VANGELIS
Prog Related • Greece
From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
Evanghelos Odysseas Papathanassiou "VANGELIS" - Born March 29, 1943 (Volos, Greece) - died May 17, 2022 (Paris, France)
VANGELIS (the "g" is pronounced as a hard "g", as in "get") is a world-renowned new age and electronic musician. His best known compositions are the Academy Award-winning 1981 theme to the movie "Chariots of Fire" and the entire score to "Blade Runner". He also composed the anthem of Football World Cup 2002.
Early life and work
VANGELIS began composing when he was 4 years old, and is largely a self-taught musician. He refused to take traditional piano lessons, and throughout his career he did not have substantial knowledge of reading or writing musical notation. He studied classical music, painting and film direction at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens.
In the early 1960s he formed the pop group FORMINX (sometimes spelled "FORMYNX"), which became very popular in Greece. During the student riots in 1968 he moved to Paris and formed progressive rock band APHRODITE'S CHILD with Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras. They had a hit single in Europe called "Rain and Tears." The group was disbanded in 1972, although Roussos made several appearances on VANGELIS' later work.
Beginning of solo career
VANGELIS began his solo work by writing scores to two films by French filmmaker Frederic Rossif in 1973. His first official solo album was 1974's "Earth". At about the same time, he rehearsed for a couple of weeks with another prog-rock band, YES. Although he never joined the band, he became friends with singer Jon Anderson, with whom he later worked on many occasions.
After moving to London, VANGELIS signed a deal with RCA Records, set up his own studio (Nemo Studios) and began recording a string of well-regarded electronic albums. Music from the acclaimed 1975 album "Heaven and Hell" was later used as the theme to the PBS television series Cosmos.
Work in film and commercial success
He and Jon Anderson released several albums together in the 1980s and '90s as JON & VANGELIS. In 1982 VANGELIS won the Academy Award for Original Music Score for "Chariots of Fire". The theme song topped the US Billboard charts for one week after climbing steadily for one year.
That year he also began working with director Ridley Scott; VANGELIS scored his films "Blade Runner" and "1492: Conquest of Paradise". He also scored many of the undersea documentaries o...read more
VANGELIS Videos (YouTube and more)
Showing only random 3 | Search and add more videos to VANGELIS
Buy VANGELIS Music
-
DOUG LARSON IMPORTS — Buy prog rock music and rarities (Free shipping on orders over 10 CD's)
- AMAZON.COM — Best-selling prog vinyls
VANGELIS discography
Ordered by release date | Showing ratings (top albums) | Help Progarchives.com to complete the discography and add albums
VANGELIS top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
2.84 | 45 ratings
Sex Power (OST) 1970 |
2.44 | 40 ratings
Fais Que Ton R�ve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit 1972 |
3.65 | 121 ratings
Earth 1973 |
3.78 | 157 ratings
L' Apocalypse Des Animaux (OST) 1973 |
3.45 | 73 ratings
Can You Hear The Dogs Barking? [Aka: Ignacio] (OST) 1975 |
3.90 | 266 ratings
Heaven and Hell 1975 |
3.71 | 214 ratings
Albedo 0.39 1976 |
3.22 | 67 ratings
La F�te Sauvage 1976 |
3.77 | 211 ratings
Spiral 1977 |
2.64 | 107 ratings
Beaubourg 1978 |
3.74 | 111 ratings
The Dragon 1978 |
3.25 | 96 ratings
