Jack Oughton – Vangelis Biography, in brief.

A short foray into the secretive and accomplished life of one of the 20th century’s
musical pioneers and a father of modern electronica.

Who’s the man?

Vangelis [born: March 29, 1943, Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou] - is a
name that many people recognise but few can place. This could be down to his
personal approach, he is an exceptionally private and modest man who over the
years has done his best to shy away from fame even as his music has
increasingly conquered the globe. Vangelis is a musician, composer, producer
and arranger, born in Volos, a port city on the east coast of Greece. Volos among
any things is known as the birthplace of mythical ancient Hero, Jason.

What has he done in music?

Vangelis started his professional musical career in the early 1960s, as the
principle songwriter in a pop group dubbed The Formynx. The band was a
commercial success, releasing nine hit singles before disbanding at the height of
their career in 1966.

In 1968 Vangelis formed Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock band, and

although tensions with the band caused a split in 1971, the group’s two previous
studio albums have now sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Vangelis was to
collaborate with Aphrodite's Child's singer, Demis Roussos again, producing
several albums and singles for him. In turn, Demis has contributed vocals to
many of Vangelis' wildly different projects.

Around this time Vangelis was working on a number of solo undertakings, such
as scoring a film titled Sex Power in 1970. In 1972, Vangelis to finished an album
named Fais que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long que la Nuit, inspired by the Paris
student riots of 1968, these riots where extremely important, they were the
beginning of a series of monumental social reforms in France. A more prosperous
undertaking was Vangelis’ scoring of wildlife pictures made by French
moviemaker Frédéric Rossif. The first was L'Apocalypse des Animaux, released in
1973.

In that same year Vangelis struck out as a solo artist. His first album was entitled
Earth; which held similar sounds to his work with Aphrodite's child but started to
show a lot more of his personal style, such as Greek ethnic musical influences. It
featured a group of musicians, among them ex-Aphrodite's Child guitar player
Silver Koulouris and songwriter Robert Fitoussi. This line-up, subsequently
operating under the name Odyssey, brought out a single in 1974; Who, but this
was Vangelis' only work with them.

Later in 1974, Vangelis was expected to join a different prog-rock band, Yes,
after the exit of Rick Wakeman, the band’s keyboardist. Later it turned out that
this was not to be, and after a few weeks of rehearsals Vangelis decided to part
ways with Yes. The band later found a different keyboard player; Patrick Moraz,
who subsequently linked up with the Moody Blues. Vangelis did, nevertheless,
become friends with Yes’ singer Jon Anderson, and in the future would
collaborate with him on many projects, mainly working together as the duo Jon &
Vangelis.

Vangelis: Circa 1970

Where and what is he doing now?

Vangelis has been musically dormant over the last few years, and since he is
such a reclusive figure, it is not widely known what he is doing these days. A
recent article in April 2008 with Vimagazino magazine was described as being
candid, but unfortunately it is written entirely in Greek and of this date I have not
been able to get an English translation. His most musical recent activity was in
2007, with the release of 2 albums; the 25th anniversary edition re-release of the
Blade Runner soundtrack, and the release of his score to the film El Greco.

Perhaps Vangelis’ most popular, or well known piece of music is the main title
track from Chariots Of Fire. I have lost count of the number of slow motion video
montages the song has accompanied. The track has been used for this so often
that it has become a cliché, or a comedic device, accompanying exaggeratedly
heroic slow-mo sequences, usually with someone winning something very
important, often a sport that involves running.
Vangelis: Circa 2000. Epic beard faithfully retained.

How does he compose and record music?

Vangelis' compositional process is as unorthodox as the music he writes. Unable
to formally read music, Vangelis was enrolled at a music school at a young age.
However his independent streak showed even that early in his development, and
he would often pretend he was reading the music, when actually recalling it from
memory. Clearly he has done better than many of the classically schooled
composers who followed the rules more closely, innovating musically on his own
terms. In his own words, his approach is to take an idea and record onto as many
keyboards as possible at the same time through his mixer. After the idea has
been captured, individual tracks can be expanded upon or removed as needed.
In this way he creates many parallel musical ideas in tandem, and chips away at
them until the song emerges. This is a brilliant way to write music as it results in
an excess of ideas that can be kept for different songs, or used for alternate
versions of the original piece. The technique must be working for him, as he has
created over 40 albums over his career so far and had numerous commercial
successes.

Vangelis with his usual and amazing array of analogue hardware.

Album Recommendations:
Themes: This is a compilation album gathered from his compositional work for
film. Although it is an excellent introduction to his style, it mainly draws from his
commercial successes and ignores a huge portion of his work. However, I would
recommend it to anyone new to Vangelis, as many of his film works are a lot
easier to listen to than his earlier, or more experimental material. Notable
tracks: Chariots Of Fire, Memories of Green, Hymn]

Blade Runner: This is the soundtrack to the fantastic and genre defining sci-fi
opus, Blade Runner. Vangelis builds upon Ridley Scott’s dystopian, futuristic
mood of the film with subtle, atmospheric synthesizer music, interspersed with
haunting vocal lines and sound effects taken from the film. Overall the album is
an amazing piece of work and has some nice jazz elements to it. Notable Tracks:
End Titles, Blade Runner Blues, Wait For Me
1492: Conquest Of Paradise: This is an album which Vangelis composed for in
a more traditional sense. The film was released on the 500th anniversary of
Christopher Columbus’ fateful voyage, which resulted in the accidental discovery
of America, and tells the story of this discovery. It is a majestic, sweeping,
orchestral score, recorded and conducted with The English Chamber Choir. It
makes great use of massed voices in chorus, and stirs my soul. Notable Tracks:
Conquest of Paradise, Light and Shadow, Monastery of La Rabida

A Personal Musical Influence..

I have chosen to write an article on Vangelis as I find him to be an inspiring

persona; a personal influence and a very gifted man to follow. Many would agree
that he has made an incredibly important artistic contribution to music and
culture, and he is an example of what hard work and talent in music can achieve.

His musical style has no doubt had an inspiration on my own writing. I still
remember the day that a teacher played us the Blade Runner theme in
Secondary School music class. We were supposed to contrast the style of music
with other tracks on the tape, but I was too busy trying to gather the pieces of
my blown mind together after about 30 seconds of the song. That was the day I
learned to really love music, and set me down a path that changed my life’s
focus forever. I still remember the surge of excitement that took me as I heard
the famous bass line begin, and it was truly like nothing I had ever heard before.

Vangelis fans may enjoy the tracks Going Nomad and Grey, which can be
listened to for free at http://www.myspace.com/xijmusic. They are an
unintentional homage to the great man himself, using similar sounding synths,
albeit written in my own style, and using different song structures and musical
forms.

I and many others hope that Vangelis will start work on something new soon, if
only we could persuade him!
Where is he now?