Vangelis - An Electronic Koine

Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou, aka Vangelis, is one of the most celebrated electronic composers of his era. His distinctive style, built on short melodic phrases and grandiose symphonic arrangements, marked the meeting point between the cosmic music of the Seventies and the new age sound of two decades later, deeply influencing the global electronic scene. Like his French counterpart Jean-Michel Jarre, he had the merit of bringing electronic music to a mass audience, smoothing out some of the rougher edges of the Teutonic tradition.

Born in Valos, Greece, in 1943, Mr. Papathanassiou showed considerable musical talent from an early age. He started playing at four, and by six - without any formal musical education - was already performing his own compositions in public. "I always felt I didn't need to learn my musical knowledge from others, because I always considered personal experience and evolution essential," he would later recall.

In the early Sixties he formed a band, Formynx, which quickly became very popular in his home country. In 1968, after the Colonels' coup in Greece, the young Vangelis decided to move to Paris, where together with fellow Greeks Demis Roussos and Louckas Sideras he formed the trio Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock group that would soon become hugely famous across Europe with the track "Rain and Tears".

After the band's breakup, the double album 666 (1970) was released, a collection of esoteric, mysterious music that effectively marks Vangelis's solo debut. Among its tracks are the psychedelic blues of "Four Horsemen" and "Break", the gothic-ceremonial rituals of "The Lamb", "Wedding Of The Lamb" and "Aegian Sea", the chaos of "Wakening Beast", the mournful prayer of "Lament", the wild tribalism of "Babylon" and "Capture Of The Beast", as well as the lengthy suite "All The Seats Were Occupied".

Using this adventure as his first step into the professional music world, Vangelis went on to explore new sonic paths through the use of electronics, searching for a musical style of his own that he would find above all as a soundtrack composer, surrounded by dozens of keyboards, expanders and sequencers. The Dragon (1971), in particular, set out to depict in music the rites of Chinese New Year celebrations, through an atmosphere both festive and menacing, between obsessive percussion and disorienting electric violins. His following works are the symphonic poem Fait Que Ton Reve Soit Plus Long Que la Nuit and the soundtrack for Frederic Rossif's film L'Apocalypse des Animaux. The latter, in particular, brought Vangelis considerable success thanks to at least three masterpieces: the romantic "La Petite Fille De La Mer", enriched by a poignant music-box refrain, the jazz theme "Le Singe Bleu" and the lengthy "Creation Du Monde", an electronic score in the style of early Tangerine Dream. Two more soundtracks for Rossif would follow, Le Fete Sauvage (1976) with the long suite "Flammants Roses", and Opera Sauvage (1979), bolstered by the futurist noise of "Bacchanale" and the spatial melody of "Hymn". His official solo debut, however, came with the album Earth, a sort of symphonic rock opera with Indian overtones ("Sunny Earth").

From the mid-Seventies, Vangelis relocated to London, where he built his own studio-laboratory, further developing his sonic theories in the albums to come. In 1975 came Heaven and Hell, a grandiose work built on short melodic phrases and symphonic orchestrations. The albums that followed - Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Beaubourg, China and See You Later, all as ever composed, performed and produced by Vangelis - achieved an almost complete fusion of acoustic and electronic instruments, proving to be the first sketches of a sound that would soon be universally embraced.

At the start of the Eighties, Vangelis released an album of traditional music with Greek actress Irene Papas (Odes, 1980) and a series of albums with Yes singer Jon Anderson (from Short Stories in 1979 to The Friends Of Mr Cairo in 1981, from Private Collection and He Is Sailing in 1983 to Page Of Life in 1991).

In 1982 Vangelis won the Oscar for the soundtrack to Chariots Of Fire, whose triumphant "main theme" stands as one of the peaks of his symphonic romanticism. That same year he produced two other major soundtracks: for Ridley Scott's epoch-making Blade Runner and for Costa Gavras's excellent Missing.

The stunning soundtrack for Blade Runner in particular coined the cyberpunk musical vocabulary, boasting some extraordinarily evocative pieces, such as the sweeping end-titles theme (one of his absolute masterpieces), the tense "Blush Response", the electronic sequence of "Rachel's Song" (with Mary Hopkin's ethereal vocalizations), the romantic "Love Theme" (with Dick Morrisey's saxophone solo), the futuristic "Memories Of Green", and the tender, atmospheric lounge mood of "One More Kiss, Dear".

In 1983 Vangelis composed the music for Koreyoshi Kurahara's haunting, mystical Antarctica, the highest-grossing film ever produced in Japan. From the 1980s onward he also began writing music for theatre and ballet. That same year he composed the score for Michael Kakoyannis's staging of Electra, starring Irene Papas, performed in the ancient amphitheatre of Epidaurus in Greece. He then wrote the scores for the ballets "Frankenstein", "Modern Prometheus" in 1985 and "Beauty and the Beast" in 1987, both choreographed by Wayne Eagling and staged by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London.