Hypothesis [Aka: Visions Of The Future] 1978 |
3.88 | 175 ratings
China 1979 |
3.67 | 73 ratings
Vangelis & Irene Papas: Odes 1979 |
3.53 | 113 ratings
Op�ra Sauvage (OST) 1979 |
2.57 | 94 ratings
See You Later 1980 |
3.09 | 165 ratings
Chariots of Fire (OST) 1981 |
3.46 | 111 ratings
Antarctica (OST) 1983 |
3.58 | 105 ratings
Soil Festivities 1984 |
3.58 | 98 ratings
Mask 1985 |
2.54 | 72 ratings
Invisible Connections 1985 |
3.05 | 45 ratings
Vangelis & Irene Papas: Rapsodies 1986 |
3.64 | 105 ratings
Direct 1988 |
3.31 | 95 ratings
The City 1990 |
3.99 | 178 ratings
1492 - Conquest of Paradise (OST) 1992 |
4.14 | 271 ratings
Blade Runner (OST) 1994 |
3.83 | 103 ratings
Voices 1995 |
3.29 | 106 ratings
Oceanic 1996 |
3.79 | 97 ratings
El Greco 1998 |
2.75 | 81 ratings
Mythodea 2001 |
2.77 | 66 ratings
Alexander (OST) 2004 |
2.90 | 39 ratings
El Greco (OST) 2007 |
3.00 | 10 ratings
Amore (OST) 2015 |
3.66 | 55 ratings
Rosetta 2016 |
3.21 | 29 ratings
Nocturne - The Piano Album 2019 |
3.18 | 33 ratings
Juno to Jupiter 2020 |
VANGELIS Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
3.65 | 17 ratings
Neuronium and Vangelis A Separate Affair 1996 |
VANGELIS Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)
3.48 | 21 ratings
Mythodea-Music for the NASA mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey 2001 |
3.63 | 11 ratings
Vangelis And The Journey To Ithaka 2013 |
VANGELIS Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
2.89 | 27 ratings
Best of Vangelis 1978 |
3.04 | 23 ratings
Greatest Hits 1981 |
3.06 | 45 ratings
Themes 1989 |
3.83 | 12 ratings
Best In Space 1994 |
3.90 | 10 ratings
Space Themes 1995 |
3.55 | 11 ratings
Gift: Greatest Hits 1997 |
3.62 | 39 ratings
Portraits 1997 |
2.90 | 20 ratings
Reprise 1990-1999 1999 |
4.00 | 9 ratings
Cosmos 2001 |
2.64 | 9 ratings
The Best Of Vangelis 2003 |
2.54 | 25 ratings
Odyssey - The Definitive Collection 2003 |
3.67 | 6 ratings
The Music Of Vangelis 2005 |
4.77 | 46 ratings
Blade Runner 25th Anniversary 2007 |
3.61 | 14 ratings
Delectus - The Polydor & Vertigo Recordings 1973-1985 2017 |
VANGELIS Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)
2.67 | 3 ratings
Astral Abuse/Who Killed (as Alpha Beta) 1971 |
2.75 | 4 ratings
Odyssey 1974 |
3.60 | 5 ratings
The Vangelis Radio Special 1975 |
3.67 | 3 ratings
So Long Ago, So Clear 1975 |
5.00 | 9 ratings
Pulstar / Alpha 1976 |
4.71 | 7 ratings
To The Unknown Man 1977 |
3.04 | 4 ratings
Dervish D 1977 |
4.00 | 6 ratings
Hymne / Irlande 1979 |
3.67 | 3 ratings
The Long March (Part I & II) 1979 |
3.16 | 6 ratings
Not a Bit - All Of It 1980 |
3.00 | 3 ratings
My Love 1980 |
3.37 | 8 ratings
Chariots of Fire 1981 |
4.00 | 7 ratings
Silent Portraits 1984 |
3.19 | 7 ratings
The Will Of The Wind 1988 |
4.00 | 8 ratings
Missing 1989 |
3.09 | 4 ratings
Good to See You 1990 |
4.40 | 5 ratings
Conquest Of Paradise 1992 |
3.33 | 3 ratings
Voices 1995 |
2.22 | 4 ratings
Song of the Seas 1996 |
4.33 | 3 ratings
Ask the Mountains 1996 |
4.00 | 3 ratings
Sauvage et Beau 1996 |
3.30 | 12 ratings
2002 FIFA World Cup Official Anthem 2002 |
1.80 | 5 ratings
Świadectwo - Muzyka Filmowa (with Robert Janson) 2008 |
VANGELIS Reviews
Showing last 10 reviews only
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by mickcoxinha
Vangelis, as a composer, was much of a free-spirit and often puzzled his fans (for example, with albuns like Soil Festivities and Invisible Connections not long after releasing the popular Chariots of Fire). Beaubourg, as a follow-up of Albedo 0.39 and Spiral certainly shocked many of the casual fans.
