Popul Vuh's career was inextricably tied to that of genius filmmaker Werner Herzog, one of the brightest lights of Junger Deutscher Film, a concurrent cinematic movement whose designs on building a new German culture mirrored that of the krautrockers. Florian Fricke's project was perfectly suited to the realm of cinematic score because, unlike many of their rhythm-driven peers, they made eerie, floating, shape-shifting mood music. Mixing synth drones with North African percussion, Fricke created environmental paeans that liberated spiritualism from its liturgical past, celebrating a glorious, hippy-ish pantheism. In Den Gärten Pharaos is split into two lengthy, loving workouts, in which the Popol Vuh sound is almost born before your eyes.