Greek composer and ambient pioneer,

Vangelis

born on the 29th of March 1943 in Agria, Greece

Written by Massimiliano Galli

But most of the time, music can also be something we relate to physically, emotionally, and most importantly, instinctively. When I was a young musician, I was lazy, I found music theory lessons boring, and I was a terrible student in general. "He has talent, but he is lazy" was the sentence almost every teacher told my parents. But I had passion. I played for hours and hours, learning to play songs by ear.

It's funny to find similarities in the musical journey of one of the greatest music composers of all time. As a kid in Greece, Vangelis had the same attitude when he preferred to play music by memory rather than reading. He declared that his attempts to study "failed" as he preferred to develop techniques independently. He thinks of himself as lucky to have not attended music school, as he thought it an obstacle to creativity.

Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou born on the 29th of March 1943 in Agria, a coastal town in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece, and brought up in Athens. His parents were great music lovers, and he grew up surrounded by Greek music, but at the age of twelve, he developed a more considerable interest in jazz and rock music. In 1963, Vangelis joined The Forminx playing cover songs, and he primarily wrote original material with English lyrics, but after several releases, the group disbanded in 1966.

The road that led Vangelis to become an Academy Award winner came after the split of The Forminx. He almost immediately started composing music for several Greek films. Still, amidst the political turmoil surrounding the Greek junta, a coup that established a right-wing military dictatorship in Greece from 1967 to 1974, he tried to move to London. After being denied entry into the UK, he settled in Paris for the next six years.

In 1968 Vangelis formed the progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child alongside Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris. The band had good commercial success in Europe and released three albums, End of the World in 1968, It's Five O'Clock in 1969, and 666 in 1972. When the band split in 1971, Vangelis took part in various solo projects in film, television, and theatre until 1974.

1972 was when he released his initial solo album Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit, French for Make Your Dream Last Longer Than the Night. The album is motivated by the 1968 French student riots, after which Vangelis chose to write a "poème Symphonique" to represent his solidarity with them.

In 1973 he released his second album Earth, a percussive-orientated album with various additional musicians, which captured the attention of Yes lead singer Jon Anderson. Vangelis auditioned with the band and was about to join as a keyboard player, but issues with his working visa caused him to decline the offer. It's incredible to think that we are still dealing with similar problems fifty years later. 

Despite the issues with his working visa, Vangelis finally moved to England in 1975 and signed a record deal with RCA Records. His musical style changed, abandoning the comfort zone of rock music and started releasing a series of electronic music albums produced in his new Nemo Studios, which he built in his flat.

For the first time, his album Heaven and Hell (1975), showed a variety of synthesizers, percussion, and a chorus in a rich orchestral tone, which shaped the musical trademark he is now recognized for. The album reached a good commercial success entering UK music charts and featuring the English Chamber Choir and Yes singer Jon Anderson.

The album was followed by the release of Albedo 0.39 (1976), Spiral (1977), Beaubourg (1978), and China (1979), each having their thematic inspiration, including the universe, Tao philosophy, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and Chinese culture. Besides his solo records, Vangelis kept composing music scores for movies and documentaries such as Do You Hear the Dogs Barking? (recorded in 1975, released in 1977), La Fête sauvage (1976), and Opéra sauvage (1979).

Especially with the release of Opéra Sauvage, Vangelis's career started growing, and the music from the album would be re-used in other films. The melody of the track L'Enfant was used in marching band format at the beginning of the 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies scene in the film Chariots of Fire, while the track Hymne was used in Barilla pasta commercials in Italy and Ernest & Julio Gallo wine ads in the US.

In 1979 Vangelis had great success in his home country with the album Odes, performed by him and actress Irene Papas, and started a more intense duo collaboration with Jon Anderson, which brought to the release of their debut album Short Stories (1980), which reached No. 4 in the UK charts. The duo released three more albums; The Friends of Mr. Cairo (1981), Private Collection (1983), and Page of Life released in 1991. During his career, Vangelis released other collaborative albums with Greek rock band Socrates, Greek singer Demis Roussos, Italian duo Krisma, Italian singer Milva, and the Spanish electronic group Neuronium.

The collaboration with Anderson was the prelude to much wider mainstream success. After reaching the UK charts and the great success he had in his home country, in 1981, Vangelis composed one of the most famous melodies ever released for the movie Chariots of Fire (1981). Both the track Chariots of Fire – Titles and the movie's original soundtrack reached No. 1 on the US Billboard, and Vangelis won an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score.

The track has often been used from that moment on as a musical anthem for Olympic Games and Athletics ceremonies in general. We could say that the melody of Chariots of Fire – Titles has become the equivalent of what Queen's We Are The Champions is for sports events, when, at the end of finals, it is played by the speakers of stadiums around the world. Chariots of Fire was followed by two other soundtracks: Antarctica, released in 1983, and 1492: Conquest of Paradise, released in 1992.

Always in 1981, Vangelis worked on another iconic movie, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), composing one of the most famous soundtracks of all time, which would then be nominated for a BAFTA and Golden Globe award and inspired generations of music lovers, alongside creating an imprint for future science movies soundtracks. A disagreement led to Vangelis withholding permission for his recordings to be released. To use his compositions, musicians dubbed the New American Orchestra to release orchestral adaptations of the original score. 

Vangelis's work was finally released in 1994 but was deemed incomplete as the film included other Vangelis compositions that were not incorporated. In 2007 a box set of the score was released to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary, including the 1994 album, some formerly unreleased music cues, and new original Vangelis material encouraged by Blade Runner.

Vangelis's musical path represents one of the most significant examples, if not the biggest, in the fine art of soundtracks and brought the relationship between sounds and images to an entirely new level. From a musician's perspective, it is not hard to understand that he cherishes his solo career as well, and he has always had a difficult relationship with stardom.

In 1985 he declared, in an interview with journalist John Schaefer, that he wanted to avoid becoming "a factory of film music" and added, "Music is life, I stay in my studio until ten or eleven at night, and I record every day. Not for money or albums - I just compose music". Perhaps this was why he often refused to work on soundtracks to focus on other kinds of projects. For example, he declined an offer to score 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), the sequel of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not many people would say no to that kind of offer.

In fact, in the following years, Vangelis kept focusing on his solo career, releasing 13 more solo albums, the last one Juno to Jupiter in 2021, 16 collaborative albums, and a considerable number of music scored for films and documentaries, theatre, and ballet.