Tough call...both are great stuff and both have chaff. 

I'll go with Oldfield. 

Same here, both are phenomenal composers.

Still, bias nudges me in Vangelis' direction. I own more albums by him, and I believe he's the more eclectic/progressive artist of the two. 

Albedo 0.39 is just amazing, too.

I love Oldfield but it's Vangelis, for Heaven And Hell, Albedo 0.39, China and for having touched all the prog subgenres during his career.  

octopus-4 wrote: I love Oldfield but it's Vangelis, for Heaven And Hell, Albedo 0.39, China and for having touched all the prog subgenres during his career.

I like the way you think!

I've always regarded H&H, Albedo and Spiral as an unofficial trilogy.

Oldfield is easily among my favorites, and I give him an edge over Vangelis. My go-to albums include Tubular Bells, Ommadawn, Amarok, Tubular Bells II, Songs of Distant Earth, and Return to Ommadawn.

Same with me.

Tough as I love both.

Both were pretty amazing between 1973 and 1984 and hardly put a foot wrong. I can't even guess who was the most brilliant but in terms of personal preference I would probably go with Vangelis just about. After that it does go a bit patchy for both of them. Oldfield had 2 more masterpieces in him (Amarok and Songs Of Distant Earth) while Vangelis I would say managed a definite one in El Greco (not the OST for a film which he also did) and perhaps a debatable one in Voices.

If I had to choose who I would want to listen to every album by, then I would choose Vangelis definitely as Oldfield has plumbs some real depths unfortunately. His forays into pop and rock just don't work for me. As a solo artist Vangelis has managed to avoid that but when he does veer off and collaborate then it goes very well as evidenced by his albums with Jon Anderson and Irene Papas. Oldfield is possibly a bit too much of a control freak and maybe the nearest he had to a proper collaborative work was Crisis with Simon Phillips. I think he might have benefited more from doing more of this.

richardh wrote: If I had to choose who I would want to listen to every album by, then I would choose Vangelis definitely

 Wow, you surprised me! I thought Oldfield was your preference. 

I love Voices; I rank many of his 90s work as among his best, especially 1492,  Oceanic, and Voices. His single Ithaca with Sean Connery's voice from 2004 is a classic, and his newest album Rosetta's really good too:)

Yep.....never really got all the love for these guys....pretty straight ahead instrumental stuff.

The sounds Vangelis makes with his Yamaha CS80 and other synths are very special. And when he combines it with real instruments, whether flamenco guitar or saxophone, voices, chimes, etc., it's like ear candy:) And he kept the use of sequencers to a minimum, making him a bit unique compared to other synth artists, such as Tangerine Dream. Plus he has real composition skills, his music is quite emotional, and he bucks the trend towards minimalism in electronic music. There's really no one else out there quite like him. For me, everything started with Blade Runner when I was child, and it was a matter of hearing everything else he did.

Haha, if that were the case, Oldfield's discography would resemble Mannheim Steamroller's, while Vangelis' music would be as sonically invigorating as Ravel's "Boléro."

between the two, oldfield

With Jon Anderson I suggest "Short Stories" even if it's the less commercial of the 4 released together.

To start with Vangelis my personal favorites are "Heaven and Hell" and "Albedo 0.39", but you can try also "China" and out of the 70s I'd say "The City" and "Direct". 

Then if you have some bucks to spend, the boxset for the 25th anniversary of "Blade Runner" features also Demis Rousseau.

Personally I like also the two albums with the actress Irene Papas, but they aren't easy to find. I purchased them in a little shop in Crete at the beginning of the 90s.

Hi,

Sad to see a thread like this ... it's like asking ... Beethoven or Tchaikovsky ... and/or ... left handed or right handed?

There is no proper answer, other than personal favorites.

But one can say at least one thing for them ... they have an Oscar in their closet, and will be remembered far and very far into time and history of music, for their achievements, instead of their top ten content.

MO has a more recognizable sound or rock and pop music, but in the end, Vangelis is more classical music sounding than MO ever is/was, whose compositions tend to be more riff oriented than they are musically defined and inclined as Vangelis composes them. So, in this sense, Vangelis makes more sense, however, for a top ten oriented group, like this thread's folks, the likelihood is that MO will get the nod, because the larger appreciation for classical music and its history, simply is not as visible here, to be able to place these two in their proper context. 

Both deserve to be there, and are in my book, 2 of the greatest modern composers of the 20th century ... but PA is not a group that likes to open up that discussion some more like I do. I kinda think that the only other composer in the 20th century that stands up to both of them is Igor Stravinsky, but there are many others that also deserve to be mentioned in that century, although the stuff that is most readily remembered is usually related to the popular field, and not to the more "artsy" group of things that are considered "composition" and/or "classical".

