LA FÊTE SAUVAGE

I managed to get a hold of this album many years after it's release. It is an excellent piece of music only interrupted by the vinyl on LP version. To me this is light years ahead of it's time. It is melancholic and joyful at the same time. Ebbs and flows with steady builds to sweeping climaxes. This was released a year after Heaven and Hell and by my reckoning a soundtrack work. If anyone enjoys China, El Greco or even The City then this album is a must.

This is one of his better soundtrack albums, buoyed considerably by a wonderful female vocal in the middle. Laid-back for the most part, with typical sound quality for that period in his career. I'd say that he spent a bit more time on this soundtrack than, say, "Ignacio". There's quite a bit of variety in the overall sound here; it's obvious that he had some guest musicians, but liner notes are non-existent. Three & a half stars for trying something different....

It sounds as if Vangelis is not quite popular on PA. Maybe that to have been placed in the prog related section has something to do with this; but I admit that the artist is quite difficult to catalogue.

Anyway, this second soundtrack to illustrate the animal life features lots of African percussion work (most of the time on the light side, this is not "Burundi Black"), some beautiful flute passages, and some melodic and passionate musical moments.

I guess that it is wise to listen to the music while viewing the documentary, but I did not. If you like ambient music and relaxing atmospheres or recurring themes this is quite an album for you.

There are quite a few moving parts; all of them being rather peaceful and impregnated with pure beauty. At times, it is not far from TD (and this is a compliment). Atmospheric mood, aerial and stripped down music: it should please the fans of electronic prog (at least for the last twenty minutes or so). It is my case and I rate this album with four stars. What a pity that the start of this album sounds a bit too much tribal to my ears.

The second act of the soundtracks for Frederic Rossif is quite different from the first. Instead of a collection of songs written to underline a specific moment of the documentary we have a single long track.

There are several different moments separated by spaces in any case.

The initial part is very 70s. The percussions and the mellow organ melody could be good for an erotic or a B-adventure movie of that age. It doesn't last too much. Suddenly a very evocative piece of jungle noises and tribal singing is backed out by a typical Vangelis keyboard work.

When the tribe stops singing we have a spacey keyboard over tribal percussions, then percussions alone then keyboard again. Vangelis may have said: "I give you a number of things. For your movie you can cut and paste"

But this is an album, too, so the main theme comes and goes several times to give it a structure and something "recognisable and distinctive" to the listener.

Another drop of silence and I see a dawn in Kenya or something similar. The "flute" solo with only percussions behind is one of the best moments of the album.

Silence again, just to make us aware that this is not a suite. It's effectively a soundtrack. And this tribal song seems to be just a recording. Nobody other than Vangelis is credited on this album but it doesn't seem that he's the one singing...

Another spacey moment comes, but the keyboards are always in the background. The slow percussions drive this part..

The A side is closed by the main theme again, but this time the sounds are more "usual". This is the most famous excerpt from the album. It continues for almost all the B side. When it stops there's a spacey section in the mood of Albedo 0.39. A sort of "Mare Tranquillitatis" without the French speaker. Another very good moment that last until the end with some returns of the main theme.

In brief the A side is tribal and made of recordings while the B side is a Vangelis suite. Spacey and newage oriented. The jazzy experiments of the first albums are gone. This is the starting of a new phase in Vangelis music that with high and low moments will lead to his most famous works.

The limit of this album is that the music has been extended, specially on the B side, to be able to fill a whole album. Fortunately it was the vinyl era. I can't imagine 40 minutes of filler music to fill a CD... Being most of the B side a filler and the A side good but made of recordings, I cant rate it 3 stars as I wish.

Nothing more than a collector's item.