Music Vangelis Appreciation Thread(R.I.P)
- Thread starter Sweet Square
- Start date
Ahhh man, that sucks.
RIP
RIP
He wrote some great stuff. The Bladerunner soundtrack is fantastic. RIP
The Blade Runner soundtrack is amazing.
As much love as both the Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire soundtracks get, this is probably my favourite Vangelis piece:
What I always admired in his music was how fitting was with the so vastly different time frames he dealt with. From 666 and the Book of revelation (my personal favourite from his work), the futuristic Blade runner, the 1492, the early 1920s etc. He covered almost 3000 years of time period!
Ah, no... Such a great musician, sad to learn he's gone. 
He's probably mostly know for soundtracks and new age-y ambient stuff for the general public, but he's had a huge range of work. Before becoming the solo synth artist, he was in The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child making early progrock. Then on synths, he made jazzrock (on Albedo especially - playing drums and bass himself!), heavily arpeggiated stuff (like Spiral), weird soundscapes (Beaubourg), operatic work (Heaven and Hell, Mask), poppier stuff (Direct, The City, Voices), actual pop (the four albums with Jon Anderson; rather hit and miss but some really good stuff here and there), numerous awesome soundtracks that are more mood-oriented (including especially Bladerunner and Conquest of Paradise; but there are tons of them, including nature documentaries like the amazing L'opéra sauvage), and a more layered rock-like album like See You Later, which is probably my personal favorite. And then I'm still forgetting stuff (e.g., China and Soil Festivities fit somewhere else again) - and thenof course there is the actual rather ambient stuff (Oceanic, Rosetta - basically a lot of his work since the late 90s, that I am therefore also less familiar with).
Absolutely amazing and a great loss to music in my opinion. In addition to @Sweet Square's and @mazhar13's posts above, I'll just post what may currenly be my favorite track of his:
The arpeggiators, jazzy bits, beauty, sadness, even the collaboration with Jon Anderson: it's all there.
He's probably mostly know for soundtracks and new age-y ambient stuff for the general public, but he's had a huge range of work. Before becoming the solo synth artist, he was in The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child making early progrock. Then on synths, he made jazzrock (on Albedo especially - playing drums and bass himself!), heavily arpeggiated stuff (like Spiral), weird soundscapes (Beaubourg), operatic work (Heaven and Hell, Mask), poppier stuff (Direct, The City, Voices), actual pop (the four albums with Jon Anderson; rather hit and miss but some really good stuff here and there), numerous awesome soundtracks that are more mood-oriented (including especially Bladerunner and Conquest of Paradise; but there are tons of them, including nature documentaries like the amazing L'opéra sauvage), and a more layered rock-like album like See You Later, which is probably my personal favorite. And then I'm still forgetting stuff (e.g., China and Soil Festivities fit somewhere else again) - and thenof course there is the actual rather ambient stuff (Oceanic, Rosetta - basically a lot of his work since the late 90s, that I am therefore also less familiar with).
Absolutely amazing and a great loss to music in my opinion. In addition to @Sweet Square's and @mazhar13's posts above, I'll just post what may currenly be my favorite track of his:
The arpeggiators, jazzy bits, beauty, sadness, even the collaboration with Jon Anderson: it's all there.
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Always felt he played a huge part in Blade Runner's success and legacy. Perfect movie soundtrack. Also never get tired of Chariots of Fire and Conquest of Paradise. Among the greatest movie soundtracks of all time. I think he even contributed on a football championship (was it Euro 2000 in NL and Belgium or 2002 WC ?) official song which was a catchy EDM tune.
Ah, no... Such a great musician, sad to learn he's gone.
He's probably mostly know for soundtracks and new age-y ambient stuff for the general public, but he's had a huge range of work. Before becoming the solo synth artist, he was in The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child making early progrock. Then on synths, he made jazzrock (on Albedo especially - playing drums and bass himself!), heavily arpeggiated stuff (like Spiral), weird soundscapes (Beaubourg), operatic work (Heaven and Hell, Mask), poppier stuff (Direct, The City, Voices), actual pop (the four albums with Jon Anderson; rather hit and miss but some really good stuff here and there), numerous awesome soundtracks that are more mood-oriented (including especially Bladerunner and Conquest of Paradise; but there are tons of them, including nature documentaries like the amazing L'opéra sauvage), and a more layered rock-like album like See You Later, which is probably my personal favorite. And then I'm still forgetting stuff (e.g., China and Soil Festivities fit somewhere else again), and of course the actual rather ambient stuff (Oceanic, Rosetta - basically a lot of his work since the late 90s, that I am therefore also less familiar with).
