Vangelis

This article describes the musician and composer Vangelis; for the asteroid, see (6354) Vangelis .

Vangelis in October 2007

Vangelis ( Greek Βαγγέλης ; born March 29, 1943 in Agria near Volos , Greece ; actually Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου , Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ) is a Greek composer and one of the pioneers of electronic music . He was also known for his film music for productions such as Chariots of Fire , Blade Runner and Conquest of Paradise .

General

The music style of Vangelis is diverse and ranges from so-called new age music to dark ambient . His best-known compositions include the 1982 Oscar- winning music for the film The Hour of the Winner ( Chariots of Fire ) as well as the film music for Blade Runner , 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise ( 1492: Conquest of Paradise ) and The Bounty . He also composed the anthem for the 2002 World Cup .

Vangelis began to compose at the age of four and has largely acquired his musical knowledge himself. He refused to take traditional piano lessons and had no essential knowledge of reading or writing music throughout his career. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens .

In the early 1960s he founded the pop group Forminx (sometimes spelled "Formynx"), which became very popular in Greece. During the student revolt in 1968 he moved to Paris and founded the progressive rock group Aphrodite's Child with Demis Roussos and Lucas Sideras . They had several hit singles, including a .: Rain and Tears . The concept album 666 ( The Apocalypse of John, 13/18 ) is now considered a classic of progressive rock . The group separated in 1972, but Roussos still had several appearances in later works by Vangelis.

Vangelis began his solo career in 1973 writing the score for two films by French filmmaker Frédéric Rossif . His first official solo album was Earth in 1974. Around the same time he rehearsed again with another progressive rock band, Yes . Although he never became a member, he became friends with Yes singer Jon Anderson and later worked with him often. He and Jon Anderson released four albums together from 1980 to 1991 under the name Jon & Vangelis and in 1981 they had an international hit with I'll Find My Way Home .

After moving to London , Vangelis signed a contract with RCA Records , set up his own studio (Nemo Studios) and began working on some electronic music albums. The music from the 1975 Heaven and Hell album was later used as the theme of the US television series Cosmos .

In 1982 Vangelis won the Oscar for film music in Chariots of Fire . Raphael Preston, who has worked for Nemo Studios since 1977, commented: “ Chariots of Fire was the first synthesizer score to win an Oscar. This showed that Hollywood viewed synthesizer music as something of real artistic value; it paved the way for a generation of composers and established a new approach to film music. ”In 1982, Vangelis began working with director Ridley Scott . Vangelis wrote the music for Blade Runner, and ten years later for 1492 - Conquering Paradise . The boxer Henry Maske then used Conquest of Paradise in the RTL television productions of his boxing matches as accompanying music for his march into the hall after he was no longer allowed to use the music from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff after he lost the legal dispute with the heirs. Thanks to a clever marketing strategy from the same station, the single extracted from the associated CD became one of the best-selling singles in Germany. Vangelis also wrote the background music for many of Jacques Cousteau's documentaries .

In 1991 he contributed the music to the film project Starwatcher by Jean Giraud and Keith Ingham. In 1997 he received the Georges Delerue Award for the music for the film Kavafis , directed by Yannis Smaragdis . In 2001 Mythodea appeared (orchestral rather than electronic music in style), an unpublished version of which was written and performed in 1993. The NASA used the main motive for the presentation of their Mars Mars Odyssey and its Jupiter mission JUNO . In 2004 Vangelis completed the score for Oliver Stone's film version of Alexander the Great . At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the title theme of Chariots of Fire was performed both at the opening ceremony with the philharmonic orchestra and as music to accompany the medal ceremonies. The Rosetta mission of ESA devoted he 2016 album Rosetta .

He currently lives in Athens .

Instruments

Vangelis often uses the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer , which can be heard formative in the film music for Blade Runner and The Hour of the Winner . At times he owned eight synthesizers of this type (some for the studio, some for concerts, the rest as a source of spare parts). The purchase price of a CS-80 at the time was about 7,000 US dollars (approximately 29,500 US dollars today).

