Who is Vangelis ?
Evanghelos Odyssey Papathanassiou is the full name of the man known to many as the
artist Vangelis. Although best known for his musical compositions Vangelis has not limited
himself to the role of composer, as he also likes to paint and sculpt. Born in Volos,
Greece on the 29th of March 1943 Vangelis was raised together with a sister and brother. According to his
own memories Vangelis has always been fascinated by sound and music, ever since his
earliest childhood. He remembers as a kid he was always banging on things to see what kind
of sound it would produce, and even staging a public concert at the age of six ! The
fascination for sound is essential to understand Vangelis and his work. During his long
career (now already spanning more than 30 years), his work has received the appreciation
of a worldwide public, and received many prizes. Nevertheless it seems that Vangelis has
always tried to let his music prevail before any commercial success. From his early
successes with groups like the Forminx and
Aphrodite's Child, to his highly acclaimed
scores for movies like Chariots of Fire and Conquest of
Paradise, Vangelis usually shies
away from public attention and rather focuses on his next experiment in artistic creation.
The 60's
Halfway through the
sixties Vangelis first publicly appears performing with his school band The Forminx, who soon become a huge national success in Greece with their
Beatles-like appearance and songs. Already Vangelis showcases his talent for composing
catchy songs and playing the keys of his Hammond organ. After a few short collaborations
with other Greek performers like Maria, Zoitsa
'Zoe' Kouroukli and Aleka
Kanellidou, Vangelis forms
his own band under the name 'The Papathanassiou Set', together with 'Silver' Koulouris,
Demis Roussos and Lucas Sideras. It is under this name that they record singles with
George Romanos, Ricardo Credi and Vilma Lado. In 1968 Vangelis, Demis and Lukas decide to try their luck in the British
music scene, but on their way to London they get stuck in Paris, where strikes have
paralyzed the air traffic. Under the name of Aphrodite's
Child they record their first
single "Rain and tears", which immediately becomes a huge hit. The single is quickly
followed by their first album "End of the world", and only one year later the band
releases another album, titled "It's five o'clock". It was only at the end of this decade
that Vangelis stood at the start of his career. Refusing to tour with the band, he rather
stays in the studio working on new material for the band. It is during this period that
for the first time he composes a musical score, for a movie titled "Sex
Power" by director
Henry Chapier.
The 70's
In the early seventies Vangelis starts composing music for French director
Frédéric Rossif, for the first time on a wildlife documentary series titled
"L'Apocalypse
des Animaux". This was the beginning of a long-lasting cooperation, as during the
following decades Vangelis would provide most of the music for the documentaries of
Frédéric Rossif, e.g. for "Georges Mathieu ou la fureur
d'etre" in 1971, "Au pays des visages" in 1972,
"Georges Braque ou le temps different" in 1974,
"La fête sauvage" in
1975, "L'Opera
sauvage"
in 1979, "Pablo Picasso Peintre" in 1981,
"Sauvage et beau" in
1984, "Pasteur le siecle" in 1987 and in 1989
"Morandi" and "De Nuremberg a
Nuremberg". Even before the release of their last album "666", Aphrodite's Child splits up. Now
Vangelis is finally free to start working on his solo career, and he does so with the
release of his first solo album "Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la
nuit", an album
based on the student riots in Paris during 1968. It is during this period, in the first
part of the seventies, that Vangelis experiments with sounds created with synthesizers, a
relative new instrument at the time. In 1973 again he composes the score for another Henry
Chapier movie, this one titled "Amore", as well as releases a progressive rock album
titled "Earth". In between he also finds the time to record a few songs with Greek singer
Melina Mercouri. In 1974, after arranging an album for Italian singer Claudio
Baglioni,
Vangelis decides to move to London and build his very own studio.
Even before "Nemo", his very first self-owned studio finishes, in 1975
Vangelis produces albums for Greek rock-band Socrates and Greek singer
Mariangela at
Orange Studio in London. And as Nemo continues to be built in an old school
building at
Hampden Guerney Street, already Vangelis records his first album "Heaven and
Hell"
there... It is the first album to be released for his new record label RCA, and in later
followed by "Albedo 0.39" in 1976,
"Spiral" in 1977 and "Beaubourg" in 1978. It is
also the first album where Jon Anderson appears, singing lyrics to the beautiful
"So long
ago, so clear". Their long friendship would last into the nineties, and produce albums as
"Short stories" in 1980, "The friends of Mr.
Cairo" in 1981, "Private Collection" in 1983
and "Page of life" in 1991. The newly built studio attracts a lot of other artists as well
during the next few years, and Vangelis works with Italian singers and bands like
Chrisma,
Patty Pravo, Riccardo Cocciante, Panda and
I Nuovi Angeli to name a few. Another long
lasting relationship with Aphrodite's Child lead singer Demis Roussos continues with the
cooperation on albums like "Magic" in 1977,
"Demis" in 1982 and "Reflection" in 1984. In
1979, at the end of another decade Vangelis signs a new contract with record label
Polydor, which would serve him well into the eighties. The first album to be released
for Polydor is "China", a typical album where Vangelis not only shows his ability to
play electronic instruments, but also masterfully plays all kinds of percussion
instruments.
