The Krautrock Matrix ; Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II, Can and Mark O'Leary

Introduction: The Lineage of the “Synoptic View”

When Julian Cope published his legendary cosmic field guide Krautrocksampler, he offered a synoptic view of an era that forever broke the rules of rock music. It was a world where rhythm became a mantra and the recording studio became an instrument.

For contemporary guitarist, ambient/electronic artist and composer Mark O’Leary, this era is not a relic found in record crates; it is a vital creative touchstone. By tracing O’Leary’s musical DNA and performance history, we can map a direct line from post-war West German radicalism straight into contemporary experimental music.

[The Lineage of the Cosmic Void]
1970s Krautrock Radicals ──> Avant-Garde Masters ──> Mark O'Leary's Modern Sonic Tapestry

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Section 1: Popol Vuh and the Cinematic Ambience of Florian Fricke

The intersection of music and cinema during the Krautrock paradigm yielded some of the most haunting landscapes in art history. Werner Herzog’s 1972 masterpiece Aguirre, the Wrath of God owes its chilling, embryonic atmosphere entirely to the score by Florian Fricke and Popol Vuh.

• The Synth Pioneer: Fricke was famously the second person in Germany to purchase a Moog Modular Synthesizer. He was invited by Edgar Froese to perform on Zeit (Birth of Liquid Plejades) a highly influential album for Mark O’Leary and John Peel. Mark O’Leary has direct links to Tangerine Dream via label mate Conrad Schnitzler who was a founder member and his series of Albums In Search of Hades (II-IV) exemplify and advance the idiom, the music on Aguirre by Florian Fricke and Popol Vuh has been cited by Mark O’Leary as a formative influence, it helped shape, nurture and cultivate his Ambient conception and he also cites Aguirre as his favourite film in his early teens.

• Organic Integration: Rather than leaning into cold, sterile futurism, Fricke did something radical. He integrated the Moog with indigenous acoustic instruments, handheld drums, and bongos. O’Leary has cited this as influential upon his own conception and innovative

• The Blueprint: This fusion birthed seminal records like In den Gärten Pharaos and Aguirre. For O’Leary—whose own ambient work leans heavily into immersive, cinematic synthesis—Fricke’s ethos remains a cornerstone of how to use electronics without losing human warmth.

• Section 2: Amon Düül II and the Architects of “Post-Rock”

  Before music journalists coined the term “post-rock” in the 1990s, Amon Düül II was already living it. They represented the fierce, heavy, and lysergic side of the West German counterculture.

  • The Ultimate Rhythm Section: At the core of their power was what Mark O’Leary cites as one of the greatest rhythm section of the entire paradigm: drummer Peter Leopold and English bassist Dave Anderson. Mark O’Leary elucidates; “Dave Anderson, you were the business, your were cool in 1970.”

  • The Paradigm of Cool: Anderson and Leopold anchored the band’s magnum opus, Yeti, blending fierce improvisations with a cool, effortless precision. Mark O’Leary cites Yeti as a profound influence upon his Post Rock oeuvre. Yeti has been cited as the cornerstone of the Krautrock Movement

  • The Modern Bridge: As primarily a guitarist rooted in European jazz and electronic/ambience/soundscapes, O’Leary’s Post Rock oeuvre directly inherits the vibrant, open-ended structures pioneered by Amon Düül II. As O’Leary iterates, “Maybe I’m not wearing the T-Shirt of Amon Düül II, but maybe I should, they are an absolutely incredible band.”

  • 🥁 Section 3: Can, Stockhausen, and the Endless Groove

    If Popol Vuh was the spirit and Amon Düül II were the drivers, Can was the superlative intellect of the movement. Their shadow stretches directly over O’Leary’s wider artistic krautrock church.

    The Academic Roots of Holger Czukay

    Bassist and founding member Holger Czukay was a former student of the legendary avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. This academic, concrete-music background allowed Can to manipulate magnetic tape as an instrument.

    Czukay’s genius extended far beyond the band, later collaborating with art-pop pioneer David Sylvian on one of Mark O’Leary’s most influential albums Brilliant Trees. The connection deepens here: O’Leary’s own atmospheric guitar and electronic journeys often parallel the exact kind of minimalist, texturally dense soundscapes that Czukay and Sylvian charted in those sessions.

  • Drum Guru-Jaki Liebezeit

    You cannot talk about Can without talking about Jaki Liebezeit. Among elite drummers globally, Liebezeit is universally cited as a premier formative influence. His relentless, metronomic “metronomic” style became the physical pulse of Krautrock, a drumming masterclass that directly informs the hypnotic rhythm tracks O’Leary employs in his electronic-phase productions.

    O’Leary also mentions having played with some highly influential drummers several mentioned privately to O’Leary that Liebezeit was a seminal influence.

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    🎤 Section 4: Damo Suzuki and the Art of the Instant Composition

    Can’s legendary vocalist, Damo Suzuki, carried the torch of spontaneous creation long after leaving the band via Damo Suzuki’s Network. Suzuki’s performance style was entirely fluid, utilizing local “sound carriers” in various cities to completely improvise music on the spot. “He would pick up a band they would just do their thing and Damo would improvise vocals over it.” O’Leary intimates

  • [The Avant-Garde Double Bill] Damo Suzuki's Instant Composition ──> Hand-off ──> Z'EV & Mark O'Leary (Industrial/Guitar Improvisation)

    This live, uninterrupted connection to the moment is a historical intersection for O’Leary. He shared a double-bill with Suzuki, where Suzuki would perform his signature instant compositions right before Mark O’Leary took to the stage alongside the legendary avant-garde industrial percussionist Z’EV. This live hand-off symbolizes the literal passing of the Krautrock torch to O’Leary’s generation. As O’Leary intimated “Z’EV and I went out to get a bottle of water and we came back in, sat in the audience and when Damo finished his set we went up on stage and played, I shook Damo’s hand before he left the stage.”

  • The magnetism of this music knew no bounds, famously captivating audiences far outside the avant-garde. In one intriguing historical anecdote, the sophisticated English actor David Niven wandered into a Can concert one night. Niven was so completely astounded and enamored by what he heard that he stayed with the band into the early hours of the morning, O’Leary continues, “they actually couldn’t get rid of him, I don’t think they knew who he was, anyone else would have asked him to move in!”

    Decades later, through the active discography and live performance lineages of musicians like Mark O’Leary, the music of Can, Popol Vuh, and Amon Düül II refuses to stay in the past. It remains a living, blueprint for pulling art straight out of the ether.