The Mystery

I don't know a damn thing about this except that it is splendid, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

And that something very similar was used in Herzog's The White Diamond for the swallows-swirling-around-the-waterfall scene.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/yjnyywzmtmm/VA- Corsica-Sardinia- The Mystery of Polyphony.zip

Drowned in Ecstatic Truth

Anyone who knows me at all, and even a few who don't, probably know I'm bit of Werner Herzog nut. The first movie I saw was Aguirre the Wrath of God. I watched it, but not very carefully, but somehow it seeped its magic into my brain and by the very end I realized that I had something amounting to a minor epiphany. I have since watched and re-watched almost all his movies. One of the keys to the magic of his movies is no-doubt his use of music. Herzog modestly admits that there's no one else making movies today who comes close to using music as successfully as he does, with the possible exception of the Taviani Brothers. The music in most of his early films was done by Florian Fricke, better known as Popol Vuh. Ero already posted a Popol Vuh album. The music to Aguirre the Wrath of God was intended to be neither human nor inhuman. Very beautiful use of a mellotron, and echoey guitars--what better to accompany the story of a doomed troupe of German-speaking conquistadors on the Amazon?

Anyhow, I don't have a copy of the soundtrack to Aguirre the Wrath of God. More distressing, most all of the music from Herzog's films are unavailable in any form--except those tracks he pulled from recordings already released.

Even though it must be said that Herzog's newer efforts are not quite as revelatory as his work from the 70s, the music is still amazing. He puts a lot of effort into recording the music. The best score of his recent work is undoubtably from The Wild Blue Yonder--a poetic science fiction pseudo-documentary that completes the trilogy of Fata Morgana and Lessons of Darkness. The good news is that the music for The Wild Blue Yonder is available! Here is the webpage with details and samples. Herzog used the Sardinian chorus (music that Ero will probably post eventually) mixed in with some brilliant musicians...well I'll let the website speak for itself:

This musical vision led to an extraordinary recording session in Paris in July 2004. Herzog and his production team were joined by Dutch composer and jazz cellist, Ernst Reijseger; Senegalese solo singer, Mola Sylla, and a five-man Sardinian shepherd choir , the Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei with assorted local instruments. An initially unlikely assemblage became, with Herzog’s vision, a powerful and unique work. Uniting this with vintage recordings from Handel’s opera Xerxes, Herzog has produced a 13-track original score that transforms the film into his most intense, innovative creation yet.

If you aren't slobbering with excitement by now, you're at the wrong URL. (Although if you repeat "URL" aloud over and over enough your saliva glands will start churning spillage.)

Confusingly, the soundtrack (or OST as they say around here) is entitled "Requiem for a Dying Planet." Also, you should check out the documentary that comes with Grizzly Man, about the making of the music in that film. Staring Jim O'Rourke, Henry Kaiser, and Richard Thompson and others. Henry Kaiser also took the underwater antarctic footage from The Wild Blue Yonder and the Academy Award Nominated Encounters at the End of the World. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/requiem for a dying planet part 1

http://www.mediafire.com/requiem for a dying planet part 2

Sing, for Song Drives Away Wolves

Cosmic teutonic folk music, super-heavy bliss and beauty.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jxbyjgmzznz/Popol Vuh- Coeur de Verre.zip