Florian Fricke
| Florian Fricke | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 February 1944 |
| Died | 29 December 2001 (aged 57) |
| Genres | Krautrock, electronic music, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, art rock, new-age, ambient, neo-classical, world |
| Instruments | Piano, synthesizer |
| Labels | Liberty, Pilz, Kosmische Musik, UA, PDU, Milan, Spalax, OHR, Brain Records |
| Associated acts | Popol Vuh, Gila, Tangerine Dream |
Florian Fricke (23 February 1944 in Lindau am Bodensee, Germany – 29 December 2001 in Munich) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music using the Moog synthesizer within the Krautrock group Popol Vuh. His music and that of the band however soon evolved in a completely different direction, and he almost completely abandoned synthesizers in favor of the acoustic piano.
Fricke started playing piano as a child. He studied piano, composition and directing at the Conservatories in Freiburg and Munich. It was in Munich that, at 18, he dedicated himself to new kinds of music like free jazz. He also filmed some short amateur films. (He would later become a movie and music critic for the German magazine Der Spiegel and the Swiss paper Neue Zürcher Zeitung). It was also in Munich that he met Gerhard Augustin, who for many years would be his producer.
In 1967 he met German film director Werner Herzog and played a role in his first movie Lebenszeichen (1968). Fricke was later responsible for the soundtracks of several of Herzog's movies, among them Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (with Klaus Kinski and Bruno Ganz), Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Heart of Glass. Fricke also made a cameo appearance in Herzog's Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974).
Fricke was one of the first musicians to own and use a Moog III synthesizer, with which he recorded Popol Vuh's first two albums "Affenstunde" and "In den Gärten Pharaos". His recordings with the instruments left an indelible mark on German electronic music. However, he later significantly gave his Moog to fellow German musician Klaus Schulze and renounced electronic music.
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