The City - Vangelis

Track list:

1. Dawn
2. Morning Papers
3. Nerve Centre
4. Side Streets
5. Good to See You
6. Twilight
7. Red Lights
8. Procession

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 1990

I remember my dad having this, and hearing it a fair bit whilst in my early teens. I remember this being more immediately accessible than some Vangelis, I remember it including sounds of people going about busy lives in a city. Very much in theme. I do not remember many specifics, and it will be interesting to see how it has aged.

This album is a collection of shorter pieces than I instinctively associate with Vangelis, so I expect it will fly by. Dawn opens in a way I find incredibly reminiscent of Blade Runner (still almost certain to be my most inter-linked post), which is certainly not a bad thing. All soft synthetics it is a gentle beginning, though I would personally suggest that the sounds are more evocative of sundown than sunup.  It ends with footsteps, walking us into the next track with it's odd voice over, busy sounds in the background including emergency sirens, and then a chime and breathy pipe tune that feels more Amazon jungle than Amazon corporate headquarters.

So far the overall effect of the pieces and the theme are at odds rather than in concert, despite the presence of these other sounds. For all that, it is quintessentially Vangelis; relaxing and familiar.

As I type that we tick over and Nerve Centre starts up with exaggerated 80s sounds. I think of  latter-day Pink Floyd as a reference (A Momentary Lapse of Reason era). I also think of Beverley Hills Cop and the fact that this could easily be overlaid on cheesy montage / scene setting sequences in that style of film. Dated. Very, very dated. In some ways it feels as though it would have been dated even before it released. It does, however, for the first time reflect a busier theme, and for all the cheese I don't find it forcing me away; a knowing wry look instead. Opening a track with a motorcycle engine, before settling into a tune structure that evokes 1492 quite strongly is interesting. Obviously this album came first, but I find the similarities between this - ostensibly an urban theme - and that soundtrack for a historical ocean and jungle epic to be surprising. the Blade Runner reference makes sense in context, over-built urban visuals and sounds you would expect to go together, but the flash-forward to 1492 is more incongruous.

For all that the heavy synth sound dates badly, for all that it is hard not to hear the cheese when applying a more modern ear, I still find these tunes very comforting. I don't know if that reflects nostalgia or the craft of the artist. I suspect a little of both. There are musical themes running through here that are so familiar and reliable.

On Good to See You there is the conceit of hearing one half of a conversation, a distant, somewhat muffled female voice talking over a soft theme. It works well enough to break up the monotony of the lower register structural loops, but I find I preferred it when a sax line was used for the same purpose. We are then dropped into the territory of exoticism - a different language to the spoken vocal, and sounds that hint at Asia, a decade on from China. Vangelis is rarely a quick tempo composer, but Twilight is glacially paced. Its soft tones have a sort of swirling wind sound beneath them, faint but effective. This helps call back to another Vangelis album for me, Antarctica, though more because of my associations with the place / word than for any conscious picking up of re-use of musical themes.

My first real disconnect with the compositions comes with Red Lights, which... well, I am not sure what he was aiming at here. The combination of the title, the style, the female voices (no language I can recognise) just jar me out of things. Thankfully it is over quite quickly, and we hit the final number. More sense of where he was to end up on 1492 here. I don't really have much else to add as I find the tune rather nondescript... not because it is bad but little stands out as worthy of particular attention. It is long, giving the structure a long time to bed in, lots of opportunities to vary what happens over the top of that structure, and... lots of run to be a very typical Vangelis track.

It closes by harking back to the beginning - the footsteps and speech from the first two tracks are appended to the closing of the last, and the final sounds we hear are distant sirens muffled into a fade out. There is very little here that feels unique, little to make this album stand out from Vangelis' other works;I find myself OK with that, and I can only put that particular statement down to the nostalgia.

China - Vangelis

Track list:

1. Chung Kuo
2. The Long March
3. The Dragon
4. The Plum Blossom
5. The Tao of Love
6. The Little Fete
7. Yin & Yang
8. Himalaya
9. Summit

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 1979

Time for some music older than I am. At some point in the early/mid 2000s I decided to buy up a load of Vangelis albums to explore his work further. I had always loved the Blade Runner soundtrack, and had some things beyond that already, but acquired to fill in gaps. I don't recall ever spending much time or attention on the things I picked up though. China was one of these.

