Vangelis
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I’ve not quite reached him in my collection walkthrough, but I decided to do a thread now nonetheless.
He’s my third favourite film composer of all time, although he’s obviously much more than that. Plenty to tell about my own Vangelis origins, favourites and so on, but wanted to hear from you lot first, what your connection to him is, if any.
My primary connection is via BLADE RUNNER I think. And I knew CHARIOTS OF FIRE long before I ever saw the movie (which I almost don’t remember much of). Back in the late 80s probably I got the compilation LP THEMES which introduced me to more of him and which i Love (at the time the only release of two BLADE RUNNER original tracks).
Of course there is CONQUEST OF PARDISE which is often too much limited to the over used and played “dumdum bullet” of main title. I was largely disapointed by the ALEXANDER score.
I remember that I saw a broadcast of MYTHODEA some years ago. I have only marginally expored his albums but figure already those are often more intersting and experimental. Can’t stand the Jon & Vangelis songs generally though.
1982 was a pivotal year for me. I decided that I wanted to become a movie director, and I bought my first film score LPs.
The first time I recognized Vangelis was indeed BLADE RUNNER; at the time I didn’t even know if that was the name of a “band” or a person. I got the LP from the “New American Orchestra”, read the book, and when I saw the movie, I noticed that the music in the movie was quite different from what was on the LP. I was so happy when BLADE RUNNER was finally released on CD, only to be disappointed that the actual “Main Title” from BLADE RUNNER, perhaps my all time favorite single track by Vangelis, was not on that album. Though it’s still great album and I loved the way Vangelis connected the tracks and even the dialog clips to a “concept album”.I then also got Vangelis’ LPs for CHARIOTS OF FIRE and SOIL FESTIVITIES… those were probably my first Vangelis albums.
I like and enjoy his music a lot (I never much explored the song albums with “Jon & Vangelis”). Very inventive composer, with a sound unique to him. Vangelis is of course first and foremost known as a synthesizer/electronic keyboard composer, but his music always had a very warm, organic sound to it. I think my first Vangelis CD was DIRECT, which I bought in 1990.I’ve always been terrible at remembering ‘firsts’, as it all flows together organically in my mind. When I did the 3-hour Vangelis podcast with a couple of colleagues 6 years ago (in Norwegian, so no value to you), I actually had to change my origin story midway. At first I thought it was BLADE RUNNER that got me into his work, but as it turned out, it wasn’t.
I was probably aware of the CHARIOTS OF FIRE theme as a child in the 80s, without knowing its origin.
But the story really begins in the late 80s, maybe the early 90s. I was with my family at our summer house in Denmark. I often hung out with the next door neighbor’s kid. He had a few cassettes in the series “Synthesizer’s Greatest Hits”. A great series of albums by the Dutch synth wizard Ed Starink, who managed to do cover versions very close to the originals while adding his own twist to things.
At this time, I was already into Jean Michel Jarre and electronic music, so I was always on the lookout for more recommendations within the idiom. I made a mixed tape from those albums, and one of tracks I selected was “Dervish D” by Vangelis – originally a blues-infused track from SPIRAL, but without a backbeat. Starink added that backbeat, which – to this day – I consider a superior version to Vangelis’ original.
And so Vangelis entered my radar. For years thereafter, he was sort of in the outer limits of my consciousness, even when “Conquest of Paradise” was played constantly on radio in the early 90s. I liked his music, but it was a bit too abstract and slow for my teenage impatience. Certainly too much to properly investigate.
But then in the mid 2000s, my taste changed into calmer, more ethereal landscapes. And so I delved into Vangelis. It reached its zenith in 2020, when I did the Vangelis podcast, but was then boosted even more when he died just 1.5 years later. So he’s now easily my third place, after Williams and Zimmer.
BLADE RUNNER remains enormously important to me. It was the subject of one of my analysis chapters (in my thesis). Still my favourite, bar none. But following that: L’APOCALYPSE DES ANIMAUX, OCEANIC, 1492 and VOICES. I’ve heard 90% of what he’s done, but as there is so much left that is unreleased, I have a lifetime of exploration still.
