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.
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