Vangelis: Decoding of the Universe
Vangelis: Decoding of the Universe
It only feels apt that this week be dedicated to a titan of the soundtrack world, Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, or Vangelis to most (thank god).
Vangelis died on 17th May, 2022 at age 79. A giant in the electronic music world, pop-music scene and film soundtracks. Formerly branching into Progressive rock, New Age and Classical. In his early days, Vangelis was a member of Greek rock bands The Forminx and Aphrodite’s Child and latterly collaborated with Jon Anderson, the vocalist from Yes, to form Jon & Vangelis (even being asked to join the band as a replacement keyboardist). And no, Jon never got better at naming bands.
For the average movie goer, the soundtracks of Vangelis are not only some of the best but have become and remained cultural phenomenon’s. From the inspiring Chariots of Fire (which I must remind readers, beat Jon Williams score for Raider of the Lost Ark) sound track to the shimmering, dystopian soundscapes of Blade Runner (which I must also remind readers was seen as a failure upon release) of which Vangelis provided the ‘soul of the movie’ according to Ridley Scott. He was to collaborate with Scott again in 1992 for the epic 1492: Conquest of Paradise and ended his film scoring gig with the ill-fated 2004 feature Alexander by Oliver Stone.
However, outside of his big hits, you would find he scored a large chunk of Carl Sagan’s 1980’s Cosmos, he provided music for the Olympic games on more than one occasion, the FIFA world cup.
Hypnotic themes paired with a mastery of orchestral synthesis made him the icon he is today. Vangelis made the most of the harmony and melody moving in tandem, washed over with beautiful synths, creating some of the most aspiring soundtracks of the last 30 years and becoming synonyms with the Yamaha CS-80.
His full influence and career started back in the 1960’s, a modernist composer with a traditional approach despite being a somewhat self-taught virtuoso it wasn’t until the 1970’s that his score work began. His self-taught style angled Vangelis to explore his music from an emotional point rather than a theoretical one. Letting the melody carry through and letting the emotion drive the piece.
I’ve never shaken the idea that despite carpenter and other synthesiser grandmasters, that Vangelis comes across as the Beethoven of Film synthesisers. Famously known for composing and performing on the first take, he embodied and digitised what could have been a 100 piece orchestra. He notes,
“‘“Making music is like making love – it’s not good unless it’s honest and spontaneous.””
There is no composer that I personally relate more to in terms of his influence and aspiration than Vangelis. He neatly sums up,
“Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write.”
In his later years, Vangelis worked with NASA and the ESA on Mythodea, Rosetta and Juno to Jupiter. Vangelis also wrote a bespoke piece for the memorial of Stephen Hawkings in 2018. The piece which featured a voiceover from Hawkings and was beamed to the nearest black hole to earth via the ESA.
“For me, music is science more than art, it is the main code of the universe.”
If Music and therefore science is the main code of the Universe, it would appear that Vangelis had cracked the code.