Herz Aus Glas / Cœur De Verre

Herz Aus Glas / Cœur De Verre is notionally another Werner Herzog soundtrack, though very little of the music contained on the album actually appears in the film – indeed, much of the soundtrack to Herzog’s film is drawn from this album’s predecessor Letzte Tage – Letzte Nächte. That does nothing to diminish the power of Herz Aus Glas, perhaps Popol Vuh’s finest hour, and certainly the most potent from their ‘raga rock’ phase, where guitarist Daniel Fichelscher grabbed tight the reins of Florian Fricke’s song. It’s a majestic music, for sure, but one of great subtlety too, particularly in the way Fichelscher tills away at the melodies, extracting great nuance from the subtle flick of a wrist in his playing, but also pealing out those tumbling, cycling phrases that are the bedrock of so much Popol Vuh. Indeed, the music beautifully reflects the hypnotic-visionary tenor of Herzog’s film, full of rosy red claustrophobia, even if much of it’s not on the soundtrack.