New official remastered vinyl editions of two landmark albums by Popol Vuh, 1971’s In Den Gärten Pharao and 1972’s Hosianna Mantra are due from Esoteric Recordings on 29th August.
Both have been meticulously remastered and cut at Abbey Road Studios, with each title presented in an exclusive, very limited edition pressing replicating the original album artwork.
Founded in 1969 by visionary composer and keyboardist Florian Fricke, Popol Vuh was a musical force whose influence extended far beyond the Krautrock genre. As one of the first German groups to use a Moog synthesiser, their early works such as Affenstunde (1970) and In den Gärten Pharaos (1971) anticipated the ambient music movement, blending electronic experimentation with meditative, worldbeat-inspired soundscapes.
The group’s second album, In Den Gärten Pharao fused the groundbreaking sounds of the Moog with ethnic percussion to create what’s described as “an album of stunning originality”. A pioneering work that continues to inspire generations of musicians, this limited edition will be on orange vinyl with purple splatter. Side One features ‘In den Gärten Pharaos’ and Side Two ‘Vuh’.
A radical departure from their earlier work, Hosianna Mantra saw Fricke abandon synthesisers in favour of acoustic textures. With contributions from Korean vocalist Djong Yun and guitarist Conny Veit, the album’s unique fusion of spiritual, classical, and ambient influences made it one of the most beautiful and revered records of the era. Side One features ‘Ah!’, ‘Kyrie’, ‘Hosianna – Mantra’ and Side Two features ‘Abschied’, ‘Segnung’, ‘Andacht’, ‘Nicht Hoch Im Himmel’, ‘Andacht I’.
