|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου) [IPA: ɛvæŋɛlɪs ɔðɪsɛɪæs ɔpæpæθænæsiu] is a world-renowned Greek composer of electronic and classical music and musical performer, under the artist name Vangelis Papathanassiou (Βαγγέλης Παπαθανασίου) or just Vangelis (a diminutive of Evangelos) [IPA: /væŋɛlɪs/ or /vægɛlɪs/]. He is best known for his Academy Award winning score for the film Chariots of Fire, and scores for the films Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
Biography(1943-1960) Formative yearsOn March 29, 1943, Vangelis (a diminutive of Evangelos) was born near Volos, Greece. He began composing at the age of four, and is largely a self-taught musician. He refused to take traditional piano lessons, and throughout his career did not have substantial knowledge of reading or writing musical notation. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens, an art he also practices. (1961-1972) Work in bands
Around the time of the student riots in 1968, Vangelis founded progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child together with Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter the UK, they found a home in Paris, where they recorded their first single, a hit across much of Europe called Rain and Tears. Other hit singles followed, and two albums, but when the record company demanded a third album, Vangelis conceived the ground-breaking double-album 666, based on Revelation, the last book in the Bible, and now considered pivotal in the development of progressive rock and concept albums. Tensions between members during the recording of 666 eventually caused the split of the band in 1971, but the album was still released in 1972. Despite the split, Vangelis has since produced several albums and singles for Demis Roussos as well as Roussos contributing vocals to the Blade Runner soundtrack. (1970-1972) Early solo worksEven while still in Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis had already been involved in other projects which strongly hinted at a future career as a solo musician. In 1970 he had composed the score for a little-known film called Sex Power (Demis Roussos provided some vocals). In 1971 some jam sessions with a group of musicians at Marquee Studios in London had resulted in two albums' worth of material, unofficially released without Vangelis' permission in 1978, titled Hypothesis (aka Visions of the Future), and The Dragon. Vangelis took action to have them withdrawn. A far more successful project was his scoring of wildlife films made by French filmmaker Frédéric Rossif. The first, and possibly the best known, was L'Apocalypse des Animaux, released in 1973 though it may have been recorded as early as 1971. In 1972, the student riots of 1968 provided the inspiration for an album titled Fais que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long que la Nuit (Make your dream last longer than the night), comprising musical passages mixed with news snippets and protest songs - some lyrics were based on graffiti daubed on walls during the riots. (1973-1980) Solo careerImage:Vangelis Spiral.jpg Album cover of Spiral (1977) In 1973 Vangelis' solo career began in earnest. His first "official" solo album was Earth, though it did actually feature a group of musicians including ex-Aphrodite's Child guitarist Silver Koulouris and also vocalist and songwriter Robert Fitoussi (better known as F.R. David of "Words Don't Come Easy" fame). This line-up, later briefly going out under the name "Odyssey," released a single in 1974 titled "Who," but that was Vangelis' last involvement with them. Later in 1974, Vangelis was widely tipped to join another prog-rock band, Yes, following the departure of Rick Wakeman. After a couple of weeks of rehearsals it became clear that things were not going well and he never did join the band (they ended up hiring Swiss keyboard player Patrick Moraz, who later joined the Moody Blues). Vangelis did however become friends with Yes' singer Jon Anderson, and later worked with him on many occasions, including as the duo Jon & Vangelis.
A harbinger of things to come, in 1979 Vangelis provided the score for another animal documentary by Frédéric Rossif. Called Opera Sauvage, and almost as well known as L'Apocalypse des Animaux, the resulting soundtrack would bring him to the attention of some of the world's top filmmakers. The music itself would be re-used in other films (most notably the track "L'Enfant" in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) by Peter Weir) and television commercials (the track "Hymne", used in Barilla pasta commercials in Italy and Ernest & Julio Gallo wine ads in the US). (1981-1999) Film works and successIn 1981 Vangelis wrote the score for the film Chariots of Fire, set at the Paris Olympics in 1924. Though the electronic score might be considered, in hindsight, ill-suited to a period piece, it worked beyond anyone's expectations. The movie won a half-dozen awards, including an Academy award for Best Picture of the year. Vangelis himself won the Academy Award for Original Music Score. The opening theme of the film (appropriately called "Titles" on the soundtrack) was released as a single in 1982, topping the American Billboard chart for one week after climbing steadily for five months (it made No.1 in its 21st week on the chart). Only one other instrumental track, 1985's "Miami Vice Theme," by Czech musician Jan Hammer, has topped that chart since. "Titles" also reached a respectable No.12 in Britain, where its parent album peaked at No.5 and spent 107 weeks on the album chart. Not everyone was impressed however - when fellow Greek musician Stavros Logarides heard "Titles" he was furious, claiming Vangelis had stolen the melody from one of his compositions called "City of Violets." Once a member of a 1970s band called Poll and actually a friend of Vangelis at that time, Logarides sued Vangelis for plagiarism in 1987. When