I can’t really remember when I heard him first, but probably those synthesizer collections for me too. I remember a friend of mine commenting it was “too much Vangelis” on one of those, LOL.
I also got THE CITY on vinyl quite early.
And so I’ve finally reached Vangelis in my walkthrough! Hooray! Will spend the next week or so with him, mostly.
Starting off with a 90-minute compilation of rarities, which sadly, doesn’t have the track names identified (except for the last track, a singles version of “Ask the Mountains”). And Shazam is of no use either.
Alright, I’ve played through the ‘Rarities’ album. I actually DID find a couple of the tracks on Shazam (two of them were queasy collaborations with Montserrat Caballé), but most of them remain unidentified. Then through the big prog rock album 666 (1972) by Aphrodite’s Child. It gets a bit noisy, but it’s the best of Vangelis’ early prog roots.
Now on to one of my alltime favourites, L’APOCALYPSE DES ANIMAUX, which amazingly came out the same year as 666. “La Petite Fille de la Mer” is the big hit from the album, and that’s okay. It’s beautiful. Reminds me of a cue from DERRICK, of all things. But “La Mort du Loup” is so gobsmackingly beautiful, it almost makes me cry every time I listen to it. Never seen the film, but this soundtrack is the best of the best when it comes to Vangelis. As I’m not THAT thrilled with Vangelis’ work prior to OPERA SAUVAGE, this stands in a kind of oasis at this point in time.
The first side of this 1975 LP, the “Heaven” part, is gorgeous. Choral and spiritual. Melodic. The second side, however, about “Hell” is difficult to get through. I tend to press ‘stop’ after the first track, but I will muster through this time.
The first side of this 1975 LP, the “Heaven” part, is gorgeous. Choral and spiritual. Melodic. The second side, however, about “Hell” is difficult to get through
Isn’t it obvious? 😅
I dismissed this Vangelis album/score from 1977 early on in my Vangelis exploration, but I wonder why? It’s the score for the Mexican film ENTENDS-TU LES CHIENS ABOYER?, and it’s so friggin’ gorgeous. One long track at almost 40 minutes, but not a lot of weak points (there are some, in the last part).
It’s not necessarily a favourite album of mine, but it literally “spirals” out into popular culture, and my own personal sphere. “Ballad”, for example, which Daniel Lopatin reworked so wonderfully in UNCUT GEMS. And “To The Unknown Man”, which appeared out of nowhere in ZERO FUCKS GIVEN. And for my own part, Ed Starink’s reworking of “Dervish D” was essentially my gateway into Vangelis. So a lot comes together on this.
I don’t play the Jon & Vangelis albums enough. This one seems to the most “muscular” of the three, if that makes sense. But it’s also rather rough around the edges.
My 8th favourite Vangelis album/score of all time — this is REALLY where my Vangelis love begins. Love the ethereal blues elements, the distant bass thumps of “Rêve”. “Hymne” might be overplayed over the years, so is “L’enfant”, but I prefer that more. And yes, as I just said in the director/composer partnership thread, Vangelis/Rossif is a fantastic combo.
I’ve always had trouble getting into this album. It didn’t feature in my top 20 when I did the podcast. Vangelis deserves credit for going a bit poppy, but there’s something about the accessible and experimental that don’t quite mesh for me in this case. But in the last couple of listen-throughs, it’s grown on me a little bit. Of course, I’ve always loved “Memories of Green” due to the BLADE RUNNER connection.
My favourite of the J&V albums. In this case, and unlike SEE YOU LATER to some degree, the pop/prog fusion works much better.
Yes, it’s a bootleg. One of Vangelis’ finest scores, but sadly only has theme available on the (must-have) compilation THEMES (1989). Maybe a few other places. But this 36-minute boot displays several other great tracks, in decent sound quality, like “The Hospital”. Wish it gets a commercial release some day.
