MASK

'Mask' is on one hand an excellent work with a very fine sound and mature composition far from either the weirdest or the poppiest of Vangelis. But it is also, in my opinion, quite a boring album as a whole, since there are relatively few motifs that are repeated over and over. Years ago I taped it with a "slight" (30-40%?) editing but after realizing I never listened to it, I decided to leave just an extract of couple of minutes.

The music seems to be connected to Greek mythology, but one senses it only on the atmospheric level, nothing story-like to be noticed. No revealing titles or texts either. Slow percussions and the choir sound great - someone compared it to ERA, only it's better - and drag the listener into a hypnotic state. It only goes on and on without much happening in the music. And the more typical synth motif keeps returning even if it's not very impressive. Well, of course the album would need more dedicated listenings than I gave it in the first place. But judged from my taped edition... boring, boring. Not among his best works no matter how good it actually sounds.