Vangelis vs. J.M.Jarre

Well maybe in some cyberpunkish way,....Vangelis would,but nevertheless,who is harder to come up stronger???I would like to see a thread like that???Or maybe some of us...I've been in that kind of marquee,...CHEERS

EXACTLY...open mind is a great mind....greetings.......we would never be here ...ohh my oh my...

Both are great and very hard to compare. I think art isn't about "who's better" - great art is about finding one's own voice and utilizing technique. But there's nothing like "which do you prefer" - although I do enjoy them equally I probably play J.M.Jarre's work a bit more. Unfortunately, many of Vagelis albums sound a bit dated to me, but Vangelis has a much greater repertoire and stylistically shifts into different areas. I do enjoy Vangelis work with J.Anderson & a few early LP's, but Jarre's work is just sonically mesmerizing. In addition to Tomita there's also Michael Shrieve/Steve Roach, Japan & David Sylvian's work, M.Omartian, E.Jobson, J.Lancaster & Robin Lumley, early Strawbs with with Wakemen, Kitaro has a similar sound, Tangerine Dream, Patric Moraz, M.Oldfield, Synergy & Larry Fast, Shadowfax, M. Hoenig, and I really enjoy the 70's moog albums that do classical renditions. I'm a huge classical listener and I prefer smaller ensembles or solo piano, guitar or violin. I love it when high end moog & synth's are recorded well and result in adding a new dimension to works, making them more palatable to new listeners. I have some amazing recordings of Bach with organs that sound like symphonies. 

Heaven & Hell is a masterpiece of pure Progressive Rock, he made other great albums, so Vangelis it is.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - November 30 2010 at 19:31

idlero wrote: I think Vangelis's music is more progressive than Jarre's. Although Vangelis has more albums than Jarre , Jarre leads by far in my  listenings time.I like Vangelis a lot, but when I listen to Jarre the music carries me away in a way that Vangelis doesn't.IMHO Jarre achieves some musical peaks that Vangelis hasn't until now- on a scale from 0 to 100 in electronic music, I would put Vangelis at 90 and Jarre at 100.

Roland113 wrote: Jarre for me, easily.  My experience with Vangelis is that he's too 'soundtracky'

What about V's soundtracks?  Are they as soundtracky as his non soundtrack stuff?

verslibre wrote: clarke2001 wrote: Vangelis also have some great stuff but too often sounds 'sweet' or 'new agey' for my taste.   Roland113 wrote: My experience with Vangelis is that he's too 'soundtracky' for my personal tastes.   I'm curious to know what you'd think of Heaven & Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Spiral, his superb mid-70s 'symph prog' trilogy that sits right in-between his earlier works and the double freakout of Beauborg and See You Later. Albedo is my favorite. Definitely not 'electronic music' per se. As people have noted, there is piano, real drums, bass, etc.   If you heard Opera Sauvage, I can see why you think he's new age-y, but that label would be more apt for somebody who heard The City, which is really, really atmo & mellow. Its predecessor, Direct, is pretty much instrumental rock, though. That was a nice surprise back in '88!   Blade Runner, of course, is well-known, but an earlier soundtrack from '72, L'Apocalypse L'Animaux, is the one I like best from Vangelis' early years. Beautiful music!   Then there's that collaboration between Van & Neuronium, which is ace!

Verslibre, it wasn't meant to trivialize Vangelis' music. I believe Albedo 0.39 is a almost-a-masterpiece,and I quite like, actually, many of his works.  The question is the use of electronic devices, and how much 'electronic' each of these artists in their essence are. They might have a vision of their music through the prism of 'electronic' music, 'pop', 'rock', 'classical' and so on...of course this standpoint is purely my personal one, since I'm discussing my taste and observations here.

Vangelis, in his essence (in my opinion) is not an 'electronic' artist...he's using synths as tools for sounds which suits him, not hesitating to use band, choirs, and orchestra...I believe his mainframe is classical and contemporary classical & avangarde music.

On the other hand , Jarre also inclined towards his own concept of beauty (in a dreamy, French way), but the difference is...I can hear his fascination with oscillators, filters, sequences and modulation matrices. Vangelis is extending symphonic repertoire with synths not unlike Wendy Carlos did, although with different focus.

That is not to say each of these artist is not good in their own right. I'm touching two geniuses here. But if there was ever an 'electronic' artist to which digital era did a great favour, it's Vangelis. Even his early works with Aphrodite's Child reveal more high-pass-filtered waveforms than buzzy, murmuring, fat analog sounds.

In the very essence, what encapsulates Vangelis is a lovely piano passage on 'Antarctica' with synth tapestry underneath. Jarre is a more for a ethereal melody over ARP 2600 sequence. I just like 'electronic' sounds more, that's it.



P.S. I have yet to check Vangelis' collaboration with Neuronium...I love Neuronium a lot!

clarke2001 wrote: verslibre wrote: clarke2001 wrote: Vangelis also have some great stuff but too often sounds 'sweet' or 'new agey' for my taste.   Roland113 wrote: My experience with Vangelis is that he's too 'soundtracky' for my personal tastes.   I'm curious to know what you'd think of Heaven & Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Spiral, his superb mid-70s 'symph prog' trilogy that sits right in-between his earlier works and the double freakout of Beauborg and See You Later. Albedo is my favorite. Definitely not 'electronic music' per se. As people have noted, there is piano, real drums, bass, etc.   If you heard Opera Sauvage, I can see why you think he's new age-y, but that label would be more apt for somebody who heard The City, which is really, really atmo & mellow. Its predecessor, Direct, is pretty much instrumental rock, though. That was a nice surprise back in '88!   Blade Runner, of course, is well-known, but an earlier soundtrack from '72, L'Apocalypse L'Animaux, is the one I like best from Vangelis' early years. Beautiful music!   Then there's that collaboration between Van & Neuronium, which is ace! Verslibre, it wasn't meant to trivialize Vangelis' music. I believe Albedo 0.39 is a almost-a-masterpiece,and I quite like, actually, many of his works.  The question is the use of electronic devices, and how much 'electronic' each of these artists in their essence are. They might have a vision of their music through the prism of 'electronic' music, 'pop', 'rock', 'classical' and so on...of course this standpoint is purely my personal one, since I'm discussing my taste and observations here. Vangelis, in his essence (in my opinion) is not an 'electronic' artist...he's using synths as tools for sounds which suits him, not hesitating to use band, choirs, and orchestra...I believe his mainframe is classical and contemporary classical & avangarde music. On the other hand , Jarre also inclined towards his own concept of beauty (in a dreamy, French way), but the difference is...I can hear his fascination with oscillators, filters, sequences and modulation matrices. Vangelis is extending symphonic repertoire with synths not unlike Wendy Carlos did, although with different focus. That is not to say each of these artist is not good in their own right. I'm touching two geniuses here. But if there was ever an 'electronic' artist to which digital era did a great favour, it's Vangelis. Even his early works with Aphrodite's Child reveal more high-pass-filtered waveforms than buzzy, murmuring, fat analog sounds. In the very essence, what encapsulates Vangelis is a lovely piano passage on 'Antarctica' with synth tapestry underneath. Jarre is a more for a ethereal melody over ARP 2600 sequence. I just like 'electronic' sounds more, that's it. P.S. I have yet to check Vangelis' collaboration with Neuronium...I love Neuronium a lot!

Very nice post

Edited by richardh - December 08 2010 at 15:08

Vangelis for sure