Florian Fricke’s Mystical Genius

In Germany circa 1969, the new generation was radically changing German music away from the bland pop Schlager songs of the past towards a psychedelic rock partially influenced by the American and British counterculture, especially Pink Floyd’s first two records Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Saucerful of Secrets. Conrad Schnitzler (a musique concrete sound designer) and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (who co-founded the band Cluster with Dieter Moebius) opened the Zodiak Free Arts Club in Berlin at the end of 1968. The building was a meeting zone to address political and social causes of the student movement, a theater, and a live music venue, in that order. The meetings would take place in the afternoons, plays would happen in the evenings, and during late nights in 1969, bands such as guitarist Lutz “Luul” Graf-Ulbrich’s Agitation Free, guitarist Manuel Gottsching’s Ash Ra Tempel, and guitarist Edgar Froese’s Tangerine Dream would perform.

In Cologne, bassist Holger Czukay (a music teacher) and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, who were both students of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s, created the band Can with a focus on free jazz (drummer Jaki Liebezeit was a jazz drummer) and minimalism. Further south in Munich, the commune Amon Duul split apart, as guitarist and violinist Chris Karrer wanted to create a band, which became Amon Düül II. The psychedelic rock of Agitation Free, Amon Düül II, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, and Tangerine Dream was much trippier than their American and British counterparts (especially Amon Düül II’s 1970 album Yeti), as it did not spotlight traditional verses and vocals, but instead focused on extended, experimental, improvisational instrumentals.

Florian Fricke was a member of this new generation. He was born on February 23, 1944 in Germany and studied classical piano as a child. As a teenager and young adult, he attended conservatories in Freiburg. While the bands in Berlin and Munich played loud psychedelic rock music, Florian Fricke was fascinated with exotic cultures, the Moog synthesizer, and world music so he founded the group Popol Vuh (named after the ancient Mayan text) and created quiet, spacey soundscapes with himself on the Moog synthesizer and percussionist Holger Trulzsch on bongos and congas in their 1970 debut Affenstunde (“ape time” or “hour of the monkey”), the evolution of humanity.

At the age of only 27- Florian Fricke and Holger Trulzsch (once again joined by Frank Fiedler at the mixing desk console), recorded the even more otherworldly In Den Gärten Pharaos (“In Pharaoh’s Gardens”), released in 1971. Fricke had focused on humanity’s primordial origins in Popol Vuh’s debut and now he planned to express humanity’s spirituality. In Den Gärten Pharaos is the most mindblowing mystical experience. Two side length tracks into the inner sanctum. The first track is an esoteric mystery cult initiation into the shamanic secrets of the cradles of civilization, floating down an endless river with African and Turkish percussion and the crystalline and serene sounds of a Fender Rhodes. The second track is the most powerful recording of all time: deafening cymbals and church organ echo off of the vaults of the cosmic cathedral. Awe-inspiring.

By 1972, Edgar Froese had decided he wanted to move away from rock music towards space music. He took the first steps in 1971 with Alpha Centauri. He was clearly influenced and intrigued by Florian Fricke’s electronic music so he asked Florian Fricke to contribute Moog to the opening track “Birth of Liquid Plejades” on Tangerine Dream’s Zeit. The following year, in 1973, Tangerine Dream recorded their weirdest and wildest album, Atem, which was inspired by Affenstunde and In Den Garten Pharaos, and also charted the evolution of humanity. While Edgar Froese was more cerebral and had the mind of a scientist, Florian Fricke was more emotional and had the heart and soul of a mystic. He had discovered all he felt he could discover through electronic music and chose to sell his Moog to Klaus Schulze. He decided to create an acoustic album.

At the age of only 28, in 1972, Fricke returned to his roots as a classical pianist and gathered Korean soprano Djong Yun on vocals, Conny Veit on guitar, Robert Eliscu on oboe, Klaus Wiese on tamboura, and Fritz Sonnleitner on violin to record one of the most deeply healing and spiritual albums of all time: Hosianna Mantra. The sessions were contemplative and reflective. Djong Yun’s singing of sacred texts is hauntingly beautiful and is surrounded by her bandmates’ meditative trances. There is a video online featuring footage of the group recording the song “Kyrie” and the collective ecstasy of Florian Fricke and his friends floods the screen.

In his 30s, from 1974 – 1979, Florian Fricke reinvented his sound again, as he was constantly searching and seeking for different ways to express his mysticism. Florian Fricke (on piano) joined with Daniel Fichelscher (on 12 string acoustic and electric guitar) in May 1974 to record the dazzling, golden gems of Einsjager und Siebenjager, a perfect album for bright mornings, road trips, and the spring season. Djong Yun sang ethereal vocals on the epic, transcendent, and uplifting title track. In 1976, she was joined by Renate Knaup (of Amon Duul II), as the band recorded an album that was equally their most pastoral and most hard rocking, Letzte Tage – Letzte Nachte (“Last Days – Last Nights”). Florian Fricke also recorded three of the most incredible soundtracks of the 1970s for director Werner Herzog–Aguirre, Herz aus Glas (“Heart of Glass”), and Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (“Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night”).

Florian Fricke continued to record music throughout the 1980s and 1990s and traveled across the globe to the world’s most sacred sites. He died in his 50s of cancer, on December 29, 2001, which was considered a sad tragedy and his loss was mourned by the German music community.

The music of Agitation Free, Amon Duul II, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Neu!, and Tangerine Dream is still special today. Yet…the music of Florian Fricke is perhaps the most special of all German artists of the 20th century.

by Mark Lager