969, Fricke co-founded the eponymous band along with sound designer Frank Fiedler and percussionist Holger Trülzsch. He was one of the first musicians to own and use a Moog III synthesizer, with which he recorded Popol Vuh's first two albums Affenstunde ("Hour of the Monkey") and In den Gärten Pharaos ("In Pharaohs' Gardens").

Fricke is considered a "pioneer of electronic music."[3] Critic Mark Lager found the LP In den Gärten Pharaos "otherwordly" and "the most mind-blowing mystical experience."[7] In 1972, Tangerine Dream’s founder Edgar Froese, "intrigued by Florian Fricke’s music," invited him to play in the opening track “Birth of Liquid Plejades” of the band's LP Zeit ("Time").[3]

Although initially in his musical career, Fricke had accepted the moniker of kosmische Musik that had been applied by critics and fellow artists to his mostly instrumental compositions, since he regarded his music as being "fundamentally" far from the "space sounds" produced at the time, he came to entirely reject the term as soon as by the early 1970s. He declared that the "beautiful and honest way" for composers would be to free their minds without the use of technology.[2]: 194  Around the same time, he repudiated the use of the Moog synthesizer and, in 1973, he sold his Moog to electronic-music pioneer, composer, and musician Klaus Schulze. From then on, he concentrated mainly though not exclusively on acoustic music.[7]

The same year, he performed for the final time in a Popol Vuh LP, titled Seligpreisung ("Beatitudes"), their 4th, composing all tracks and playing an ecclesiastic organ, with the music recorded inside a church by Dieter Dierks' Mobile Studio and mixed in Cologne.[8]

Solo work and collaborations

Fricke was a Marxist in his youth.[2]: 188  In later years, he moved beyond Marxism and saw himself as a representative of an "anti-capitalist, universalist, and anti-consumerist variant of Christianity." He wanted to combine a non-denominational form of the Christian religion with Hindu terminology, though he never laid claims to some "inner wisdom."[2]: 195  In the years 1973-74, Fricke, together with guitarist Danny Fichelscher, was a member of former Popol Vuh guitarist Conny Veit's band Gila.[8]

In 1992, he recorded an album of Mozart compositions.

Film work

In 1970, Fricke worked as a film critic for Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel.[2]: 190 

Together with former Popol Vuh member Frank Fiedler, a competent cameraman, Fricke shot a series of films of "spiritual inspiration" in the Sinai desert, and also in Israel, Lebanon, Mesopotamia, Morocco, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Nepal. [9]

Personal life

Beginning in the 1970s, Fricke started working on musicotherapy. He claimed to have developed an original form of therapy he called the "Alphabet of the Body."[10]

Death

Fricke died of a stroke in Munich in 2001, at the age of 57.

Legacy

In October 2003, electronic-music pioneer Klaus Schulze wrote in the booklet in the soon-to be-re-released Hosianna Mantra LP the following:

Florian was and remains an important forerunner of contemporary ethnic and religious music. He chose electronic music and his big Moog to free himself from the restraints of traditional music, but soon discovered that he didn't get a lot out of it and opted for the acoustic path instead. Here, he went on to create a new world, which Werner Herzog loves so much, transforming the thought patterns of electronic music into the language of acoustic ethnomusic.

Between 2004 and 2006, the German SPV record label re-released almost all Popol Vuh albums, along with bonus tracks, including the early Moog Synthesizer records and the complete Werner Herzog soundtracks. The re-release was remastered and curated by Fricke's widow Bettina von Waldthausen and son Johannes.[11]

Albums

For Fricke's LPs with Popol Vuh, see Popol Vuh albums

  • Die Erde und ich sind Eins ("The Earth and I Are One"), limited, private pressing (1983)
  • Florian Fricke Plays Mozart, on the piano (1992)

References
  1. Iseppi, Ryan (17 April 2012). "Macht das Ohr auf" Krautrock and the West German Counterculture ["Open your ears" Krautrock and the West German Counterculture] (PDF) (B.A. cum laude thesis). University of Michigan. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  2. Seiler, Sascha (22 October 2022). "12. Popol Vuh". In Schütte, Uwe (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1316511077.
  3. Barry, Robert (23 February 2010). "The Great Ecstasy Of The Sculptor Popol Vuh: A Profile Of Florian Fricke". The Quietus. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  4. David Elliott, David (April 30, 2005). "Neumusik fanzine 1979-82". David Elliott's website. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  5. Joffee, Justin (10 May 2017). "Klaus and Effect: Werner Herzog on the Impact of Music on His Films". Observer. Observer Media. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  6. Scott, Gary (June 1981). "Florian Fricke". Neumusik. Popol Vuh website (5): 42–44. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  7. Lager, Mark (23 February 2021). "Florian Fricke's Mystical Genius". Vinyl Writers. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  8. Breznikar, Klemen (1 November 2014). "An interview with Danny Fichelscher, member of Popol Vuh, Gila, Amon Düül II and Niagara". Psychedelic Baby. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  9. Florian Fricke's Filmography
  10. "Interview mit Florian Fricke: Das Alphabet des Körpers Über Eine Arbeit mit dem Atem-ton" [Interview with Florian Fricke: The Alphabet of the Body via Breathing-Tone Work]. Popol Vuh website (in German). Arbeits und Forschungsgemeinschaft für Atempflege ("Working and Research Group for Respiratory Care"). 1995. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  11. Mulder, Dolf (2022). "Insert Wah Wah Re-releases : Popol Vuh". Popol Vuh website. Open Publishing. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
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