Absolutely amazing and a great loss to music in my opinion. In addition to @Sweet Square's and @mazhar13's posts above, I'll just post what may currenly be my favorite track of his:
The arpeggiators, jazzy bits, beauty, sadness, even the collaboration with Jon Anderson: it's all there.
His talent is so apparent when you hear the variety of his pieces and the moods they elicit. To me, he's similar to Brian Eno and Aphex Twin in that regard; despite their differing focuses, they're multitalented composers who can produce masterpieces in different musical genres.
Man, that is just so sudden.
I've always been a fan of his music. I can sure bring Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner and 1492 among my favorites, but I will say that I also have a really soft spot for Alexander as well. There were many pieces of great music in that movie, but this one stands even above the popular cue named Titans.
I've always been a fan of his music. I can sure bring Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner and 1492 among my favorites, but I will say that I also have a really soft spot for Alexander as well. There were many pieces of great music in that movie, but this one stands even above the popular cue named Titans.
Absolutely. It's amazing how multi-sided people can be musically.
This likely won't mean much to you, but just a few weeks ago, Henny Vrienten, a famous Dutch musician died. He was mostly known as a key member of a wildly popular reggae group of the late 70s and early 80s (Doe Maar; the Dutch Police, in a sense), but after that, he had a great career as a film composer, creating film soundtracks with enormous musical variety (from one film to another) - and then coming back to pop in the last decade or so.
I play and make music myself (well, very little these days), and while I can see for most artists how they can create their music (I couldn't do it nearly as well, but I can understand how their inspiration and creative processes work), I am forever in awe of people that can cover such a wide range of music.
Iirc he did the 2002 WC anthem. Sad news
Of course! That was my favorite World Cup anthem for a while before Hans Zimmer came with his own music for 2018. Just pure class.
One of the great composers. The Blade Runner OST is absolutely incredible, the Chariots of Fire tune is also amazing. Just a great great composer, this is sad news... RIP
RIP
Good - but that keyboard doesn't look anything like a Yamaha CS-80! Vangelis's iconic synth with its magistral sound. Let's have some of that in this thread as well! (Although it also features in the second video in the OP - e.g. at 1:00, it's the synth he's playing below the synth at the bottom.)
A short demo:
And there is a lot of in this video of Vangelis working on 1979's China album (especially in the first bit):
But it features most strongly here, in this improvisation from 1982 (including some great use of its famous ribbon controller):
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There's some clips of it creation in this interview here btw:
(Yes, I'm watching Vangelis videos this evening.
)His work on Alexander was GOAT-tier
RIP.
RIP.
Ahh no, that's sad
I have a few of his albums, including some work he did with Jon Anderson
I have a few of his albums, including some work he did with Jon Anderson
RIP Legend
Long before I was aware of his legendary Blade Runner score, I had heard Chariots of Fire, but my main link with Vangelis' music was that my dad would constantly play a cassette of Friends of Mr Cairo in the car when we went on long journeys. It's such a weird album, full of mysterious samples of dialogue, unusual sounds and often indecipherable lyrics from Jon Anderson.
Anyway, for old time's sake, here it is again:
Anyway, for old time's sake, here it is again:
I really like that song! (The album version adds 8 minutes actually, but mostly story, not much 'proper' song.) The album is a bit hit and miss though. I'll Find My Way Home and State of Independence are good songs, but the rest isn't quite on the same level. Although it also doesn't help that the version I have sounds really thin; the album might work better with a proper remaster that's mixed a lot better.
One of best musician ever (and one of the most underrated for sure).
Conquest of paradise is, imo, his best song ever.
But also this
Conquest of paradise is, imo, his best song ever.
But also this
That scene when ships are coming with that song in background is iconic
Great album. Apart from the title track, this one is awesome as well:
Not much happens really, but after all that build-up, it's somehow perfect how the drums come in at 2:13, and even better how the vocals start at 2:33. Timing is everything here.
All hail the synth god!