Vangelis Appreciation

I feel like a bit of a Vangelis virgin really.. i first came across (and love) the lps Spiral and Albedo 0.39 in my teens (Pulstar was the theme to a UK childrens tv programme about horses in the mid-late 70's!) but never really explored his music. Until i came across Soil festivities and China which have a very personal connection to me and apart from odd bits and pieces ive just not really explored further, for which i feel slightly embarrassed. However, this is something i intend to rectify!

Meltdowner wrote: verslibre wrote: Do you like The City? That's a really underrated one in Vangelis' discography, IMO. It plays like an unofficial sequel to Blade Runner. I think I'll listen to it today. I took a chance on that album on vinyl some years ago and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (more than Direct). It has a couple of weaker tracks but since it's a concept album I'm more forgiving. Vangelis is an artist I adore I've been listening for more than ten years, and there's still a lot of music I never heard from him, mostly soundtracks. I've been listening to "L'Apocalypse des Animaux" often at night since I bought it last year, it's very relaxing but doesn't fall into background music. My favourite album is still the first one I heard, Spiral. I find fascinating that all the percussion is acoustic, in electronic music it's normally the first thing that's replaced with synthesizers. Than I'd complete my top 3 with Heaven and Hell and China. I also really like Soil Festivities and The Dragon.

Glad you like The City. Do you have Juno to Jupiter? It's exceptional, was his best music in years.

My favorites from him are:

Edited by progaardvark - September 03 2024 at 10:50

I'd just like to say 'thanks' to everyone for their initial thoughts... I've been reading everyone's preferences with interest and will expand my knowledge of his discography in due course while there were some I am familiar with, others relatively new to me, such as Soil Festivities and Mask have pleasantly surprised me..

He is the ultimate eclectic artist. Not always easy to categorise what he does. He perhaps got hijacked by Hollywood and once Chariots Of Fire and Blade Runner came out he was supposed to copy that. It's to his credit that he didn't. He recorded most of his well known albums in the period 1975-1985 at a studio in West London. I remember reading a piece on the internet from his sound engineer about how tricky it was to record anything without upsetting the local residents. Nowadays the studio no longer exists and a block of flats has been built in its place. After that he moved back to Greece and set up a studio in Athens , the first album he recorded there was Direct. Still an album I like a lot, this takes you on a journey through his various styles. In the 90's he recorded the albums Voices, El Greco and Oceanic , all 3 containing some of his most beautiful music. In later years he made the excellent Rosetta and Juno To Jupiter as well as the operatic and sweeping Mythodea. I enjoy all those. He was fascinated with the idea of space travel and reaching out to the cosmos and that dominated his music later on. Covid took him away from us sadly but what a legacy of work he has to his name. It's just extraordinary that only one man could do all this. Mike Oldfield gives him a run for his money but that's it imo.

Edited by richardh - September 02 2024 at 00:01

Logan wrote: I like that. That sounds rather like more optimistic and beautiful Blade Runner. It does have a cinematic sound. I also liked music (not Vangelis) from Blade Runner 2049. Thanks.

Totally. It's another successful concept album, and plays best in one go-through, like Soil Festivities.

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: I'm also not a fan of Jon & Vangelis although that material is done well it is not my style. I have everything but the aforementioned.

The side-long epic "Horizon" from Private Collection is pretty great.

Hi,

Edited by moshkito - August 31 2024 at 20:30

Jared wrote: Thank you, once more you've been very thorough and inciteful...  If I had to pick one, Albedo would be my favourite and I too think Soil Festivities is a remarkable piece of music. I think I like Mask a little more than you, but then I've always been a sucker for choral works...

Thanks for launching the site's official Vangelis thread. Lord knows we must regularly discuss the man and his music.

Mask, Soil Festivities, The City and Ignacio (which would be higher on my list if he didn't have so many great albums) seem to fly under the radar thanks to his most popular and better-known works.