oh, and more about world music too...

Like a 70's German Sun City Girls, Embryo jammed around the world in a van to dig the unheard in the west world music vibes and get down w/ them. Adding and learning and collaborating w/em on the way.



and so also was birthed a documentary, that from which all three of these clips come. It's called Vagabunden Karawane and it was directed by Werner Penzel (of who I had never heard of before but looks interesting.) There can be more said about Western musicians going to the non-West and doing their thing and how that communication/appropriation/exploitation/cooperation works, but for now I'll say that these three clips look pretty cool.




Not Embryo, but also interesting. maybe latter i'll talk about kraftwerk -> neu -> la dusseldorf/harmonia <- cluster

I've been casually thinking about New Age music lately?

Oh Really? Yeah. How many name-dropped krautrockers went on to new age-y careers? Popol Vuh? Ash Ra Tempel? & new to me (as above) - Deuter?



What does that have to do w/ Vangelis? I'm not sure, but I love this video. For a video for a song from a movie about athletics, Vangelis is chilling w/ a grand piano - Smoking & Drinking & looking generally unfit. He can barely take a break from smoking his cigarrete to play his pap.

First pass similarities? Ala krauters, and others), Vangelis is a post-prog rocker (via Aphrodite's Child) turned new age mystic musician.



And maybe in the end new age music isn't All Bad? At least the visuals are sometimes good. Is it not possible (a la some fusion (though I've never bought into it re:fusion) or even I don't know, some Mainstream Pop) that the Sound result is divergent from the Sound agenda?

In the end, also, what is Popol Vuh, if not, essentially, and actually, equivalent to Vangelis? Or if Can is not, essentially, and even actually, equivalent to King Crimson? (in many ways if not clearly NOT ALL) Tangerine Dream and whatever?

Does this diminish Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, Cluster? or lift up (unknown to me) new agey 70's musics?

(don't even get me started on the Ash Ra -> techno -> futuristic mysticism apparent in many dance musics lineage. or is this what punk/rock is totally reacting too? overt & also implicit mysticism w/r/t music? misplaced mysticism either outside or inside aspects of music making/listening?)