- Florian Fricke
Florian Fricke (February 23, 1944 in
Lindau am Bodensee, Germany – December 29, 2001 inMunich ) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music within theKrautrock group Popol Vuh, although his music soon evolved in a very different direction.Florian Fricke started playing piano as a child. He studied piano, composition and directing at the Conservatories in
Freiburg andMunich . At 18 he filmed some short amateur films. He later became a movie and music critic for the German magazineDer Spiegel and the Swiss paperNeue Zürcher Zeitung . In 1967 he met German film directorWerner Herzog and played a role in his first movie "Lebenszeichen". Fricke was later responsible for the soundtracks of several of Herzog's movies, among them (withKlaus Kinski andBruno Ganz ),Aguirre, the Wrath of God andHeart of Glass .Fricke 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 " and "In den Gärten Pharaos ". His recordings with the instruments left an indelible mark on Germanelectronic music . However, he later significantly gave his Moog to fellow German musicianKlaus Schulze .In 1970, together with Holger Truelsch and Frank Fiedler, he founded the group Popol Vuh. The name is taken from a Mayan manuscript (see "
Popol Vuh "). The German group should not be confused with the homonymous rock band from Norway (see: "Popol Vuh (Norwegian band) "). Fricke was the leader of the group until his death, always together with guitarist and drummerDaniel Fichelscher . Fricke also recorded an album ofMozart compositions.Besides working on his own music, Fricke collaborated with many German musicians. In 1972 he played in the
Tangerine Dream 'sZeit double album and collaborated with Renate Knaup ofAmon Düül II . Together with Fichelscher, from 1973 to 1974 he was a member of former Popol Vuh guitarist Connie Veit's bandGila . In the 1990 he organized audio/video installations, among them "Messa di Orfeo" in the Italian city of Molfetta. In 1992 he recorded an album ofMozart compositions.Beginning in the '70, Fricke dedicated himself to
musicotherapy . He also developed an original form of therapy called the "Alphabet of the Body".Together with former Popol Vuh member
Frank Fiedler , who was a competent cameraman, Fricke produced a series of films of spiritual inspiration set in the Sinai desert, Israel, Lebanon, Mesopotamia, Morocco, Afghanistan, Tibet and Nepal. Fricke died of astroke in Munich in 2001, at the age of 57.In October 2003
Klaus Schulze wrote::"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, whichWerner Herzog loves so much, transforming the thought patterns of electronic music into the language of acoustic ethno music." [Klaus Schulze, Oldau, October 7, 2003: Booklet to CD re-issue of "Hosianna Mantra", SPV recordings, 2004]Florian Fricke solo albums
*"Die Erde und ich sind Eins" (1983) - limited private pressing
*"Florian Fricke Plays Mozart" (1992) - featuring Fricke on piano playing Mozart compositionsFor his albums with Popol Vuh, see Popol Vuh.
References
This article is, with a few minor omissions and additions, a translation of the article [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Fricke Florian Fricke] of German Wikipedia retrieved on March 25, 2008.
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