The opening sounds remind me not of Asia, but of helicopters and dystopian sci-fi or cyberpunk. That feeling is enforced further by the tinny electronic notes that carry the first semblance of tune. I rather like the dated darkness, very much of a kind with the Blade Runner score. I suspect this is not going to last as a theme throughout the disc but we'll see. A more recognisible oriental influence is not far behind this opening salvo - whilst still flavoured by our artist's penchant for synths, the patterns are instantly calling the region to mind. Stereotypical sounds, able to be thus because they are, presumably based on enough genuine material to take root.

My player categorises this as "New Age"; how quaint. I get it, but really? Hippy-ish? Akin to crystal healing and tie-dye?  OK, so now it is me being unfair with stereotype. Deliberately and to make that point.

As an aside, it occurs to me that Blade Runner is probably now the most oft-referenced post that I have made or have to make at this stage. I wouldn't be surprised if it remains so at the point I either finish, or more likely give up on, this endeavor.

After a pleasing predominantly keyboard piece we get a more urgent, insistent number, synth pulses evoking lasers, quick tight repeating notes bringing a tension, and a high pitched bell-like sounding of an alarm. I suppose it could represent the dangers of a dragon, but it doesn't evoke that very strongly in my view. Oddly the vision I get is some garish, epileptic-fit-inducing intro sequence to an anime show. But that is just me being mean with caricature and stereotype again. On the record, we get back to some more typical sounds, but they morph into a weird cross between synth prog-rock and a curtailed (I initially typed castrated for some reason) loop cut from a western classical composition.

It bears saying that most of these pieces are short, skipping by quickly and easily. There is one 10 minute plus epic on here, but only 2 more are over 5 minutes and there are a few below three. This makes the New Age tag even less of a genuine thing for me. This isn't pretentious and overlong, it isn't all out there, they are shorter, more purposeful compositions. Sure they have an odd tint to them with the waw and the synthesised sounds but they have a heart and soul, too. I am finding them rather enjoyable, though the sudden voice interposing itself over The Little Fete feels out of place and unwelcome. It is in English, spoken with a strong accent. It doesn't destroy the beauty of the simple background arrangement but it does rather dampen my enjoyment of the piece until I adjust to it a few sentences later.

There is a nice twang to the bassy sounds in Yin & Yang which follows, at least initially. I think I see the point, the aim, of the album in this tune. Reverence to an idea, but whilst still fundamentally producing a Vangelis record, marrying up the influences of Chinese composition to the synth wizardry and electronic sensibilities of the composer. Somewhere in there I lost my attention for a second, reading banning notices (other people's not mine) on a webforum. Silly me. Not what I am here for. In the meantime the epic has started, Himalaya.

It sounds like this will have a slow build, I hope that it delivers a climax somewhere, because there is nothing (well, not very much) more frustrating than a long piece with time to build that settles instead for an elongated and unfulfilled tension instead. The early exchanges remind me of 1492: Conquest of Paradise though committed to record a decade and more earlier. It rumbles along with a steady rhythmic structure, a dark overall tone and top end themes that fade in and out. The most piano-like of them is actually really nice, but some of the other layers up there I am less keen on. Almost 7 minutes in, and I do not feel that it is building. This is no crescendo, alas. The music is pleasant enough, and as I start to type something about it stagnating, some louder, more Blade Runner-esque electronics cut in. It's great that they arrived, but it was a little sudden, rather than building organically to the volume and focus. They go again pretty quickly.

I think that last paragraph pretty much works as a generalisation of the composite Vangelis record from my perspective. A lot of good or nice elements, overall very pleasant, but ultimately frustrating in a number of cases - content to meander along, and light on lasting impact. Blade Runner is a notable exception in this, and I think on balance that is down to the fact we have visuals to pair it with - visuals that can be called to mind when hearing the soundtrack again. If that sounds like I am being down on things... well, no. I rather like what I have heard over the last 40 minutes. I just also feel pangs of disappointment that these compositions didn't quite deliver a lasting impression as strong as they might have done.