In the mid-1980s came the experimental foray of Invisible Connections (1985), an atonal album recorded for one of the most prestigious classical music labels, Deutsche Grammophon, and the six-movement polyphonic work Mask (1985), a daring combination of rarefied electronics, majestic choirs and eccentric percussion. These were followed by the more "conventional" Direct and the soundtrack for The Bounty. In 1989 came the compilation of film scores Themes (1989), which includes some of his classics, from "La Petite Fille De La Mer" to "Chariots Of Fire", from "Blade Runner" to "Antarctica".

In 1989 Vangelis received the Max Steiner Award for film music composition. This award, given in the name of one of the most important film composers in history, was presented alongside the Hall Of Fame Award, with the following citation: "Awarded in recognition of tireless work composing film music, lending ever greater dignity and artistic value to the film score."

1990 opened with the release of the album The City. In 1991 Vangelis accepted an invitation to sit on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. From there he travelled to the Netherlands, where he orchestrated and conducted an event for the European Eureka project in front of 250,000 people. That same summer, on behalf of the Greek government, he hosted International Poetry Day, a gala concert presented at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus beneath the Acropolis. The concert, a tribute to the arts and literature, featured artists such as actors Alan Bates and Fanny Ardant and mezzo-soprano Markella Hatziano.

In Paris, in 1992, Vangelis composed the score for Roman Polanski's psychological thriller Bitter Moon. This was followed by the "epic" score for 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Ridley Scott's retelling of the story of Christopher Columbus. The album went gold or platinum in more than 17 countries, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria, the UK and Canada, reaching its peak in Germany, where Vangelis won the prestigious Echo Award as International Artist of the Year 1995 and the Golden Lion for Best Soundtrack. Two other major honours came in the '90s: in 1992 French Minister of Culture Jack Lang named him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the following year the Greek National Opera awarded him the prestigious "Apollo" music prize.

During this period Vangelis collaborated with scientist/filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, for whom he composed several scores, including "We Cannot Permit", presented at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

In 1994 Vangelis reissued the Blade Runner soundtrack, adding several tracks to those of the original release. The Greek composer's mastery in perfectly capturing the images of a film that has become legendary also made the soundtrack itself legendary.

Inspired by the painter El Greco, Vangelis, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Athens, led a campaign in 1995 to purchase El Greco's painting of Saint Peter and to establish a fund for the National Gallery to acquire major works of art. Each of the 3,000 copies of the limited-edition box set A Tribute To El Greco (featuring the great Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé and Greek tenor Konstantinos Paliatsaras) was sold exclusively by the National Gallery as a work of art in its own right. Thanks to the proceeds from the box set and donations from across the country, El Greco's Saint Peter found its permanent home in Greece, and the National Gallery's fund was launched.

Also in 1995, Vangelis had a minor planet named after him by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, in recognition of musical work so rich in "universe". Asteroid 6354, now called Vangelis, lies about 247 million miles from the sun, between Jupiter and Mars. Nearby, in spatial terms, are the planets Beethoven, Mozart and Bach. That same year the Greek composer recorded the album Voices, featuring the vocals of Paul Young, Caroline Lavelle and Stina Nordenstam.

In 1996 Vangelis won another award: in Monte Carlo he was named the best-selling Greek artist in the world at the World Music Awards, under the patronage of Prince Albert of Monaco. That same year he released the compilation Portraits and the evocative album Oceanic, as well as composing the score for Yannis Smaragdis's film Cavafy, a portrait of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy. This latter score earned him awards at the International Film Festival in Belgium and the Valencia Festival in Spain.

In 1997 he was honoured again in Monte Carlo, and he made his first collaboration with Montserrat Caballé on the album Friends for Life. That same summer, Vangelis gave one of his rare live performances, conducting and coordinating the opening ceremony of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics held at the Panathenaic Marble Stadium in Athens. Many believe that the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2004 Olympic Games to Greece was made that very evening, when everyone was struck by the beauty of the spectacle. In 1998 the album El Greco finally became available in record stores.

In 1999 Vangelis released his decade-spanning retrospective album, Reprise. In May 2000 he composed the music and oversaw the staging of the ceremony marking the handover of the Olympic flame from Greece to Australia for the 2000 Sydney Games. That October he did the same for the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, with the handover of the Olympic flag to Greece. In 2001 came the work Mythodea - Music For The Nasa Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey, dedicated to NASA's mission to the "red planet". "I coined the word Mythodea from the Greek words Mythos and Ode," Vangelis explained. "I feel certain they correspond exactly to what NASA is doing in exploring Mars. Whatever key we use to try to solve the mystery of creation involves music, mythology, science, mathematics, astronomy. We are all working, consciously or unconsciously, to solve the universal mystery: who we are, where we come from, where we are going."