Avant-garde and minimalist in nature, the album is all about fragmentary melodies here and there, experiments with tones, sparse sounds and no rhythm at all. It is very experimental in the sense that it experiments with characteristics of the sound itself: heavy reverberation, stereo effects, relying heavily on the synthesizer filters and effects rather than the oscillators. There are lots of silences and pauses that are very important to the nature of the composition. Vangelis manages to fill 40 minutes of the album with a great listening experience for fans of the genre.
This is, of course, out of reach for many people, because it is simply not their genre. But for people who dig this highly experimental and avant-garde compositions in the tradition of the classical composers of the second half of the twentieth century, it is a tremendous work. And that is why it deserves a high rating, even if it is not for everyone.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by mickcoxinha
One thing that amazes me on those works by Vangelis, including the celebrated elsewhere victim of some prejudice among prog fans "Chariots of Fire" is that, composing and playing almost everything, the Greek composer and musician knows exactly what should go where in every song, even with the countless possibilities that the synthesizers bring. One has to recognize that it seems to be much more complex than prog composers that compose the general flow of the songs on their main instrument and then use the talents of their bandmates to fill in the arrangemets of their own instruments.
In China, it is all there, and songs like Yin & Yang and Himalaya, that blend beautiful harmonies and soundscapes with experimental lead synth flourishes here and there make the work uniquely pleasant. Some other songs mix well the experimental aspects and the quasi-symphonic and traditional folk, like Chung Kuo. There is a good variety of compositions, some more straightforward, some more complex, and listening to the entire album is a very pleasant experience.
Of course, lots of people don't like very much Vangelis works because they are shy in the "rock" component (it is almost non-existent on this album), but it is a lot better musically than almost everything that was being done in the realms of the progressive music by 1979.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by docsketchy
When I first got this record back in the early 80s, I didn't really know what to make of it. However, it is now my favourite Vangelis album. Another Vangelis album that I thought was really useless at the time is Invisible Connections. However, it is now probably my second favourite Vangelis album. These albums are pure abstract electronica, and they are very good in that context. In my view, much of the more accessible Vangelis music has not aged particularly well, but that certainly cannot be said of Beaubourg and Invisible Connections -- they stand up very well amongst the experimental electronica being made today.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by alainPP
1 Chung Kuo with the intro cosmic waves or Chinese artifices that set the sky ablaze; immense apocalyptic, symphonic and majestic intro, the arrival of this comet sound, shooting star, flame-fall of the extinguishing fire?; in short we are at the dawn of the great journey on this binary air quickly chiselled by a Mandarin keyboard... the slap what... I had read at the time 'the long march of the mandarins at the time of the mellotron' yes I take it out. 2 The Long March for the melancholic solf'ge piano variation where a synth adds a little more spleen, shhh it's the break and it's not this crescendo that will scare us 3 The Dragon bam it goes to the right, to the left, the fire is not extinguished; return to 'Beaubourg' for preposterous synthetic experiments; good it's going a well restrained air arises for a conventional Asian dance; the minimalist break and the flight of synths amplified by the majestic percussion gives the expected relief, we are indeed in China to climb the great wall. Dantesque and eventful this piece 4 The Plum Blossom for the variation on the arid violin, the one that makes hair and other hair rise high, a tune that twirls, that moves like a salad basket supposed to dry this damn lettuce... ah the images scroll by, come on the theme Chinese in the final background. 5 The Tao Of Love for the variation of the Chinese air, the one where you see the cherry trees of Japan in bloom, yes we are going very far to change countries... in short, the theme dripping with marshmallow sweetness to ask questions hassles of everyday life, well I will take a tea with this synth that relaxes and imposes respect ... a bit of the child in the sea in the distance 6 The Little Fete and the characteristic tuba flute that we dream of hearing to symbolize our arrival on the ground, drum roll, crystalline arpeggio, drops of water... yes we have arrived, I take a bottle of wine, now I speak Chinese too... my shadow is never first? good barker title to make you think you're there when you're still here 7 Yin & Yang continues on the same path, synths, local string instruments to make you forget Europe, France, you're good there and nothing will make you come back, dong dong says this song ; the ambient variation which arises wisely on a guitar and harp arpeggio ennobles the air so that the wicked evangelical synths show the end of their keyboards; boo it would even become oppressive; small aside on this album chosen to try to raise awareness of the progressive extent through music, here we are; I have a soft spot for the percussion associated with these high notes raising the emotion to the firmament for the finale. 