Blade Runner Official Soundtrack - Vangelis

Track list:

1. Main Titles
2. Blush Response
3. Wait For Me
4. Rachel's Song
5. Love Theme
6. One More Kiss, Dear
7. Blade Runner Blues
8. Memories Of Green
9. Tales Of The Future
10. Damask Rose
11. Blade Runner (End Titles)
12. Tears In Rain

Running time: 57 minutes
Released: 1994

What to say about this? Blade Runner has been a favourite movie of mine since I first saw it (I don't really watch many films, mind), and Vangelis's iconic soundtrack is a major part of that. I am surprised at the release date of 1994, but a quick Google suggests that the soundtrack released along with the film in 1982 was not this one.

The Main Titles is overlaid by Deckard's search for the animal scale, then you get the sparkly breaker, the tinny shimmer and then the long drawn out synth notes. Far more hopeful than the depressing rain-soaked city-scape they accompany, but certainly infused (if only by association) with that sense of wonder and weirdness. I have been playing Cities: Skylines recently, and could imagine playing along to this whilst building a high rise district.

Blush Response has the dialogue from when Deckard first meets Rachel. Voight-Kampf for short and all that. When the speech fades that electric melody kicks in and shivers go up my spine. It really is quite astounding how well this holds up 30 years on. It is on the one hand so incredibly dated - the synths are very very eighties - but on the other utterly timeless. The percussive base could come out of modern electronica, snappy and tinged with darkness. The fact the movie is a classic (I almost added "cult" but that would be a disservice) that stands up in many ways certainly helps keep the soundtrack feeling fresh rather than tied to its time. I am less than wild about how the track ends and fades over into Wait For Me, but once the transition is complete the new track is a gorgeous change of tone. Softer and gentler - it is pretty much the quintessential Vangelis track. It could come from 1492, or Voices or any number of his releases if it wasn't part of this one. Solid central theme, loose movements around it, layers of synths with hidden depths - its easy to overlook the horns here in places, for instance. Its just wonderfully peaceful. 

I am surprised and disappointed by how few of the tracks I can recall musically from title alone. Rachel's Song drew a complete blank for me even after it started, until the voice enters the fray. Used as instrument not as lyrical conduit it has a haunting effect. The track as a whole is mournful, slow and emotional. I don't recall its usage. I am suddenly feeling lonely. It has absolutely nothing to do with the painfully isolated saxophone on Love Theme at all, no. I suppose if I squint I can see this being a soft and loving piece, but it feels more paean to lost love than a celebration of an existing one. When the sax fades away the sparse and starry feel of the theme continues that lonely sense, the notes twinkling like in a big open night sky before a spooky edge emerges to add tension. Love is about the furthest thing in my visceral response to the track. But there is tenderness there, hence the see it if I squint, and I suppose it plays to sleazy late night bars post-closing in 40s-50s, a couple sat along at the bar or in a booth in a closed club. A stretch though.

I have always loved One More Kiss. The wandering piano, the pedestrian strumming, the slightly-too-high feel to the singing of this song just create a lovely if crumbling image of a utopia out of reach. It is incredibly fitting in more ways than one.

It is replaced by Blade Runner Blues. Musically this has very little in common with Blues. It is very blue though... plaintive (a word I feel I probably overuse in these posts, but one I rather like) to the point of making my hairs stand on end, slowing down the evening which has passed far too quickly, and without me having any proper food. Too late to think of that now, though... and I have the wonders of working long to look forward to tomorrow too. Yay. The piece of music is an interesting ramble, perhaps most reminiscent of Soil Festivities amongst Vangelis' other works. I find it hard to listen to and concentrate on too much, better as background music, and yet almost 9 minutes pass without a dull moment. Quite something. It smoothly transitions into another sad piece, the doleful (I looked up synonyms for plaintive, alright!) tone of these tunes complementing the tumbledown, shabby city whose images they belong with, a pairing that is further enhanced by the whirring and beeping sounds.