In addition to the acoustic concert grand pianos from Steinway & Sons and Imperial from Bösendorfer, the following is a selection of the instruments used by Vangelis:

Fender Rhodes Stage 88 Electric Piano, Hammond B3 Organ , Hohner Clavinet , Korg 800DV, Korg Mini 700, Korg Poly Ensemble, Roland SH3A, Roland SH1000, Roland System 100, ARP 2600 modular, Korg PSS-3300, Moog Minimoog , Moog Satellite, Oberheim 4-Voice, Oberheim 8-Voice, Roland Jupiter 4, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Sequential Circuits Prophet 10, Yamaha CP80 Electric Grand, Yamaha CS40M, Yamaha GS1 FM synth, Korg Poly 800, Roland D50, Roland Juno 106, Roland Jupiter 6, Roland MKS20, Roland MKS70, Roland MKS80 Super Jupiter, Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus, Sequential Prophet VS module, Yamaha DX7 , Yamaha DX7II FD, Elka Rhapsody 610 .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1975	Heaven and Hell	-	-	-	UK31 (7 weeks) UK	-	Solo album
1976	Albedo 0.39	-	-	-	UK18 (6 weeks) UK	-	Solo album
1977	Spiral	-	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1978	Beaubourg	-	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1979	Opera Sauvage	-	-	-	-	US42 (39 weeks) US	Soundtrack album for the film Opera Sauvage
	China	-	-	-	UK- silver UK	-	Solo album
1980	Short stories	DE30 (15 weeks) DE	AT18 (2 weeks) AT	-	UK4th gold (11 weeks)UK	US125 (15 weeks) US	Collab album with singer Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
	see you later	-	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1981	Chariots of Fire	DE39 (13 weeks) DE	AT11 (6 weeks) AT	-	UK5 platinum (106 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (57 weeks)US	Soundtrack album for the film The Hour of the Winner Sales: + 1,607,500
	The Friends of Mr Cairo	DE13 (28 weeks) DE	AT8 (10 weeks) AT	-	UK6th gold (23 weeks)UK	US64 (34 weeks) US	Collab album with singer Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
1983	Private Collection	DE27 (11 weeks) DE	AT18 (2 weeks) AT	-	UK22 (10 weeks) UK	US148 (7 weeks) US	Collab album with singer Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
	Antarctica	-	-	-	-	-	Soundtrack album
1984	Best of Jon and Vangelis	DE52 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK42 (9 weeks) UK	-	Collab album with singer Jon Anderson as a Jon & Vangelis compilation
	Soil festivities	-	-	-	UK55 (4 weeks) UK	-	Solo album
1985	Mask	-	-	-	UK69 (2 weeks) UK	-	Solo album
1986	Direct	-	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1989	Themes	DE46 (16 weeks) DE	-	CH20th gold (13 weeks)CH	UK11 gold (13 weeks)UK	-	compilation
1990	The CIty	-	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1992	1492: Conquest of Paradise	DE1 × 5 Quintuple gold (52 weeks)DE	AT1 × 2 Double platinum (38 weeks)AT	CH1 × 2 Double platinum (38 weeks)CH	UK33 gold (6 weeks)UK	-	Soundtrack album for the film 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise Sales DE: + 1,250,000
1994	Blade Runner soundtrack	-	-	-	UK20th gold (7 weeks)UK	-	Soundtrack album for the film Blade Runner
1995	Voices	DE24 gold (16 weeks)DE	AT6th gold (15 weeks)AT	CH31 (11 weeks) CH	UK58 (2 weeks) UK	-	Solo album
1996	Portraits (So Long Ago, So Clear)	DE13 (15 weeks) DE	AT3 gold (16 weeks)AT	CH7th gold (13 weeks)CH	UK14th silver (6 weeks)UK	-	compilation
	Oceanic	DE87 (3 weeks) DE	AT22 (7 weeks) AT	CH37 (1 week) CH	-	-	Solo album
1998	El Greco	DE74 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	Solo album
1999	Recapitulation 1990-1999	DE75 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	compilation
2001	Mythodea - 2001 Mars Odyssey	DE46 (6 weeks) DE	-	CH75 (3 weeks) CH	-	-	Solo album
2003	Odyssey - The Definitive Collection	-	-	CH89 (2 weeks) CH	UK20th gold (8 weeks)UK	-	compilation
2012	The Collection	-	-	-	UK29 (4 weeks) UK	-	compilation
2016	Rosetta	DE55 (1 week) DE	AT58 (1 week) AT	CH29 (1 week) CH	UK40 (1 week) UK	-	Solo album
2019	Nocturne: The Piano Album	-	-	CH33 (2 weeks) CH	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Compilations

