RIP "Vangelis" Papathanassíou, 1943 - 2022*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mr. Siegal, May 19, 2022.

  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I think my first Vangelis record was the Dutch version of this RCA compilation:

    [​IMG]

    Surprisingly, it's available on Apple Music:
    Vangelis - Greatest Hits by Vangelis

    And Spotify. So if you wanna check it out:
    Greatest Hits

    Themes is a pretty good rundown of his Polygram years.
     
  2. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I was overwhelmed by the similarity to Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks soundtrack (much of which spun off of his work on Julee Cruise's Floating Into The Night). To the point where I found it embarrassing.

    Truly bizarre, because there's nothing else like that I can point to anywhere in the entire Vangelis catalog.
     
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  3. sinistrail sentinel

    sinistrail sentinel Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Thank you for that detailed tour through his discography!

    I'm not one to use anthologies as entry points into a band's/artist's work. Exceptions would be if the artist in question is best experienced as a "singles" band, like ABBA for example, whose strengths lies in individual songs more than albums. My first experiences with The Residents and Can were through anthologies, and though they got me hooked into their respective musics, I didn't really feel I fully connected with either until I dived into individual studio albums.

    With someone like Vangelis, and other artists who devote "big concepts" paired with often lengthy compositions, I find it best to collect album recommendations from longtime fans.

    So I am spending time with Soil Festivities and I am finding something I'm enjoying. I recently opened up to Tangerine Dream, so I feel like I'm at a good spot in my listening habits to be receptive to the work of Vangelis. I feel bad it took the announcement of his passing for me to begin investigating.
     
  4. Svetonio

    Svetonio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Serbia
    Of course. Compilations, if well composed, can do the job of "a young person's guide to ...", but rather with the acts whose opus is based on songs. Not with Vangelis, whose discography is almost entirely based on concept albums with longer musical forms.
     
  5. Sytze

    Sytze Senior Member

    My entrance point as well. "Zijn Grootste Successen" it was called. I was 11, saved up money to buy it. Played it endlessly back then.
     
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  6. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I was probably at the peak of my Vangelis fandom - maybe a year past it - when Soil Festivities came out. Now, being trapped in Phoenix, I loved anything that spirited me away to someplace greener and wetter, and the storm that opens Soil Festivities certainly achieved that. There was something strangely organic about the album, and while it lacked the excitement of an album like China or Spiral, it also wasn't as remotely abstract as Beaubourg or the subsequent Invisible Connections. There are coherent melodies here that slowly unfold across compellingly biotic soundscapes.

    I enjoyed it even as a kid as kind of a chill out mood piece, but in the past 10-15 years I've really grown to appreciate it. To the point where it's probably my most-listened to Vangelis album during the 21st century.
     
  7. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Yes! Exactly. I played it endlessly for about 3-6 months, then started gobbling up the parent albums.

    I actually think that Vangelis is pretty well-represented by a hits collection. Most of his tracks aren't that long, and this particular package has excerpts from several of the longer works that stand just fine on their own. If you like these, you'll definitely appreciate the albums they came from.

    One surprising thing to me is that Vangelis never had a hit prior to "Chariots". Quite a few of these RCA cuts - in particular "To The Unknown Man" and "Dervish D.", but also possibly "Alpha" - could have been hit singles with the right promotion and a little luck.
     
  8. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    BTW, not that it comes to mind, there is a jazzy piece in Bitter Moon that has a comparable sound palette. It must be from around the same years by memory. In the film is background music in a bar.
     
  9. Svetonio

    Svetonio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Serbia
    Greatest Hits was released in 1981, long before the advent of high-speed internet and YouTube, and I believe that that compilation certainly contributed to the widespread popularity of Vangelis at the time, beyond the purely commercial raison d'être.

    There is also The Best of Vangelis from 1978.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. FavouriteAlbum

    FavouriteAlbum Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool
    I too was a little disappointed when The City first came out. I suppose I was expecting Direct Part 2, and not some dark, rather subdued mood music. But now, thirty years later, I find I enjoy listening to the album much more… maybe even more than Direct which I must have played a million times since it came out.