I had forgotten just how dark some of this album is. There is nothing peaceful about Tales of the Future, an echoing, modulated vocal almost screeching out with the effect of nails on a chalkboard. This turns what would be an atmospheric but forgettable backing track into an electric but threatening number. I have no idea what is being said, if anything and so it is just the harshness of the intonation that sticks with me.  The straining strings that begin Damask Rose are as potent now as they ever were. Along with the preceding track these two seem to cover the "ethnic" angle of life in the LA of 2019 that is depicted, but it is otherwise very weak in comparison with the rest of the disc.

I have, in the past, fallen asleep listening to these tracks, only to be jolted awake by the end titles. I don't say that to disparage it at all. They are anything but boring. Here again they jolt me. The fast pace is anathema to what has been before and the timpani have a sense of purpose that re-enforce that. The tone is so different to the rest of the soundtrack, but is perfectly suited to the situation at the end of the film with Deckard and Rachel to be on the run. It has a real tension to it which is not something you automatically associate with end titles, where in most cases things have been resolved away from the tense, for better or worse.

Rutger Hauer's classic monologue is an integral part to Tears in Rain, our final tune. I love the sparse melody behind his lines here and the unexpected strains of hope in the composition, at odds with almost all that went before. It is a quiet ending, a postscript really, but it is an affirmative one that changes the take-away emotion from the listen quite dramatically. The running order looks off at first, to have the end titles not close the soundtrack, but it is an inspired choice, and precisely the kind of small detail that makes you want to hear the thing again almost straight away. I really like this disc.

Antarctica - Vangelis

Track list:

1. Theme From Antarctica
2. Antarctica Echoes
3. Kinematic
4. Song Of White
5. Life Of Antarctica
6. Memory Of Antarctica
7. Other Side Of Antarctica
8. Deliverance

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 1983

Yet another soundtrack to a film I have not seen. I have predictions for what this will be like, based on the fact it is Vangelis (again), but no firm recollection of any of these themes.

The opening theme does not exactly conjure images of Antarctica to me; the notation is more  Blade Runner mixed with China - a blend of sci-fi-ish structure and oriental-sounding melody. The combination is interesting and actually quite effective despite sounding odd in description. It is properly thematic, in that it really does sound like a main theme (actually it reminds me a lot of the end credits to Blade Runner, which came the year before), something that belongs with moving images. Appropriate, then!

Antarctica Echoes reaches forward in time rather than back. As it opens I am immediately put in mind of Voices, an album Vangelis would not make for another 12 years. Future echoes, then... before Red Dwarf did them. This is a much more empty track, cavernous sounding, making me wonder if it was to accompany scenes in an ice cave. There is definitely a sense of loneliness about it, which is another expected element of life in a white waste. This was good lazy-Sunday listening until Kinematic throws a buzzsaw in the mix. Not literally, but it is much more agitated - as you might expect from the title. Its basis is a repeated flutter and momentary synth blast combination that I really do not get on with as a mood changer.

I am a little surprised by how many of the sounds here sound as if they could be accompanying a documentary on rural China; it is probably my unaccustomed ears picking up stereotyped similarities rather than a true reflection of incorrect influences being used, right? That is my suspicion, anyway. Song of White is in that vein and returns to the lazy lightness. Then I IMDB'd the film and realise that it is a Japanese film following Japanese protagonists; the oriental influence is less surprising in context.

Life of Antarctica is at odds with its title, or seems so. There is no real sense of life - instead it seems to carry threat, menace - darker tones in places. Memory... has what I think is call back to the main theme and is a lighter piece. I have been bad, and was distracting myself with G+ communities as I absorb these tunes - running against the intent of the project. I find purely instrumental pieces very easy to tune in and out of without realising, and to be honest I find it hard to write too much about this soundtrack that is not a retread of opinions on Vangelis stated previously. I like his composition, generally. I like everything I have heard on Antarctica except Kinematic. Its just that after a while of listening to similarly themed pieces if I am not 100% engaged then my mind switches off a little and I find it difficult to add anything interesting to discussion. The "other side" is definitely different; it is all tense and disconnected, brooding. It broke the spell a little, stopped me staring at the screen blankly and has coincided with (caused?) a chill that has entered my extremities. That is either really effective composition, or a coincidence with the air temperature dropping in here (without the heating on at midday). Or I have just been sat in one place too long and my feet are feeling the draft a bit more.