• 1978: The Best of Vangelis
• 1985: Magic Moments
• 1984: The Best of Jon & Vangelis - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1989: Themes
• 1994: Best in Space
• 1994: Chronicles (Low-Budget-Best-Of) - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1995: Mundo Magico De Vangelis
• 1996: Portraits (So Long Ago So Clear) - first edition
• 1997: The Best of Vangelis
• 1998: Poison
• 1998: Portraits (So Long Ago So Clear) - Re-release as a 24-carat gold CD, Zounds , all titles digitally remastered
• 2000: recapitulation 1990–1999
• 2003: Odyssey
• 2012: The Collection
• 2013: Light and Shadow: The Best of Vangelis

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	I Hear You Now	DE69 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK8 (11 weeks) UK	US58 (6 weeks) US	with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
1981	Chariots of Fire Chariots Of Fire	-	-	-	UK12 (17 weeks) UK	US1 (28 weeks) US
	Heaven and Hell	-	-	-	UK48 (6 weeks) UK	-
	I'll find my way home	DE6 (23 weeks) DE	AT19 (2 weeks) AT	CH1 (14 weeks) CH	UK6th silver (13 weeks)UK	US51 (9 weeks) US	with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
1983	And When the Night Comes Private Collection	-	-	-	UK87 (3 weeks) UK	-	with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
	He Is Sailing Private Collection	-	-	-	UK61 (3 weeks) UK	-	with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
1984	State of Independence	-	-	-	UK67 (3 weeks) UK	-	with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis
1992	Conquest of Paradise 1492 - Conquest Of Paradise (Music From The Original Soundtrack)	DE1 × 3 Triple platinum (39 weeks)DE	AT2 gold (25 weeks)AT	CH1 (36 weeks) CH	UK60 (3 weeks) UK	-	Sales DE: + 1,500,000
1995	Voices Voices	DE25 (15 weeks) DE	AT23 (10 weeks) AT	CH24 (10 weeks) CH	-	-
1996	Ask the Mountains Voices	-	-	-	UK77 (1 week) UK	-	with Stina Nordenstam
1997	March with Me	DE67 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	with Montserrat Caballé
2000	I don't need you anymore	-	-	-	UK100 (1 week) UK	-	with De Goeij
2002	Anthem - 2002 FIFA World Cup	DE75 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK98 (1 week) UK	-

Published works

• 1968: Our Love Sleeps on the Waters / The Clock - first solo single
• 1971: Hypothesis - with Tony Oxley
• 1971: The Dragon
• 1971: Fais Que Ton Reve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit
• 1973: Earth
• 1975: Heaven and Hell
• 1976: The Vangelis Radio Special
• 1976: Albedo 0.39
• 1976: La Fete Sauvage
• 1977: Spiral
• 1978: Beaubourg
• 1978/79: China
• 1978/79: Odes - With Irene Papas
• 1979/80: Short Stories - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1980: See You Later
• 1981: The Friends of Mr. Cairo - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1982: Demis - As Vangelis & Demis Roussos
• 1983: Private Collection - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1984: Soil Festivities
• 1984: Silent Portraits - 12 ″ single
• 1985: Mask
• 1985: Invisible Connections
• 1986: Rhapsodies - with Irene Papas
• 1988: Direct
• 1990: The City
• 1991: Page of Life - as Jon & Vangelis
• 1994: Los Angeles 2019
• 1995: Foros Timis Ston Greco - transl. A Tribute to El Greco , original museum edition limited to 3000 CDs
• 1995: Voices
• 1996: Oceanic
• 1998: El Greco - commercial version of the 1995 CD Foros Timis Ston Greco
• 2001: Mythodea
• 2002: Anthem - 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Anthem - CD single
• 2004: Ithaca - musically accompanied recitation of the most famous poem by Konstantinos Kavafis by Sean Connery (limited edition)
• 2006: Chariots of Fire ( Chariots of Fire ) - Soundtrack of 1981. 25th Anniversary Edition, digitally remastered by Vangelis, Digipak
• 2007: Blade Runner Trilogy 25th Anniversary - The 1994 soundtrack album along with a CD of unreleased tracks from the film and another CD of new music
• 2012: Chariots of Fire - The Play . Stage Music
• 2016: Rosetta