The 80's
The first solo album of the
eighties is titled "See you later", an unusual album which included performances by Jon
Anderson, Peter Marsh (with whom Vangelis would produce a separate single later), Cherry
Vanilla, Krisma, Michel Ripoche and Argyris 'Silver' Koulouris. In the meantime in the USA Carl
Sagan creates the documentary series "Cosmos", which main theme
and background music was
lifted from several of Vangelis' seventies albums. Together with Irene Papas, who also participated
on Aphrodite's Child last album "666" in 1972, Vangelis now returns to his Greek roots on
the album "Odes", an album inspired on Byzantine music. The two would work together again
on another album "Rapsodies" in 1986. After this album Vangelis creates the scores for a
number of movies, music that by many is valued as some of his finest compositions ever. It
started with "Chariots of Fire" and
"Missing" (1981), quickly followed by "Blade Runner"
(1982), "Antarctica" (1983) and
"The
Bounty" (1984). In-between he finds the time to work
with Italian singer Milva on her album "Ich hab' keine
Angst" in 1981. The two would
work together again on another album "Geheimnisse" in 1986. In 1983 Vangelis takes to the
stage and composes his first work for the British ballet-director Wayne Eagling titled
'R B
Sque'. Their relation would produce more music for ballet, "Frankenstein,
a modern Prometheus" in 1985, and "Beauty and the Beast" in 1986. His next solo album
"Soil festivities", inspired by nature itself, saw the light in 1984. Next are
"Invisible
Connections" and "Mask" in 1985,
followed by "Direct" in 1988, which is the first album to be created with the aid of a
revolutionary new 'Zyklus' tool. "Direct" is also the first (and only)
album for record label
Arista. The year 1987 is not a fruitful one for Vangelis, as he has to spend a lot of
time in court, fighting the allegations of Stavros
Logaridis. The case is about the
composition of the main theme of "Chariots of fire", which Logaridis claims is his instead
of Vangelis'. Vangelis wins the case, but still the allegations affected him greatly. He
decides to close his studio Nemo (which is demolished a few years later) and moves back
to Athens. In 1989 Vangelis once more creates the score for a motion picture, this
time the movie "Francesco". While staying in Rome for this movie, Vangelis both stages a
concert, as well as records the music for his next album "The City", released in 1990.
With the release of "The City" he moves to the new record label that would issue most of
his album during the nineties, East-West.
The 90's
While staying in Athens Vangelis records three songs with Greek
singer
Maria Farantouri, published on her album "17 songs". In 1991 Vangelis cooperates on three
performances; first he performs in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at "Eureka, the event of
excellence", then he improvises music at the Night of Poetry in Athens, and finally he
composes and performs the music for the mini-opera Antigone. In 1992 Vangelis moves to
Paris where he builds a new studio, Epsilon, and scores yet another three movies
"1492
Conquest of paradise", "The Plague" and
"Bitter
Moon". 1994 finally sees the release of
the official "Blade Runner" soundtrack. The next year Vangelis composes
"Foros Timis Ston Greko", a
tribute to Greek painter Domenico Theotocopoulos. Originally only released as a limited
edition in 1995, the music is later repackaged as a commercial release in 1998. Solo
albums keep pouring out, like "Voices" in 1995, and
"Oceanic" in 1996. It would take another 5 years before the next solo
album to be released... In 1996 Vangelis composes the score to the Greek movie
"Kavafis", but like many
before the music is not officially released. For Montserrat Caballe Vangelis
composes a number of songs, which are published on her albums "Friends for
life" (1997)
and "With all my heart" (1998). They perform together at the opening ceremony of the 1997
World Championship Athletics in Athens. With the release of "Reprise
1990-1999" in 1999
Vangelis concludes his contract with East-West.
Recent years...
In 2001 Vangelis signs with a new record label, Sony
Classical. In close cooperation with Sony, the NASA and the Greek Ministry of
Culture for the first time in many years Vangelis stages a concert. The work
presented is Mythodea, an earlier work from 1993, but
now re-performed with a few added movements at the temple of Zeus in Athens.
Shortly after the performance the new album "Mythodea"
follows, linked to the NASA Odyssey Mission to Mars. In September of the same
year long-time friend Irene Papas stages the play "Las Troyanas" in Sagunto,
Spain for which Vangelis composes the score. By the end of the year
Vangelis' composes the theme for the 2002 Japan / Korea World championship
Soccer, which is first performed in Korea at the drawing ceremony. and later
abundantly used during the tournament.
In 2002 Vangelis composes the music to yet another play, this time for "A
Vihar" (The tempest) by Williams Shakespeare, performed during the summer, in Budapest (Hungary).
In 2003 the worldwide premiere of Vangelis' paintings on public display is in
Valencia, Spain, where an exhibition is organised from June to September.
Vangelis composes special music for the occasion. Later that year Irene Papas
again stages and two interconnected plays "Il Troiane" and
"Ecuba", both of them performed with Vangelis' score in Rome, Italy in
September. 2004 brings the long awaited return of Vangelis to the silver screen, with an
epic score
for Oliver Stone's film Alexander, about the life of
Alexander the Great. A creative reunion with Greek director Iannis Smaragdis for
the film "El Greco" produces another score in
2007. The title refers to Domenicos Theotokopoulos, one of the most influential
Greek painters of all times, a subject Vangelis has had a major interest in
considering his nineties albums...
Movements