8 Himalayas for the piece of my favorite, yes Julien it's not just you; in short, a dark, sinister, evolving rise, a crescendical rise as one can only love, a hypnotizing and hypnotized sound, a bewitching air that I used in relaxation, that is to say; the title which runs for an hour, which makes you forget your temporal landmarks. As often halfway through an evolution, a break, here a musical will-o'-the-wisp with invading sounds, like one that goes behind my ear; good little Chinese symphonic explosion in the last third before the final monolithic plaintive declension 9 Summit for the dark happy ending, gloomy air, on a 'Blade Runner' when it was still only in the drawers; the progressive title so to come back to earth, finally to leave the great wall and land in Paris.... what did you not know that the great wall is a temporal passage, well at least I will have been used for something ; good this ambient title, latent on a musical structure in overloop, to put in phase anvil and stirrup.
Good this VANGELIS to rediscover art-rock, even if it's rather Japanese-rock here... and I have a Chinese friend who loves this pun. A good album by VANGELIS which is more OCNI than OMNI!!
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by alainPP
5 Sword Of Orion for the musical sweetness, the unstoppable melody; delicacy, awakening of Nature, a musical bath at the time when we took our time and another varied piece 6 Alpha... speaking of melody, here's another unstoppable one; the rise, the roll of thunder pad, its symphonic explosion which rolls even louder, the head which moves suddenly, yes we are indeed ... at the head of a troop, of an army which inevitably goes to victory; a great symphonic musical fresco which shows that prog is everywhere; the finale at the majestic summit that does things to your back 7 Nucleogenesis, Parts 1 And 2 with an organ setting, Hey, Rick and Richard are there? Well a second title pure electronic research with variations, packets, notes which diffuse in the room going in all directions, a tad electro psyche, hold a new drawer; the finale on OLDFIELD, then the distinctive sound quickly returns with rolling drums; ah that phone call, what would he do these days instead? There I saw the telephone without a brand, just the one used to make calls, in short the decreasing end already 8 Albedo 0.39 to close this album in another space; Keith's voice to amplify the drift of our ship towards its destruction... no, I'm joking though; Albedo answer, answer; no, we're really reaching the end of the album.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by alainPP
2 So Long Ago, So Clear sound coming from the stars... and a star yes Jon himself who comes to chat; memory of that time when his voice made the radio vibrate, yes he had passed over it... imagine the happiness of that time; good solemn title with the voice which responds to the synths, the Olympian choirs which respond to the flights of notes and this syrupy melody which remains attached to your memory, yes it was just sublimely Dantesque 3 Heaven And Hell, Part two and five movements on this side... did you change it by the way? A sinister, distressing beginning with these metal claws, these wanderings at the piano, these musical flames emerging from a cemetery; 'Needles and Bones' on OLDFIELD for sure, well it then evolves into its own space but still; it's difficult to access, I found fortunately that I had plunged into it; '12 O'Clock' for the major moment, the choirs, the drums, everything is done to upset us, to torture our ears; the finale with Vana as lead vocal and her murmured vocalizations melts the indelicate progue who thought it was simplistic electronics; hold the bell and the Gregorian atmosphere to bring him down; 'Aries' storms in and in the space of two minutes creates mayhem; sonorous, phonic rolling, dithyrambic explosions to bring the finale very gently; an 'A Way' which plays out gently, melodically perfectly, just to rest the ear which has suffered pleasantly from this long journey of 3/4 hours.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by alainPP
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by Gallifrey
An incredibly pretty album, with Vangelis just approaching his Blade Runner era mixing incredibly well with some traditional Greek singing. The mix of synths, ambience and folk music can give this a kind of hokey new age atmosphere at times, but when it locks in, it's quite captivating. There are elements of both traditional classical and folk music in it and it does manage to have a solid amount of variation - the synths occasionally locking into Vangelis' characteristic proto-synthwave sound, but at other times sounding more like a Tangerine Dream Berlin School record. A unique mix of sounds and definitely one of my favourite Vangelis related projects.