My seventh favourite Vangelis of all time. Gorgeous, expansive, dreamy, epic. I have a colleague who raves about the Koreyoshi Kurahara film too, so I want to see it at some point. Last time I checked, it WAS on YouTube, but without subtitles. True, there isn’t much dialogue in it (which is another draw for me), but I’d still like to see it with subtitles. Maybe a new version has been uploaded since the last time I checked, with subs.
It actually took a while before I picked this up, because I thought it was a compilation at first (the title is confusing). The melancholic bits are pretty good, although it’s the most poppy of the albums, I think. As I said earlier, I don’t have PAGE OF LIFE. Interestingly, Jon Anderson reached out to Vangelis in 2011, to ask about another collaboration, but Vangelis didn’t respond. 🙁
I developed an ear for electronic music a few years after I’d gotten into orchestral music (so, we’re talking about the early 80s here), and Vangelis was one of the first artists that caught my attention. I don’t remember my Vangelis “origin story” exactly… it could have been BLADE RUNNER, or it could have been the track from HEAVEN AND HELL that was used as the title music for COSMOS (which was on Norwegian television around that time).
Anyway, for quite a few years I bought all the Vangelis albums I could find. 17 LPs in all, from L’APOCALYPSE DES ANIMAUX (1973) to THE CITY (1990). Looking at his discography now, it looks like that covers most of his official releases during that period. But then I didn’t buy much for a while… not exactly sure why, but it seems he didn’t release much for a few years after 1990. I did get some of his soundtracks on CD (CHARIOTS OF FIRE, BLADE RUNNER, 1492), as well as the wonderful THEMES compilation and his VOICES album (1995). But some disenchantment crept in after I got his MYTHODEA album (2001) which didn’t engage me at all. It sounded a bit mechanical to me, lacking the emotion and organic sound (to steal an expression from an earlier post by Nick) of his earlier music. But it’s possible I’ve missed out on some great stuff from him after that.
Any recommendations for post-1990 Vangelis albums worth checking out?
Anyway, for quite a few years I bought all the Vangelis albums I could find. 17 LPs in all
Impressive! I hope you still play them now and then. The 90s is actually my favourite Vangelis period, even though it’s not as productive, with its sleeker New Age sound.
Yes, another bootleg. There are only two tracks commercially available, on the aforementioned THEMES compilation. Plus that BSX re-recording that doesn’t do it justice. Love the throbbing, pulsating beauty of it all — I believe I mentioned it as a candidate in our “Film music for sweltering heat” thread.
There’s some good music beyond those two tracks, though, and also some wild and noisy stuff for the madness of the Hopkins character, and the storm. That’s best left off. So I’ve made my own 53-minute playlist that works really well. I’m hoping one of these days, the Vangelis estate will find it in them to release the scores that the composer boycotted while he was alive — MISSING, THE BOUNTY, BITTER MOON and so on.
21 minutes of pure Vangelis bliss, calm and soothing, lots of echo/space (and somehow awakening many feelings from my youth, even though I didn’t hear this until well into my adulthood). Especially “Movement 1”. I believe it was music for a photo exhibition. Nobody could weave their way around a Yamaha CS-80 as well as Vangelis.
OK, Nils, as you mentioned this series earlier, you might have to fill in the blanks here. I never saw the original Carl Sagan show myself, only the new COSMOS series that was inspired by it, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. But I do know that it used a lot of existing music, and a lot of it was electronic, including Jarre, Vangelis and others. This was included on the OST. But we shouldn’t forget that Vangelis also wrote some ORIGINAL music for it, which was NOT on that OST and has never been released. This 19-minute bootleg across six “movements” presents some of it, in great sound quality, and it’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
I actually ranked this 16th in advance of the Vangelis podcast, but I realized already while recording it that it had been placed FAR too low. It’s more like a top 10 contender. It came out in 1988, and I can kinda hear Vangelis incorporating influences like Zimmer, Faltermeyer, Oldfield a little bit.If not consciously, then it has that vibe because of the period in which it was produced, and the tech and sound and styles that were prevalent at the time (dig those pre-Enigma flutes in “The Will of the Wind”). Good stuff!
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