Popol Vuh - Einsjäger & Siebenjäger. 1974 Germany

After a few albums of pure electronic music followed by tranquil acoustic forms, Popol Vuh changed directions again and decided to add a rock component mostly missing prior to this. It's just as much about former Amon Duul II (and Sameti) guitarist and drummer Daniel Fichelscher as it is about Florian Fricke at this point. Einsjager & Siebenjager is made up of long spacious and rambling instrumental pieces that feature electric guitar, piano, crashing drums, with sparse wordless female voice and flute. That voice belongs to Djong Yun, who would become more prominent on their next couple of albums. Popol Vuh have discovered a unique sound here, one that solely belongs to them, even to this day. Genre tags are difficult, and this is where the all encompassing Krautrock name comes in handy. It's proto new age, but no one would recognize the sound at such an early stage.

Ownership: LP: 1974 PDU (Italy); LP: 1982 Pop Import. Both LP's come in a single sleeve with a striking day-glo yellow and orange cover. I first bought the Pop Import copy new at The Record Gallery in Dallas in 1987, as part of my initial discovery of the Kosmische scene. Today it sits high on my wall of albums due to the beauty of the cover. The play copy is the PDU original (in better shape than Discogs' photo apparently), that I acquired online in 2020, and which I heard for the first time last night. There's some debate on Discogs about the original pressings. The date stamper of the PDU version is mid December 1974. So it would be highly unlikely for it to be issued in 1974, but rather 1975. However the copyright date of 1974 is clear. The German original is dated 1975. It has been suggested that yes, the Italian version is in fact the original release in this case.

1987; 1/20/22 (new entry)