6.6 (3rd listen)
Part of my listening diary from my facebook blog: www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by
Matti
Prog Reviewer
I'm surprised by the numerous five-star ratings without reviews, because I have major complaints about the box and the representation. The physical size of the box is massive, big enough for vinyls. The discs are plainly placed in two gatefold sleeves. All the album information and other textual contents are in the large hard-cover book of 96 pages, and judged against the size the actual contents are rather disappointing. I expected much more of the liner notes when I borrowed the box from library. For the most part, it's a picture book. It's not handy at all that you have to hold that clumsy big book open to see the albums' track lists while listening. I truly prefer smaller and thus more user-friendly sizes for CD box sets. That said, I'd be satisfied with the rather brief liner notes too, if the box and the book/booklet had been smaller: come on, almost a hundred vinyl size pages for contents that would nicely fit into a 40-page CD size booklet!
The bonus material on the discs remains rather minimal. The fifth disc containing See You Later (1980) features three bonus tracks in the style of the album, hardly worth a second listening. The third and the best Jon + Vangelis album Private Collection is accompanied by a fairly good B-sider 'Song Is'. And that's more or less all. Considering the salty price of this box set, I frankly don't see it very recommendable. I'd rather spend the money on individual albums of your own choice.
One thing is sure. There's a wide musical variety among these thirteen albums. From the earthy art-rock of "Earth" to the avant-garde minimalism of Invisible Connections (1985 - originally released in the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, so I'm wondering of its inclusion here), from the organic melancholy of L'Apocalypse des Animaux (1973) to the Oscar winning athletic themes of Chariots of Fire (1981), and from the fascinating microcosmos interpreted in Soil Festivities (1984) to the choral approach of the mythologically inspired Mask (1985). I personally also enjoyed the opportunity to (re)visit the Jon + Vangelis albums at the same time, despite a little reservation for them not being actual Vangelis solo albums.
Vangelis Prog Related
Review by
Mirakaze
Special Collaborator Eclectic Prog & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
But of course that would only be worth so much if the actual music wasn't also very good, although it's a bit slow to start, admittedly. Vangelis does not play keyboards (or if he does, they're unrecognizably distorted) on the lengthy title track that opens the album, an oppressive, 15-minute long psychedelic jam which is mostly a showcase for violinist Michel Ripoche and guitarist Anargyros Koulouris, Vangelis's bandmate in Aphrodite's Child who allows himself that get much more fuzzed-up and atonal than he could ever be in that band up until then.
The second side is where the album's beauty really comes to fruition, however: "Stuffed Aubergine" is probably the closest that this album comes to resembling Vangelis's more famous works, being a mellow, new age-ish minimalist sequence with plenty of keyboard soloing, but it sounds much more like Popol Vuh than Spiral. Vangelis only uses a synthesizer to add some background chords but for the most part relies on a clavinet, electric piano and even a mellotron, while Koulouris gets a chance to show off his more sensitive side near the end. "Stuffed Tomato" throws the album on its head again, starting out with an unaccompanied guitar improvisation before launching into a furious speedy jazz-rock jam. Vangelis is indeed playing jazz on his piano here and he does it excellently, all the while accompanied by some quality drum-pounding and bass-walking.
Vangelis fans aren't guaranteed to enjoy this album but they owe it to themselves to at least give it a chance.