Vangelis interview 2013

I think that Vangelis' desire for musical freedom was what motivated him to set up Nemo Studios in London. It was his own studio so he could experiment however he liked, whenever he liked. So he had complete freedom and he recorded many hours of music that was not commercially motivated and was never released on any albums. There are several youtube videos of him just improvising and recording in the studio, and he's just playing freely and really enjoying himself. But of course he had to pay for the rent of the building, buying and maintaining equipment and paying the engineers. So he would license his music for TV commercials, sometimes lease the studio to bands that his brother managed, do soundtracks and of course also do the official album releases.

Edited by King Only - January 03 2014 at 02:57

richardh wrote: moshkito wrote: Hi, Excellent video. The hard part, is discussing what he considers "music" and then calling what he does "nature". It's the difference between being 100% intuitive, and what we consider "music". We have come to the point that we believe only this and that and done this way is "music" and no one else can think otherwise, or do something different.  THAT is the clue that it has become so commercialized and we need another 60's revolution to wake folks up to the fact that we can't explore anymore and we're not allowed to learn different things, except the same different chords and this time we will call it differently than the other one because you used the pinkie backwards instead of not! We have become such a dis-disillusioned society that we can not even believe that someone can do something different, or that someone is not interested in the social belief and life that we're stuck on! And the worst part ... they are creative and we aren't! As Jim Morrison would scream .. .WAKE UP! HAS THIS DREAM STOPPED? BUT Vangelis was a commercial artist. When he moved to England he was put forward as the next Tomita with a dash of Rick Wakeman and a touch of the ELP's. I think he slotted readily into this with Heaven and Hell and Albedo but then Beauborg was maybe his 'rebellion' against record company expectations. All popular musicians in the seventies had to work within parameters. This supposed freedom of expression you always allude to has rarely ever existed imo.

Edited by Chris S - January 05 2014 at 12:42

I don't dislike his commercial releases , in fact I love most Vangelis and own pretty much everything he's ever done. Voices was a commercial release but also contains some of the most beautiful music he ever recorded imo. There are also those wonderfull albums with Irene Papas. Odes ticked the commercial boxes and artistic boxes especially. I think the point I was trying to make is that no musician have complete freedom to release whatever they want whenever they want.  I didn't say he was 'commercially motivated' and wasn't trying to suggest that.. 

Anyone who creates a track such as 'Reve' (from his Opera Sauvage album) has got to be touched by a God.....

richardh wrote:  ... Perhaps a commercial decision as the download market doesn't like long tracks

 

Edited by moshkito - January 07 2014 at 08:21

Hi,

moshkito wrote: I think that someone is waiting for him to die, because then, the release of the film/special will get a lot more attention. I just find the whole thing tasteless and sad and pathetic and I'm tired of people taking advantage of artists.   I saw this with Salvador Dali and already with 2 other artists in my life, and it ain't pretty!