    As for similarities with the Twin Peaks soundtrack, the second track, Morning Papers, definitely bears comparison - similar instrumentation, similar laid-back groove but I think that’s as far as it gets. I personally can’t detect anything on the other seven tracks which might be heard on the Twin Peaks album…
     
  11. Oyster Boy

    Oyster Boy Forum Resident

    Getting back into Vangelis a couple of years ago after a 35 plus year gap, I have no baggage at all with most of his catalogue. I only had the first three J&V albums and COF back in the day. Despite its tragic circumstances I am finding this thread very useful and concur with some of it, when it comes to the albums, but I must say that I enjoyed The City from purchase day one and with limited exposure to any comparison, I love it for what it is.
     
  12. Allthingsmusic

    Allthingsmusic Forum Resident

  13. Mooglander

    Mooglander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mesa Springs, CA
    After this thread, I'm convinced that is the experience for the majority of we Vangelis fans with The City — we expected Direct II but grew to appreciate it for the atmospheric masterwork it is.

     
  14. david gunderman

    david gunderman ZosoDreamer

    Location:
    Surf City
    I loved The City. Still do.
     
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  15. The City is rated highly on Allmusic, certainly higher than Spiral, for example. Just sayin'.
     
  16. david gunderman

    david gunderman ZosoDreamer

    Location:
    Surf City
    I would put Spiral over The City. Just sayin’
     
  17. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Well, I think it was Cosmos and The Music Of Cosmos that shot him to a higher profile, at least in America. I'd imagine it had some impact in Europe as well, and might have been responsible for RCA pumping out a 2-disc hits collection in the first place. Although I don't think it ever got a US release and was only available as an import.

    The Music Of Cosmos came out on RCA as well if memory serves.
     
  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Most of the record reminded me of TP to one degree or another. The shuffle-beat "The Morning Papers", the bass work and vocals on "Side Streets" and slowly ambling "Good To See You", the atmospheric "Dawn" and "Twilight". The sampled vocals on "Procession" (which also recall Art Of Noise "Moments In Love").

    "Nerve Center" is the one cut that sounds more like a Direct refugee. Even the energetic "Red Lights" has that TP-esque shuffle going on.

    Just sampled thru the album again and it's not that great. I feel like it's got too much drama to be good mood music but not enough drama to stand up to Direct, let alone Spiral or Albedo. The twee is really creeping in here, too - it's starting to feel extremely New Age.

    Not a terrible record though. But I'd rather listen to any of his '80s discs. Or any of his '70s discs from the Rossif soundtracks onward.

    One that I always forget to list - because I guess I don't have a copy of it - is La Fete Sauvage from '75. It's very world music before that was really a thing - the opening of the first cut reminds me of the In Search Of theme. To the point where I wonder if they intentionally copied Vangelis.
     
  19. Svetonio

    Svetonio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Serbia
    I don't know for the States but in the 70s Europe, Vangelis was well-known and respected artist before Cosmos tv series. Apart from the fact that in the seventies Vangelis had a certain popularity in Europe as a member of progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child - for instance, his bandmate Demis Roussos was very popular in Europe at the time - and as an Electronic music artist - no less than e.g. Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream or Jean-Michel Jarre, because there really was a certain enthusiasm of young audience on the 'old continent' for such kind of "progressive" electronics - his music accompanies a documentary series L'Apocalypse des animaux on the animal kingdom directed by French film and television director Frédéric Rossif that first aired on French television already in 1970; the series was then taken over by other European national televisions and was quite popular back then. Then there was the 1975 full-length documentary film about wildlife, La Fête Sauvage, also directed by Frédéric Rossif, for which Vangelis made a score as well.
    However, if we talk about the enormous popularity, Vangelis gained it in Europe with his score for 1981 British historical sports drama film Chariots of Fire.
    Of course, the aforementioned RCA compilations such as The Best of Vangelis (1978) and Greatest Hits (1981) have contributed, especially among the then youngest audience, i.e. those kids who were just starting to buy records in the late 1970s / early 1980s.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2022
  20. morgan1098

    morgan1098 Forum Resident

    It's amazing how much The City keeps coming up in this thread. I still maintain that there is no "rip off" of Badalamenti's work here. The City predates Twin Peaks by several months and was surely already well underway if not finished when the Julee Cruise album came out. Aside from some vague kind of noir/electronica/jazz sounds, I don't really hear that many similarities. If anything, Badalamenti and Lynch owe a great deal to Vangelis' work on Blade Runner from a few years earlier.

