Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου (29 March 1943), known professionally as Vangelis, is a Greek musician and composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, and orchestral music.
He is best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
Vangelis began his career working with several popular bands of the 1960s such as The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child, with the latter's album 666 going on to be recognized as a progressive-psychedelic rock classic.
Throughout the 1970s, Vangelis composed scores for several animal documentaries, including L'Apocalypse des Animaux, La Fête sauvage and Opéra sauvage; the success of these scores brought him into the film scoring mainstream.
In the early 1980s, Vangelis formed a musical partnership with Jon Anderson, the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes, and the duo went on to release several albums together as Jon & Vangelis.
In 1980, he composed the score for the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score. The soundtrack's single, the film's Titles theme, also reached the top of the American Billboard Hot 100 chart and was used as the background music at the London 2012 Olympics winners' medal presentation ceremonies.
Having had a career in music spanning over 50 years and having composed and performed more than 50 albums, Vangelis is considered to be one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music.
More information: Elsew
Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou was born on 29 March 1943 in Agria, a coastal town in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece, and raised in Athens. His father Odysseus worked in property and was an amateur sprinter; his son described him as a great lover of music. At six his parents enrolled him for music lessons, but Vangelis later said that his attempts to study failed as he preferred to develop technique on his own. He considers himself fortunate not to attend music school as it impedes creativity, and learned to play from memory.
Vangelis found traditional Greek music as particularly important in his childhood, but at twelve developed an interest in jazz and rock. At fifteen, he started to form school bands, not to cover other musicians but to have fun.
Vangelis acquired his first Hammond organ at eighteen. In 1963, Vangelis and three school friends started a five-piece rock band The Forminx playing cover songs and original material largely written by Vangelis with English lyrics by radio DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis. After nine singles and one Christmas EP, which found success across Europe, the group disbanded in 1966.
From 1970 to 1974, Vangelis took part in various solo projects in film, television, and theatre.
In 1980, Vangelis agreed to record the score for Chariots of Fire (1981); he accepted because I liked the people I was working with. It was a very humble, low-budget film. The choice of music was unorthodox as most period films featured orchestral scores, whereas Vangelis' music was modern and synthesiser-oriented. It gained mainstream commercial success which increased Vangelis' profile as a result. The opening instrumental title piece, Titles, later named Chariots of Fire-Titles, was released as a single which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week after a five-month climb. The soundtrack album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for four weeks and sold one million copies in the US.
In March 1982, Vangelis won an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, but refused to attend the awards' ceremony partly due to his fear of flying.
In 1981, Vangelis collaborated with director Ridley Scott to score his science fiction film, Blade Runner (1982). Critics have written that in capturing the isolation and melancholy of Harrison Ford's character, Rick Deckard, the Vangelis score is as much a part of the dystopian environment as the decaying buildings and ever-present rain.
For the 12 November 2014 landing of the Philae lander on Comet 67P, part of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, Vangelis composed three short pieces titled Arrival, Rosetta's Waltz, and Philae's Journey. The pieces were released online as videos accompanied by images and animations from the Rosetta mission.
More information: Louder Sound
It is the prime force.
It has given shape to space.
Vangelis
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