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Thanks to his Oscar-winning score Chariots Of Fire and song collaborations with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson ("On My Way Home") Vangelis' name is widely recognised among Western audiences. But beyond a few tunes relatively few people are aware of his extensive recorded legacy or his considerable influence on ambient, soundtrack and new age music. The greek-born composer has always trodden his own path; idiosyncratic and restless, his recorded output varies widely in both style and quality. He's recorded difficult, atonal avant-garde experiments, large scale orchestral works and neo-classical electronics, as well more conventionally scored works in the rock-vein with touches of ethnic instrumentation. Some of his film soundtracks are among his best albums and a good place to start, covering a lot of the musical ground he has trodden since the early 1970’s. The luminous L’Apocalypse Des Animaux marks his stunning debut into the world of film music with its delicate, lush tapestries of electric piano, brass, percussion, guitar and strings. There's an aching lyricism here that's every bit the equal of Ennio Moriconne's scores (such as The Good The Bad & The Ugly) and the ten minute ambient-orchestral excursion “Creation Du Monde” is transcendent and awe-inspiring. Opera Sauvage, another early soundtrack, also presents a subtle, reflective quality with the addition of a few exotic instruments to the mix. As the decade rolled on electronic music was changing rapidly and the boom in synthesiser and sequencer technology began to make its presence felt in Vangelis' work. Some early efforts in this vein (notably Spiral from 1979) show the rather all-too-obvious influence of German pioneers like Tangerine Dream with little re-invention, but by the time of Chariots Of Fire Vangelis had developed his own clean, sparkling synthesiser-based sound which would dominate his 80's film soundtracks. The main theme from Chariots was a huge hit single and it's a stately, rousing piece but it shouldn't obscure the fact that rest of the album is also worthy, featuring several short reflective pieces like "Abrahams Theme" and a more effects-laden exploration of the main theme on the long title track. The magnificent Antarctica is by turns dramatic, expansive and serene. Drenched in lush, spacious electronic textures, it beautifully evokes one of the world’s last areas of pristine wilderness. 1492: Conquest Of Paradise is a grand orchestral work that splendidly captures the film’s themes of adventure and discovery. And the magnificent Bladerunner - revered by some fans as his masterpiece - contains some of Vangelis’ most powerful, awe-inspiring and emotional music, making its belated release twelve years after the film puzzling. Among his non-soundtrack albums Heaven & Hell still sounds amazing, a quite literal evocation of angelic bliss and horrifying infernos. The overall sound is quintessentially 70's and superficially dated: a rock ensemble, synthesisers and a choir, which on paper sounds like the most bloated style kind of progressive rock ala Rick Wakeman. But Vangelis makes it work, with chord progressions that are never less than enthralling and an arsenal of instruments that he puts to work in exactly the right combinations and never for too long. China is more restrained and strongly flavoured by traditional Asian sources, but it demonstrates a similar knack for dynamics and mixing and matching instrumental colours. After the 70's Vangelis' strengths were generally best displayed on his movie soundtracks, although the surprisingly rocking Direct and the exquisitely detailed and evocative The City showed that up to the early 90's he was still capable of producing intelligent, accessible atmospheric music outside the medium of film. Since then, however, his albums in general have been pretty uninspiring with his tendency towards bombast being given full reign on insufferable outings like Mythodia (2001) and a steady procession of orchestral film soundtracks that sound more or less the same. |
