BLADE RUNNER (OST)

Before this official release, just 1 year after the movie, some "New American Orchestra" recorded parts from the original soundtrack in an orchestral version. The result was absolutely not bad also taking into account that the OST has been released so late.

For me it's strange now listening to the original which includes also more songs I'm less familiar with.

This is the first of the two movie soundtracks (the other is 1492) realized by Vangelis for Ridley Scott and both are excellent (not the movies as Blade Runner is light years better than 1492). "Main Titles" wan an excellent opener for the movie. I can't really separate the sensations given by the movie's dark post-modern environment and the music. The pyramid of the Tyrell Corporation emerges from the big metropolis behind and is the only building partially touched by the sunset. The music is spacey. The recordings (noises and voices) fit very well.

"Blush Response" is one of the songs not present in the NAO version. It's a dialogue backed by a dark low-pitched keyboard. When it ends the music is full of tension. The electronic drums sound is very 80s, but this track can be compared to some of today's Senmuth's stuff.

Another track not in the mentioned NAO album is "Wait For Me". ven if I have seen the movie a lot of times, it was dubbed in my home language, so I can't say which is the part commented by this slow dark track. From a musical point of view it has some contact points in the tempo and in the sounds used with "The City", in particular the first two album's tracks only a bit darker.

"Rachel's Song" had to be dramatic. She's the female character, one who doesn't know to be a replicant and discovers that everything she remembers of her life is fictitious. Initially hard, she becomes fragile. The mute singing of Kate Hopkins over a very sad but sweet melody describes the character very well. And it's a great track in the mood of L'Apocalypse Des Animaux even without the movie.

"Love Theme" is almost identical in both this version and in the NOA. Here the sax is played by Dick Morrisey, but what he plays is the same that his less known colleague plays on the other version so he doesn't make the difference. This version is just a bit longer. Same for "One More Kiss, Dear". A 40s fashioned song. I suspect the singer, Don Percival, is the same on both the albums. It gives a touch of grotesque to the ultra-technological ambientation. Outside the movie there would have been no need for a song like this.

"Blade Runner Blues" is my favourite track on both the albums. I have to say that the flugelhorn of the other version gives more (dark) colour to the piece, but this is the movie version. One of the most dramatic and action moments of the movie is just finished. A bleeding Harrison Ford and Sean Young stand under the rain after the "battle". The music is slow and evocative. The melody is bluesy. Without the movie it could make me think to a smokey jazz club.

"Memories of Green" was the only decent track on the very poor "See You Later". It has been reused. I don't listen to See You Later since years, so I can't currently say if it has been played or just copied. I think the first as I have the impression of a longer coda. The NOA version was good as well but without the recordings at the end.

"Tales Of the Future" underlines a transition in the movie. I didn't recognize Demis Roussos initially. He sings with his very high-pitched voice but the language is alien. A great evocative track on which the voice is the leading instrument.

"Damask Rose" has an ethnic (middle-eastern) flavour. In the multi-ethnic and chaotic city imagined by Ridley Scott (and by philip Dick, of course) it's very appropriate. Short and athmospheric.

"End Titles" is probably the most famous track of this OST. Something that even who doesn't know anything of Vangelis has surely listened at least one time from TV or radio.

While this was the last track on the NOA version, on this OST there's an amazing appendix. "Tears in Rain" contains the whole monologue of Batty (Rutger Hauer). The most touching moment of the movie when the "bad guy" is dying and tells his considerations about death to the "good guy". It seems that Hauer improvised it. This is directly extracted from the movie. The music behind Batty was also present in the NOA version without batty and with the title "Farewell".

A great soundtrack for a great movie with Vangelis at his best. One of the few good things produced in the 80s and maybe for this reason released only in the 90s.