POPOL VUH ft. JAMES K, LORENZO SENNI, ML BUCH - The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner POPOL VUH ft. JAMES K, LORENZO SENNI, ML BUCH

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner Composed for Werner Herzog's documentary The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), this previously unreleased score by the German musical collective Popol Vuh accompanies the extraordinary flights of Swiss ski flyer and woodcarver Walter Steiner.

Founded by Florian Fricke in Munich in 1969, Popol Vuh are considered one of the most influential German avant-garde groups to emerge from the progressive rock movement of the 1970s. After pioneering the use of the Moog synthesizer on their earliest recordings, the group gradually moved towards a more acoustic and spiritual sound, drawing on piano, guitars, percussion, and musical traditions from India, Africa, and South America. Fricke resisted labels such as "krautrock" and "new age," preferring terms like "magic music" or "cosmic space rock" when a description was needed.

To accompany this release, three contemporary artists — James K, ML Buch, and Lorenzo Senni — revisit Popol Vuh's original soundtrack. Their reinterpretations create a dialogue across five decades, revealing the enduring resonance of Popol Vuh's music and its remarkable capacity to continue evoking wonder, contemplation, and transcendence.

Beginning with Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Werner Herzog and Florian Fricke developed one of cinema's most distinctive artistic collaborations. Across more than a decade of films — including Heart of Glass, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde — Popol Vuh's scores became an essential part of Herzog's cinematic language, shaping the immersive atmosphere and emotional intensity that define his films.