Vangelis's music is so varied that it can be described as pop, rock, classical, jazz or new age. The Greek composer himself, speaking about his work, once said: "All I try to do is let the audience know what I think through my music. I just bring the music to the listener, then it's up to them to do what they want with it." And in Vangelis's wonderfully varied career, there is also room for curious forays into Italian music: collaborations with Claudio Baglioni ("E tu", 1974), Riccardo Cocciante ("Concerto per Margherita", 1976), Patty Pravo ("Tanto", 1976) and Krisma ("Chinese Restaurant" and "Hibernation"), as well as his long-standing partnership with Milva.

In 2016 Vangelis returned with Rosetta, an album dedicated to the European space mission of the same name, which came to fruition in 2004 and culminated with the landing of the Philae probe on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, before finally concluding on 30 September 2016 with the probe's planned crash landing.

It is at the invitation of ESA astronaut André Kuipers that, two years after the expanded reissue of the "Chariots Of Fire" soundtrack made for the stage version of the film on the occasion of the London Olympics, Vangelis agrees to abandon his absence from the public scene spent in the cloistered (yet still prolific) asceticism of his home studio, to return to inlaying and damascening visual and mental images with the aid of his personal Midi system of analog and digital synthesizers based on the "Direct box".

Premiered on ESA's Youtube channel just hours before the Philae lander touched down in November 2014, "Arrival", "Philae's Journey" and "Rosetta Waltz" are not merely tracks commissioned to accompany as many videos made up of photos taken by the probe. Vangelis himself realizes this, glimpsing in those three compositions the seed of a new concept album. Exactly one week after the end of the mission, the complete album is released, accompanied by a promo teaser in which Vangelis himself offers laconic reflections on music and space exploration, recalling the key stages of Rosetta's journey.

Although the four stately opening notes of "Arrival" retain the neoclassical pomp that characterized the leading melodies of the "Alexander" soundtrack, it is the emulsive use of reverb, elevated to the dignity of an instrument in its own right, along with the return of bubbling Terry Riley-style sequencers intertwined with an organ reminiscent of the ritual airs of a Philip Glass, that frees the track from the incestuous (figuratively speaking) saga of mannered "Vangelis-style" variants that over the past twenty years have dragged so much new age, chill out and ambient music into the suppuration of tedium elevated to an art form.

A sense of "cosmic uncanny" oozes from listening to the work in its entirety, especially in the more arrhythmic and contemplative tracks such as "Starstuff", "Celestial Whispers", "Sunlight" and the hyper-minimalist "Return To The Void", in which the earlier Mahlerian fugato of "Elegy" dissolves, where Vangelis seems to describe with mystical languor the slow fading of the probe and, in a broader sense, of human consciousness pulverizing into stellar matter in the search for the ultimate meaning of the universe. The melodies and progressions chase one another, mirror each other and curl back on themselves, in particle-like trails of resonant impressions drifting through nebulae of chimes and clangs that, even if sampled, still retain the dreamy and vigorous personality of the progressive Vangelis, busy at work on bells, crotales, cymbals, triangles, timpani and vibraphones.

It's also true that, more than his previous works, this album offers a faithful (and in some ways unflattering) snapshot of the one-man orchestra's creative method, able to assemble an entire track in a single session and move on to the next one with the assistance of his inseparable sound engineer Philippe Colonna (a case in point is "Perihelion", with its electric guitar wailing into distortion over choppy Tangerine Dream-esque sequencers). But what sounds most anticlimactic, from an artistic standpoint, is above all the minor-key reworking of the "Alpha" theme for the title track, which hovers for almost 5 minutes over a tired rehash of the andante from "To The Unknown Man", groping toward, but never reaching, the heights of dramatic progressive-rock hypnotism of the 1976 masterpiece. Yet it would be enough to move Vangelis's setup into the apse of a cathedral, along the lines of what Tangerine Dream did in 1975 in those of Coventry, York and Liverpool, to elevate the listening experience of the work to the reverential hearing of a "missa solemnis" played in its entirety for the length of a service, albeit with those more "secular" digressions represented by the ironic little march of "Philae's Descent" (the most functional and knowingly illustrative piece on the whole album) and the insertion of the candid, Strauss-like and Kubrickian entr'acte "Mission Accomplie (Rosetta's Waltz)".

After all, who better than the Ulysses who set sail more than 50 years ago from Volos toward a human and musical Odyssey with no return, first with Aphrodite's Child, then in ever-shifting solitude at the helm of mutinous orchestral vessels (a condition more Ulyssean than ever), could claim the right to raise his pleonastic hymn to the pilgrimage of a probe destined to be lost after transmitting the data gathered on a wandering rock, keeper of the memory of our galaxy? Like Champollion, who deciphered the three scripts of the stele, Vangelis makes use of music as a universal Esperanto with which to decode those fragments of humanity adrift in the deep space of a consciousness clouded by the eternal present.

Ulysses's journey ends on May 19, 2022. News of the death of Vangelis, who passed away at 79, is announced directly by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Thus closes, in silence, one of the most fascinating arcs in the history of electronic music.

Contributions by Alessandro Fantini ("Rosetta")

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