BEAUBOURG

Unlike any of the highly melodic and universally appealing recordings surrounding this album in his discography, Vangelis' Beauborg is a very dark and apparantly loosely structured work of art that sounds like an experiment, but is definintely a work of art. It's correctly labeled as experimental and avant-garde, and I even agree that it's a difficult listen: the most prominent melody is a two-note tritone, and that along with all the other sounds that pop up semi randomly, is all kind of thrown into a sea of rather thin atomosphere that is sometimes even very loud and not entirely pleasant. There's variation, but not much throughout the 38 1/2 minute piece. What the piece's strength lies in is in it's mood, which along with the aforementioned strange atomsphere, is very convincing. There's also a very high emotional content to the piece, ironically. Beaubourg is vision inducing music, and highly interesting from an experimental standpoint, but not necessarily entertaining, and although it is successful in creating a unique world, a whole album of that world could stand for a little more variation than is found here. The first time I heard it, I was very impressed at Vangelis' the artistic versatility the piece adds to his repretiore, but also knew I would probably only listen to the album occasionally. It's interesting, but if you're new to Vangelis, starting with one of his immediately earlier or later albums would give you a better example of his sound. I struggle with the rating: it's not an easy listen all the way through, but there are some very original ideas, and I do get drawn back to it, so I'm giving it 2 stars, but there is an extra star in there somewhere that floats to the surface every so often.