    I'm not trying to convince anyone to love The City. I understand why a lot of folks don't like it and I'd only rank it as a mid-tier Vangelis album anyway. I just think any similarities with Badalamenti's work from this era are coincidental.
     
  21. FavouriteAlbum

    FavouriteAlbum Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Vangelis albums that I rarely/never play -

    Beaubourg, Invisible Connections - experimental in nature

    See You Later - apart from Memories of Green this album has never clicked

    Any views on this, am I missing something…?
     
  22. AC1

    AC1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Antwerp, Belgium
    - I played 'Part One' of Beaubourg lots of times (Side 1 of the LP). IMO, it's actually not so very experimental but closer to the works of 20th Century classical composers (Vangelis is a big Stravinsky fan). Beautiful sounds, very dynamic, and there's always harmony and melody to be found amidst the chaos. 'Part Two' is the lesser part, more of the same, lots of Yamaha CS-80 iprovs, but not as good as 'Part One'.

    - Invisible Connections is indeed very experimental in that it does away with all the things we mainly associate with music (melody, harmony and rhythm). Not a fan of this but I'm sure it works as meditation.

    - I love See You Later but it is a very different Vangelis album. It's Vangelis doing Electro Pop or Art Pop. It almost plays like an alternate take on a dystopian future like Blade Runner. The only track I skip is Memories Of Green because for me that one belongs to the 'other' Blade Runner score. Love the overall production of this album too. For instance, the bongo cresendo roll in I Can't Take It Any More ... OMG, play loud!
     
  23. Svetonio

    Svetonio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Serbia
    Like I already said, See You Later is the most prog-rock album by Vangelis' solo albums. And due to the fact that a lot of people associate the magnificent Memories of Green with Blade Runner the movie - which is quite understandable - I would just like to clarify here that Memories of Green first appeared on See You Later which was released in 1980, actually two years before Blade Runner came to theaters. See You Later is darker than most of Vangelis' records; it's a concept album which contains negative and ironic tones of a dystopian future, and topics discussed include funerals, masks, ready-to-wear and ready-to-eat items. On this album, too, Vangelis plays all the instruments (except violin in Not a Bit – All of It), which in itself is rather fascinating.
    I think that See You Later is a bit underestimated today and maybe the reason for that is the somewhat odd fact that See You Later was never released in the United States 'til it was remastered in 2016 as part of the Delectus box set.


    Vangelis I Can't Take It Any More (from See You Later, 1980)
     
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  24. Synthify

    Synthify Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Columbia,SC
    Hello, everyone. I just had to join in on this conversation about Vangelis, my favorite musician of all time. Almost signed up several weeks ago when the weird thing was going on with Amazon which prevented everyone from buying music, but never got around to it. I’m so happy to read all of the comments here about Vangelis, and how much his music means to so many people. I first heard his music when Chariots of Fire was released in the theaters, but only had a minor connection to his music until the late 80s. Direct was the new studio album when I started getting heavily into electronic and other instrumental music, but I believe I actually purchased the Themes CD first. Of course, everything snowballed from there, and I have been a huge fan of everything he’s done. I was so sad at the news of his passing, and then to have it followed a week later by the news of Alan White has made for sad times indeed in my musical world. It’s hard to decide on my favorite albums, but I would have to acknowledge a soft spot for Direct, Albedo 0.39, Antarctica and 1492. Goodness, I could probably list them all.
     
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  25. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Well yes, same in America. I was more focused on what had raised his profile pre-Chariots. I know I got into him thanks to Cosmos...and then quickly began collecting his actual albums, learning along the way that I'd been hearing Vangelis all along in various commercials (like for Chanel, or for Mercury).
     
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