Vangelis 
Vangelis
Writing about Vangelis is talking about one of the best composers in all senses of the last decades. His works are many and assorted, that's why it is very difficult to deal with all of them, without leaving some back.
The career of composer of Vangelis Papathanassiou (1943) began when he was 4. When he was 6 and he didn't have any previous preparation yet, he played before an audience his own compositions. Therefore, he started to spread the musical language he had and to develop that characteristic and personal style for which he is well-known nowadays.
When he was very young he created a group called "Formynx", that succeeded in his country, Greece. In 1968 Vangelis moved to Paris where he formed a group with Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras called "Aphrodite's Child". Vangelis and his companions published the following albums, and they succeeded enough: "Rain and Tears" (1968), "Aphrodite's Child" (1969), "It's Five O'clock" (1969), "Best of Aphrodite's Child" (1969) and "666" (1970). After their strange double album "666", the trio dissolved.
Vangelis stayed a bit more in Paris, where he recorded: "Poeme Symphonique", "Fair Que Ton Reve Plus Longue Que La Nuit" (1971) and the album "Earth" (1973), which was the first composition he did by himself. He also set up a creative relationship with Frederic Rossif (French cinema director), he made some themes for him, such as "Cantique des Creatures", with series of films about nature: "Apocalypse Des Animaux" (1972) (the second song of the album: "La Petite Fille De La Mer" charmed us as the music of the fitting carte of Spanish Television for some years), "La Fete Sauvage" (1976), "Opera Sauvage" (1979) and "Sauvage et Beau" (much later, exactly in 1988).
Vangelis moved to London in 1974, where he installed his own music studio and where he continued his creative work: "Heaven and Hell" (1975), "Albedo 0.39" (1976), "Spiral" (1977), "Beaubourg" (1978), "China" (1979) and "See You Later" (1980), quality and successful works, some of them are collected in "Best of Vangelis" (1978).
On these years, some of his collaborations are with Socrates
in "Phos" (1976), Demis Roussos (old member of the trio Aphrodite's
Child) in "Magic" (1977) and Irene Papas in the album "Odes"
(1979). He alternates all these compositions working with the singer of
'Yes' Jon Anderson, he publishes with him some LPs, such as: "Olias
of Sunhillow" (1976), "Short Stories" (1979), "The
friends of Mr. Cairo" (1981), "Private Collection" (1983)
and "The best of John and Vangelis" (1984), where the best of
these works is summarized here.
He begins the '80 years reaching his highest point: one Oscar for the very well-known original soundtrack of "Chariots of Fire" (1981). Successful soundtracks of his are also: "Bladerunner" (1982) (though this one wouldn't be published until much later, exactly in 1994, from this, the end credits theme makes Vangelis shine), "Missing" (1982), "Antarctica" (1983) and "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1984); original soundtracks which their main themes (with other compositions) are in the record "Themes" published in 1989.
Other records of this decade are: "Soil Festivities" (1984), "Invisible connections" (1985) (symphonic work), "Mask" (1985) (symphonic-choral work) and "Direct"(1988) (where Vangelis uses a new technique when he has to create music: composing, arranging, and recording almost at the same time, this way he makes sure a maximum of spontaneity, the result, a good record with future touches).
With the '90 years, he starts publishing in 1990 "The City" and afterwards the original soundtrack "1492 Conquest of Paradise" (1992), which succeeded a lot among his fans. Later he stayed inactive until 1995, when he published "Voices", a short quality record where the theme which gives name to the record stands out. Afterwards a compilation record called "Portraits" (1996) was born, where are collected all his hits from his beginnings to the date in a great CD and of course recommended to all those who haven´t any of his previous records. His next work is "Oceanic" (1996), a record where many of the used rhythms remind of some of his previous works. Though it is not a brilliant record, Vangelis does a right work and keeps a very regular line in this whole record, standing out lightly (over the rest of the compositions) the following themes: "Bon voyage", "Spanish harbour" and "Song of the seas".
The truth is that Vangelis, though he goes on making records from time to time, maybe now he doesn't reach the musical level which can be demanded from a musician of his class but in spite of this, Vangelis will go into the electronic music history as one of the classic ones of the twentieth century.
1-10-2001
Note of the author: In spite of all of the albums, original soundtracks, artists, etc, mentioned in this check to Vangelis' discography, the work of this music genius goes further, though I hope the aim of this article (its title) is fulfilled.
JUAN PABLO LÓPEZ JURADO
(Translated by Ana Isabel López Jurado)
Next an article about David Arkenstone...
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