Everybody probably remembers him for the Blade Runner soundtrack. I remember him for “Heaven & Hell”, “Albedo”, “Spiral” and the other albums the Cosmos series used in its soundtrack. Those albums were practically the soundtrack of my life through high school.
Chalk me up as one of those kids who learned to play this on a piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a-HfNE3EIo
Oh wow. Vangelis’ distinctive sound was absolutely crucial to Chariots, Cosmos, and Blade Runner. I can’t think about those without Vangelis piping into my headspace.
RIP.
I’m not familiar with much of his music outside of Blade Runner but that soundtrack is one of my all-time favourites. My flatmate and I listened to it a ton at uni.
RIP Vangelis.
My first (knowing, I had seen BR before then but didn’t pay a ton of attention to the soundtrack) exposure to him was as a teenager in 1995 when I read at the back of I think King’s Test by Margaret Weis that the march of something or other was intended to be To the Unknown Man, so I went out and bought Spiral, and although I found that song a bit uninspiring as a march I enjoyed the album overall.
Wow. This one hurts. More than I thought it would, even.
RIP.
Agreed, this one really stings.
Oh wow, I had forgotten all about Vangelis. In the 90s I went through a phase where I was listening exclusively to film soundtracks and listened to him quite a bit, which led me to some of his solo/Aphrodite’s Child work.
I think the soundtrack of Bladerunner is every bit as important as the visual design in making that film such an original and unique work at the time of release, and today, decades later, it’s still such an impressive feat of atmosphere and setting.
RIP
Yes! I think she named a planet or a star Vangelis in that series too.
This is absolutely true.
And also the keyboardist/songwriter of Aphrodite’s Child and this nugget that appears on every FM radio station’s playlist back in the 1970s…
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing.
100%. The two are totally inseperable.
This one hurts. The guy was a fantastic musician who had a really interesting composing method using custom built hardware and software. Need to dig up some video where it was covered.
It’s rare that I even know who the person is in the latest QT3 obituary thread, but when I do, they usually hit pretty hard.
Clicking play on Chariots of Fire probably didn’t help!
From linked obit:
Turning down an invitation to replace Rick Wakeman on keyboards in Yes,
Thus, he said No to Yes.
Indeed. But he had some great collaborations with Jon Anderson, the lead singer. I can still sing Friends of Mr. Cairo by heart.
RIP.
I remembered having Heaven and Hell on LP and playing the heck out of it when I was in high school. Forgot about Cosmos being how I found out about him.
Looks like quite a few of my Facebook friends also bought that album in those days.
Vangelis’ The City was the first CD I every bought. Been a fan my entire life. Mask, China, Oceanic, Spiral, Soil Festivities, yadda yadda etc. Still have a copy of the bootleg Blade Runner soundtrack I got before the rights were cleared up. His last album, Juno to Jupiter, was pretty good.
Coincidentally, a few months ago I went Amazon trawling for more obscure albums of his that I’d missed. Ones like Earth, Invisible Connections, and I shit you not Sex Power.
Ah fuck.
Vangelis’s music helped shape my consciousness.