         I may own (or have, before selling back the dudes...) all of them both. Overall this would be Vangelis. Some had mentioned Songs of distant earth to which i would add Voyager  as an ardent celtic music lover, as the only valuable album for M.O. during a lapse of time of nearly twenty years. Music of the Spheres broke that loosing streak for me. And Return to Ommadawn while not the masterpiece many ackowledge is still on par with the Robert Reed's tribute which for me is the best way to compare it. I stiil buy everything under his name though, and always think it could be gold... Down to light deception most of the time for 30 years then.

       Vangelis had, on the other end almost consistently reinvented himself. Anyone for "Earth"? This is the missing link between Aphrodite's child "666' and l"Apocalypse des animaux. I actually enjoy bits and pieces of his 70's electronic work. A good "Best of" with clever choice  selections is enough for me. But from Blade Runner up to Oceanic he could'nt go wrong in my appreciation. Soil Festivities, Direct, 1492 evidently were all intensely satisfying. Actually i make playlist of Vangelis music, One balladic one, one epic, "pump and fanfare" one, a choral one, and so on . As Jon and Vangelis, i considered them guilty pleasure. And the Blade Runner box set is entrancing. Last word is about Rosetta: funnily i would put it on par with Return to Ommadawn: nowhere near a peak but a way to summarize and say hello to the mass of ardent followers. If only Ex Genesis members could feel the same!

Seems to me that Ravel is a HUGE influence in prog. Apart of that your thoughts are pretty much mine. One can't define Vangelis by Chariots of fire, nor Oldfield by Family man...

They were reissued not long ago so shouldn't be that hard to find. Odes is probably a bit better than Rhapsodies but both are worth having indeed.

Exactly. Earth, Albedo 0.39,  Beauborg, Opera Sauvage, Mask, Direct and Rosetta were all recorded by the same guy. Each sounds like a different entity altogether. 

Rednight wrote: How about The Outfield or Vangelis?

Vangelis, fer shure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCbqhJt16k" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCbqhJt16k

Is that right? My limited knowledge on the subject is that TB was championed by the respected British DJ John Peel and then snowballed from there. The Exorcist didn't do it any harm though that's for sure!

It was actually released months before the movie and was perhaps made widely known in the UK by John Peel. In any case my main complaint is that despite its shocking length it has no variety and gets boring fast. 

Vangelis has done many different things. Depending on what you usually like listening to, I'm sure I can find at least one album suitable for your tastes. 

Just mention a band/artist that you like.

Not just Vangelis alone but not too far from Drake

Some classical guitar

 

The man of a thousand subtleties and nuances fitting literally all in just one 5 minute piece..... what a FAN-TAS-TIC work of art! This is Vangelis.

I love Nick Drake (& Vangelis). For me, the Vangelis album that would most probably appeal to a Nick Drake fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t6eqn4Fg8E

It's interesting what you say as actually my main complaint about it is that it's too fractured and perhaps even too many ideas fighting each other. It was as is well know a series of unfinished pieces that got thrown together. Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn are both better as already stated although Amarok should not be undersold either. That's a mental album in more ways than one. MO putting a couple of fingers up to Richard Branson as being a bit 'Cloth Eared ....' apparently!

Yes, that entire album (Albedo 0.39) is amazing. My fave Vangelis record.

The rerecorded takes TB takes away the main strength of the original - its atmosphere. It's mostly the same apart from the section which originally featured Viv Stanshall who had sadly departed us by the time of its recording.

Amarok is some kind of epic chaos admittedly. TB was a series of pieces strung together. Some of its inspired but really it was never conceived as one piece whereas Amarok was. 

Mike's 5 star albums for me

Ommadawn

Incantations

Platinum

Amarok

Songs Of Distant Earth

There are a lot of 4 star albums! Hergest Ridge gets a point deducted for the heavy metal section which is ill conceived (imo) but the rest is sublime. TB is a 3-4 star album in my book. I actually prefer TB3 to the original especially the live version at Horse Guards Parade.

Return To Ommadawn is going to be a bit of grower I suspect although I still feel it's in the 3 star category for me. The original Ommadawn is so inspired and so perfect , even the 'Horse Song' so I can't quite see it as near that. All the same it's very good and way better than any of the Mike Oldfield imitations that have surfaced in recent years.

However I would put Tres Lunas , Guitars and Voyager just ahead of it although they are not really comparable stylistically.

 

For me it has to be Vangelis. I say that simply because in the late 70's and early 80's a few of us at school started to explore electronic music (I must thank my French teacher for that, Mrs. Concorde.......it was the nose that done it ).She introduced us to Jean Michel Jarre in French class and a few of us loved it so much we not only eventually purchased those albums we could at the time but started to explore beyond Jarre. We encountered Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and in my case Vangelis.

Oh yawn. I'll give you my proper answers: Beethoven of course - and left handed - and Vangelis. That was easy! All based on personal preference and listening experience. Sorry to make you even more sad.

pingkrimfloyd58 wrote: Vangelis simply because of Spiral

 

Amazing album, though I prefer Albedo 0.39.