I have been waiting 40 minutes to make a bad banjo joke and now I cannot think of one. Deliverance as it is here, needless to say, does not involve that instrument. I am not sure whether it is just the fact I know it is the last track, or if the song itself is constructed to strongly give that impression, but it certainly feels like an ending rather than a beginning or a middle. There is a celebratory air, an uplift. It is a good close to the disc and to this rather sub-par post. I consider cutting Kinematic, and then do, because I found it intolerable. The rest, though, I liked - in that kind of disconnected way when you cannot fully follow something but find yourself feeling good about it anyway.

Albedo 0.39 - Vangelis

Track List:

1. Pulstar    
2. Freefall    
3. Mare Tranquillitatis    
4. Main Sequence    
5. Sword Of Orion    
6. Alpha    
7. Nucleogenesis (Part One)    
8. Nucleogenesis (Part Two)    
9. Albedo 0.39

Running time: 41 minutes
Released: 1976

More Vangelis, from earlier in his career than 1492 and not linked to a movie this time. It is another work that I have not listened to a lot, and the third short-ish listen in a row. Much easier than the hour-plus ones!

I had meant to do this listen last night but got distracted by trifling things until it was too late, so end up doing it now, with a plum and cinnamon cordial for company.

It is straight in with a loop that could almost have been from a fusion album soon joined by synth spikes that I find quite unpleasant. The levels are interesting, it seems to get quieter after it starts and the whole of Pulstar is softer than I would expect bar a couple of short passages. This is truly 70s synth wizardry - with the album and tracks all titled for stellar phenomena for extra geekery. I am no cosmologist, nor a sci-fi fan, so most of the terminology is lost on me, but knowing what it pertains to makes some sense of the track - at least until the end when the bloody speaking clock shows up. It's got the time wrong as ever!

Freefall goes all oriental in influence - its a very strange contrast, hard to believe these two tracks were from the same root and share space on a themed album. Especially when the very next track goes back to a "spacier" sound. I am not liking this much so far, and am pinning my hopes on the longer pieces to redeem it. Alas, as the Main Sequence starts I am not feeling that is likely. Too piercing. The bassy loops and riffs are quite nice but the high pitched stuff is falling very flat for me. I know that technology was in a very different place 40 years ago but the synthetic sounds feel to me like those I made on a Casiotone keyboard as a kid - mostly very annoying! Vangelis is, to be fair, less reliant on pre-programmed rhythm select.

I kid because... well. I have a lot more of his music to come (though notably not Chariots of Fire) and I do not want to allow not getting on with Albedo 0.39 prejudice me. Sword of Orion is quite a nice short piece. Whilst it suffers the same "high pitch" problem, it is slower paced and feels more genuinely like a sci-fi soundtrack.

I feel like I should like this more than I do, and a little guilty for not doing so. I am not convinced by Alpha either - the faux-Chinese ambiance is back, but this time full out done with the spacey synth sounds. Actually when they open out into something less staccato it improves a lot - and is it me, or is that a subtle increase in tempo as it does? That I like - there is more coming in as it goes and it has swelled. There is less annoying top end and more awesome soundscape. Much better, even if it ends too abruptly.

Nucleogenesis starts with more annoying high pitched sounds, and whilst they fade to give a funky kind of structure I worry they will be back. My worry is assuaged a bit when instead of high pitched ear-bleeding I get... oddities. This is frustrating; I like the drive this piece has but whilst the top end is more accessible than some of the earlier songs it is frustratingly annoying in places.

Oh man... the start of Nucleogenesis (Part Two) is only a step away from the Airwolf theme, and for a moment I got nostalgic for carp 80's TV (typo deliberate). OK so it is not that similar, but there was enough of a hint there for my mind to immediately go helicoptering away.

I miss most of the track whilst sorting out the embed (and I am still not happy) but hear enough to know I have to keep that. The title track is a real "drifting in space" sound, and you could imagine the voice-over relaying space-facts as some looped AI recording that slowly drives the marooned cosmonaut insane. I find it oddly relaxing and only vaguely realise that the track has ended whilst I resize the off-topic embedded video to something more bearable. Priorities, Graham! I do not even have a copy of the Airwolf theme in my library and this makes me sad; I have something based on Knight Rider later though. Huzzah!

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.