1492: Conquest of Paradise - Vangelis

Track Listing:

1. Opening
2. Conquest of Paradise
3. Monastery of La Rabida
4. City of Isabel
5. Light and shadow
6. Deliverance
7. West across the Ocean Sea
8. Eternity
9. Hispanola
10. Moxica and the horse
11. Twenty eighth parallel
12. Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria (Into Eternity)

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 1992

A soundtrack from everyone's favourite Greek synth wizard. Vangelis is probably best known for Blade Runner's score (woo, film mentioned in 2 of the last 3 posts), but a slew of other records exist - both soundtracks and original works. My first was Soil Festivities, though many years after it was released.

I have never seen 1492: Conquest of Paradise to which this is the music, instead acquiring this on my familiarity with the composer. However it is pretty easy to conjure up an image given the title and the dramatic titular track.

I have to say listening to it now, Vangelis' music is very much of its time... it sounds incredibly dated and there is a tinny quality to some of the synth sounds, as if they were from a video game.  This obviously detracts a little from a modern perspective and - if we're honest - it probably did back in 1992 too. The golden age of synth was past, but modern sonic reproduction not advanced as much.

That said, the construction of the pieces is still to be applauded and there is a real sense of atmosphere created in each track. In Deliverance the presence of guitars tempers the dated effect and the piece feels richer whilst they are playing. The use of choral pieces is interesting for me. Although (or perhaps because!) my mother sings in choirs I have never really been able to stomach most choral music. Their use here is not unpleasant though - the choir is not the star so they simply form part of the canvas.

Having got a number of Vangelis albums spanning 20+ years of his career, I hear refrains in the pieces on this album that are incredibly familiar and it is really hard for me to place whether that is because I am recalling these tunes or whether they are echoes of works from other recordings. My gut says it is a little of both.

The tracks have been flying by, dated but enjoyable, tinny around the edges and yet evocative and emotive. Looking at the time, the album is back-weighted with longer pieces and despite being on track 9 of 12 I am approximately half way through the listen. If I were mad I would require myself to go watch the film now and place things in context but that is pushing the project too far, stretching it thin, and making it even less completable. So no to that.

I would like to see if I can get to the 1-a-day target, but being generally busy, and amidst a run of albums of around an hour's length that has not been easy. I think I have to resign myself to that not being achievable and thus should I complete this project I may well be into my 40s by that time. That is a shocking thought. I still do not anticipate carrying it through, but I am reaching the end of the numerals - only 2 more to go before A once I am done with this.

Moxica and the Horse is a longer track, and in listening it splits into two tracks (maybe more, but my mind wandered in the early stages). The second of those sub-tracks is surprisingly "modern" - we lose the elements that speak to the Rennaissance and new world exploration, the sounds that have been cultivated to date. It is quite jarring, though the tune is pretty enough. Twenty Eighth Parallel also seems to be lacking the thematic grounding until the main theme from the title track reprises - and even then the orchestration is much less evocative. Pleasant piece of music though, albeit I find it somewhat mournful; that could be the desired effect, or not. Hard to tell without the film as context. It does retain a sense of wonder, though - like the world is suddenly much bigger than you thought. The aural equivalent of walking into a majestic cathedral and taking in the high vaulted ceilings.

I am into the final track now, all 13 minutes of it. It sounds like end credits music, too metallic to suit any other visual, and although it has a very different timbre pace and tone to the end credits from Blade Runner there are commonalities between the two pieces. The wailing guitars make me think of Pink Floyd from ~20 years prior to this soundtrack, as if the music wants to go all Prog but keeps getting pulled back. Given the length of the track, I am happy that although the basic rhythm and structure seem to be maintained with little change, there are overlays that create more interest for the listener and break up the pattern of repetition. The track actually grows on me as it goes, which is unusual given - as I stated when listening to 301 - I tend to prefer it when tunes start, build, climax and end rather than stretch out. I think in this case it is because by now I have almost tuned out the base and rhythm loops and I am only listening to the melodies, and as they change, interest is maintained. Or it could just be tiredness, alcohol and not having a proper work day tomorrow.

The final 2 minutes feel as though they should have been a different track. They return to the evocative scores that opened the soundtrack and it feels tacked on to the end of the longer piece.  It then ends rather abruptly, leaving me in silence, bar the whirr of my laptop fan and the tapping of my keys.