Spirit Of Peace

1985’s Spirit Of Peace draws together much of what Popol Vuh and Florian Fricke had been exploring over the previous half-decade. “We Know About The Need” opens the album with the kind of slow-moving, guttural chanting that Fricke explored on his recent solo album, Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins — he’d also mine that material more directly, revisiting “Song Of Earth.” “Spirit Of Peace” itself is a reflective, stately piano instrumental, Fricke meandering across the keys as though he’s exploring slowly blossoming thought. (Later editions of the album add another two parts of “Spirit Of Peace” — they’re well worth hearing.) “Take The Tension High” swallows the entirety of side two, and it’s Popol Vuh at their most exultant — the voices of Fricke and Renate Knaup sing out an ever-circling mantra as a complex web of multi-tracked guitars weaves riveting patterns underneath, long-time Popol Vuh members Daniel Fichelscher and Conny Veit joined by guest Bernd Wippich.