Customer Reviews
Interesting yet Incomplete Soundtrack - By: D. Evans, 20 Aug 2008 
This is Florian Fricke's classic soundtrack to the 1972 Herzog/Kinski film, Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Well, part of it anyway.
The haunting main theme, the one that plays as the conquistadors first descend from the Andean mountains at the beginning of the film is played out here; as is the pan pipe song played by the Native American slave.
Sadly, other pieces of music from the film, such as the the song that plays when Aguirre & Pizarro stare out at the mud filled river at the beginning of the film are not included. This is very puzzling considering the main theme is included twice, as Aguirre I (L'acrime di rei) & Aguirre II, with basicallly no difference between them except for a guitar ditty that kicks in at around three minutes into the second song.
The soundtrack also includes the songs 'Morgengruss II' a short guitar piece that does not appear in the film, & Agnus Dei, a piano, drum, flute & guitar piece that begins as an old Renaissance type folk song that flows into an electric guitar riff. By far the longest lasting track is Vergegenwartigung, which lasts for nearly seventeen minutes. This song is basicallly a long new age track that consists of industrial noises & flying saucer type sound FXs. This is the only poor track on the CD, as it's basicallly not even a song, but more of a collection of sounds.
The soundtrack finishes with a song callled Aguirre III, which is the film's main theme played out with some tribal drums in the background. It's very similar to the song that plays when the conquistadors attempt to push the cannon through the rainforest.
The CD comes with a short booklet which includes photographs from Herzog films such as Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo & Heart of Glass; as well as an interview with Florian Fricke & a discography of Popul Vuh tracks. The writing is in both German & English.
Overalll I found this a good if slightly disappointing soundtrack. It could have included a better selection of songs from the film, & it could've also been better if it was longer. The entire soundtrack lasts less than three quarters of an hour, & a large part of the CD's length is taken up with industrial noises. I was also disappointed in how the main theme was played out over three times, which leads to a lot of repetition. That said, if you are a fan of the film's music you will enjoy some of the wonderful other worldly songs. Just don't expect a complete soundtrack.
Fantastiche! - By: Johnnybluetime, 05 Nov 2007 
I am of the opinion that Aguirre;Wrath Of God is one of the greatest films ever made & it is helped in this no end by Popol Vuh's fantastic & memorable soundtrack.The opener,Aguirre 1,is hypnotic in its simple beauty,once heard,never forgotten. When I first started using Amazon this was one of the first cds I bought,even though it was only on import & I had to wait 6 weeks for it to be delivered.Thankfully,you won't have to,nor will you have to pay as much as I did for it,so there's reallly no excuse for not buying it.The cd also contains 5 other tracks from around that period and,although they are very good,they cannot quite match the power & beauty of the tracks that make up the soundtrack to Aguirre,which,although they only add up to 15 minutes are worth every penny.If you love the film you reallly do need this cd.Highly recommended.
