SPIRAL

In 1977, Vangelis was already amassing a pretty impressive discography as a solo artist and was at a high point in his creative output, gaining impressive critical and popular acclaim after releasing 'Heaven and Hell' in 1975 and 'Albedo 0.39' in 1976, two of his most acclaimed albums. These, among with his numerous soundtrack albums, were proving to give him a great following and he wasn't quite at the point where he was going to change that yet.

So, for 1977, he released another conceptual album with 'Spiral', an album that would be based on the themes inspired by Tao beliefs of the nature of the universe moving in spirals. His album cover was simple, a spiraled stereo headphone chord suspended in air with a blue sky as the background, quite a fitting picture of music meeting with space and philosophy. The album isn't quite as well known as the preceding albums, even though it is based more on simplistic melodies meant to reflect the simplicity of the spiral philosophy. It would also consist of distinct tracks more than most of his preceding albums.

This also marks the first time that Vangelis would use what would become his instrument of choice for a while, the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, thus giving us the sound that he would be famous for. The first side consists of 3 tracks. 'Spiral' is based off of an arpeggio which varies throughout the track, broken up to create a melodic feel with a throbbing percussive feel deep in the background. Dynamics are used quite effectively to go from a dreamy to a stately feel with an organ style sound providing a regal melody. The music later boasts multiple layers teasing each other, the sounds and textures making this a nice kaleidoscope of sound even becoming busy at times. 'Ballad' is the only track that consists of any vocals, and they are processed wordless vocals sung by Vangelis which provides an understated melody. It features an electric organ and harmonica, builds to a percussive climax with timpani and brass instruments and then quiets down being led out with a beautiful harmonica melody. 'Dervish D' is explained in the program notes as having been 'inspired by the Dervish Dancer who by his whirling realizes the spiraling of the universe'. It acts in contrast to the previous more pensive track with its funky foundation created by a sequencer making it quite accessible and creating an infectious hook for the album along with a catchy synth melody.

Side two consists of two tracks each in the 9 minute range. 'To the Unknown Man' is probably the most memorable track of the album. There are three main sections to the song. The first part moves along pushed by a moderately slow pulse and melody. The 2nd time through the melody, processed strings join in giving it a smoother and lusher feeling. A marching rhythm begins as the dynamics build up in the 3rd go round and brass embellishments are added in. You can hear some foretelling of 'Chariots of Fire' and other well-known Vangelis tracks in this track. After a while, the beat turns into a more rock-oriented style and the synths give up melody for a more improvised style based on that original melody. The last track is '3+3' which reflects the 6/8 meter that comes along later in the track. It all starts out with a fast running arpeggio-based line that sounds a bit complex even with a synth motif played almost in counterpoint. It sound a bit off-kilter until the percussion comes in and starts to divide everything up into a more accessible rhythm. The fast moving sequence that remains as a foundation gives this track the most futuristic sound of all of the tracks on the album. The music shifts from straight melody to a more improvised feel as it moves along and it is also the most progressive of the tracks.

This album is definitely one of the more structured albums from Vangelis, though it's not necessarily radio friendly so to speak as the tracks are all fairly long for radio play. However, it is more accessible than some of his previous albums. Even with this move towards the easier listening style, it is still one of his lesser acknowledged albums, though it is one that I feel is worthwhile with plenty in it to make it interesting and fun to listen to. It retains it's appeal much better than some of Vangelis' extremely accessible albums which were blatant attempts to steal some radio air play time. He doesn't resort to that quite yet, so this one is still great and interesting at the same time, though a slight step down from the last two non-soundtrack albums.