Vangelis: Prog-Related or Progressive Electronic

Hi,

I would recommend listening to things in order ... so that the differences do not thrown you off as much. It is very clear when he started doing digital stuff and how it influenced his abilities, but it did not "change" his basic style which was to have some long passages of incredible beauty and touch which he developed very early.

Above all, remember that Vangelis is a composer for the ages and even has an OSCAR for his work, and all that means is that his music will be remembered far longer than most rock musicians anywhere in the world. His music was so valuable and important to the band's work, that its "visualization" leant itself to film, where with the right director, his music was tremendous. Some folks might not like this bit or that in CoF or this bit or that in BR, but no one can say that the music did not fit, or was not used right ... visually, specially in a film, its use was stunning!

The only problem is that most of us here, are just rockers, and having to listen to something without lyrics that asks you to visualize something of your own, makes for very tough listening. Now you know why so many folks can not handle Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze (specially!). In many ways, it really should be said that this is way beyond what we consider "music".

Soil Festivities is a beautiful focused electronic album , certainly check out Antarctica next which is almost a companion album and was recorded about the same time.

I really like Direct but it's a lot less focused. However Intergalactic Radio Station is one of my favourite Vangelis pieces . The whole album has a much more 'proggy' feel to it and wanders about quite a bit!

This thread was the inspiration for listening to and rating all of Vangelis' albums recently, and at the same time discovering the amazing voice of Irene Papas. 

I'd love to "rescore" certain films. Ridley Scott's Alien featuring Vangelis' Beauborg sounds like a great match.