the case came to court, Vangelis set up synthesizers in the courtroom and played for the judge and all others present, though less for entertainment purposes and more so he could demonstrate his compositional process. The judge ruled that "Titles" was a Vangelis original, being a strong, vibrant piece of music, whereas "City of Violets" was fairly sombre and somewhat mournful by comparison, and any similarities in the melody were minor. Other notable Vangelis soundtracks were Antarctica for Nankyoku Monogatari in 1983, and The Bounty in 1984. Vangelis also collaborated in 1981 and 1986 with Italian singer Milva, achieving a large success especially in Germany with the albums Ich Hab' Keine Angst and Geheimnisse. (I am fearless and Secrets) Blade RunnerImage:BladeRunner Bradbury.jpg Scene from the film Blade Runner, whose atmosphere was greatly enhanced by Vangelis' original score. In 1982, Vangelis began a collaboration with director Ridley Scott: Vangelis scored his Blade Runner (1982), and would later score 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). Perfectly capturing the isolation and melancholy of Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard character, the Vangelis score is as much a part of the dystopian environment as the decaying buildings and ever-present rain of Blade Runner. However, a disagreement led to Vangelis withholding permission for his performance of the music from Blade Runner to be released, and the studio instead hired a group of musicians dubbed "The New American Orchestra" to record the official LP released at the time. It would take 12 years before things could be worked out and Vangelis' own work be released in the United States in 1994. Yet this soundtrack was still incomplete, as the film contained some non-Vangelis tracks as well. Over the years a series of bootleg recordings of Blade Runner soundtrack from unknown sources have been released, mostly targeted to collectors as "private releases", that contains most of the music cues (including the Ladd Company logo theme). 1492: Conquest of ParadiseImage:1492 Still 04 B.jpg The New World is reached in the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise, whose atmosphere was greatly enhanced by Vangelis' original score. In 1992 the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise, also directed by Ridley Scott was released as the 500th anniversary commemoration of finding the New World. The score opens with a piece of music titled "Opening", followed by a score which has been considered beautiful. The score starts slower, with more pomp to it, while the middle part transfer into a harder sound, ending on a lighter note as the movie progresses. It was nominated as "Best Original Score - Motion Picture" at the 1993 Golden Globe awards. Other worksVangelis also scored a number of undersea documentaries by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. In 1992, France made him a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 1983 Vangelis wrote the music for Michael Cacoyannis' staging of the Greek tragedy Elektra which was performed featuring Irene Papas at the open-air amphitheater at Epidavros in Greece. The same year Vangelis composed his first score for a ballet by Wayne Eagling. It was originally performed by Lesley Colier and Wayne Eagling himself at an Amnesty international gala in Drury Lane, but in 1984 the Royal Ballet School presented it again at the Sadler's Wells theater. In 1985 and 1986, Vangelis wrote two more ballets: "Frankenstein - Modern Prometheus" and "The Beauty and the Beast". In 1992, Vangelis composed music for for the intense dramatic performance "Medea" by Euripides, starring Irene Papas, Carlos Lucena, Manuel de Blas, Jordi Dauder and Miquel Cors. Director Nuria Espert is concidered to be one of the best theater actresses and directors in Spain. The play was staged in Barcelona during July 1992 and was produced by the Olympic Festival of Arts. The sounds design was by Denis Vanzetto who also worked various Vangelis albums. During the 1980s and 1990s, Vangelis and Jon Anderson released four albums together as Jon & Vangelis. (2000-present) Later daysIn 2001, Vangelis performed live and released Mythodea, a predominantly orchestral rather than electronic piece that was originally written in 1993, and used by NASA as the theme for the Mars Odyssey mission. In 2001 Vangelis once more composed music for Irene Papas' play - "Las Troyanas". In 2002 he wrote music for staging of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to open the new Hungarian National Theater. In 2004, Vangelis released the score for Oliver Stone's Alexander, continuing his involvement with projects related to his homeland. On an interview he gave about that release, Vangelis said he was working on other films but, as of 2006, there was no news yet [1]. Vangelis' website, "Vangelis Information World" [2], went online in 1996 with an announcement of Oceanic but since then it has been under construction.[3]. Throughout the 1990's and 2000's, his closing piece for Blade Runner, Love Theme, has appeared on many Ibiza Chillout albums, a testament to his inspiration. The "Direct" TechniqueVangelis uses a technique of recording all tracks simultaneously on tape, using a device especially manufactured for him which he calls the "Direct box".
DiscographyImage:Albedo 0.39 alt.jpg Albedo 0.39 (1976, reissue cover) Image:Vangelis China.jpg China (1979) Studio albums
Score albums
Limited releases
Collaboration albums
Compilation albums
Promotional albums
Unofficial albumsStrictly not bootleg recordings as they appeared on a "proper" label, but they were released without Vangelis' permission and were withdrawn from the market.
EPs/Singles with exclusive material
Unreleased works
In popular culture
Footnotes
See also
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "Vangelis" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
