On The Way To A Little Way (Soundtracks From ‘Nosferatu’)

Another Popol Vuh album that draws from Florian Fricke’s soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake of Murnau’s Nosferatu. For this set, Fricke and Herzog reach back to some of the earliest Popol Vuh material — Fricke dug out some formative, spooked electronics, which he had dubbed ‘angst music’, and their presence, on tracks like “Die Nacht Der Himmel”, certainly gifts the album a foreboding tenor. Most everything here is taken at a glacial pace — see the trudging phrase that spools out of “Mantra II – Choir”, where voices and guitar plot a spooked melody while Ted De Jong’s tamboura purrs and drones underneath. If Popol Vuh’s albums can sometimes feel a little interchangeable, a collection like On The Way To A Little Way is a timely reminder that Fricke’s vision was far more malleable and wide-reaching than he’s often given credit for.