Released soundtracks

• 1969/70: Sex Power
• 1973: L'Apocalypse des Animaux
• 1975: Ignacio
• 1975: Can you hear the dogs barking?
• 1977: Ignacio
• 1977: Spiral
• 1978: La Fete Sauvage
• 1979: Opera Sauvage
• 1979: China
• 1980: Cosmos ( Our Cosmos )
• 1981: Chariots of Fire ( The Victor's Hour )
• 1982: Blade Runner
• 1983: Antarctica ( Taro and Jiro in Antarctica )
• 1984: Sauvage et Beau
• 1992: 1492: Conquest of Paradise ( 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise )
• 1996: Kavafis (Cavafy)
• 2004: Alexander
• 2007: El Greco Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• 2008: Swiadectwo

Unreleased soundtracks

• 1974: Crime & Passion
• 1982: Missing ( Missing )
• 1984: Mutiny on the Bounty ( Die Bounty )
• 1986: Splendeur Sauvage
• 1989: Beaute Sauvage
• 1989: Francis
• 1989/90: De Nuremberg à Nuremberg
• 1992: La Peste (The Plague)
• 1992: Bitter Moon

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 1995: for the single 1492: Conquest of Paradise 1996: for the album Portraits - So Long Ago So Clear  Brazil 2004: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  France 1979: for the album Albedo 0.39 1979: for the album Spiral 1982: for the album Chariots of Fire 1992: for the album Greatest Hits 1996: for the album Portraits - So Long Ago So Clear  Greece 2002: for the album Mythodea - 2001 Mars Odyssey  Canada 1981: for the single The Friends of Mr Cairo  Netherlands 1980: for the album Short Stories  New Zealand 1982: for the album Chariots of Fire  Poland 1996: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  Hungary 2003: for the album Odyssey - The Definitive Collection

Platinum record  Argentina 1993: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  Europe 2001: for the album Portraits - So Long Ago So Clear  France 1989: for the album Themes / Best of Vangelis  Canada 1981: for the album The Friends of Mr Cairo  Netherlands 1995: for the single Conquest of Paradise  Norway 1996: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  Spain 1984: for the album Chariots of Fire 2 × platinum record  Argentina 1989: for the album Themes / Best of Vangelis  Belgium 1995: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  France 2001: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise  Netherlands 1995: for the album 1492: Conquest of Paradise 3 × platinum record  Canada 1987: for the album Chariots of Fire

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Argentina (CAPIF)	-	-	3 × platinum3	180,000	archive.is ( Memento from May 31, 2011 in the web archive archive.today )
Belgium (BEA)	-	2 × gold2	2 × platinum2	150,000	musikindustrie.de
Brazil (PMB)	-	gold1	-	50,000	pro-musicabr.org.br
Germany (BVMI)	-	2 × gold2	5 × platinum5	3,000,000	musikindustrie.de
Europe (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	(1,000,000)	ifpi.org ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
France (SNEP)	-	5 × gold5	3 × platinum3	2,000,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Greece (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	25,000	ifpi.gr ( Memento from February 28, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
Canada (MC)	-	gold1	4 × platinum4th	475,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	3 × platinum3	300,000	nvpi.nl
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	gold1	-	7,500	nztop40.co.nz
Norway (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	40,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Austria (IFPI)	-	3 × gold3	2 × platinum2	175,000	ifpi.at
Poland (ZPAV)	-	gold1	-	50,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	2 × gold2	2 × platinum2	150,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	-	platinum1	100,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
Hungary (MAHASZ)	-	gold1	-	15,000	slagerlistak.hu
United States (RIAA)	-	-	platinum1	1,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × silver3	6 × gold6th	platinum1	1,220,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	3 × silver3	27 × gold27	29 × platinum29

literature

• Mark JT Griffin: Vangelis: The Unknown Man - An Unauthorized Biography . Mark JT Griffin (Publications), 1994, ISBN 0-9523187-2-5 .

Web links

Commons : Vangelis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Vangelis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about Vangelis in the catalog of the German National Library
• Discography Vangelis (English)
• Elsewhere , probably the biggest English-speaking fansite
• Find out more about Vangelis (English)
• Discography and side for collectors (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Singer Demis Roussos died at 68. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 26, 2015.
2. ↑ Mark JT Griffin: Vangelis: The Unknown Man - an unauthorized biography , ISBN 0-9523187-2-5
3. ↑ Out of Space in the Temple of Zeus. In: Spiegel Online , June 29, 2001.
4. ↑ Tony Greicius: Vangelis: Mythodea. In: nasa.gov (English).
5. ↑ NASA's Juno Gives Starship-Like View of Earth Flyby. In: nasa.gov , December 9, 2013 (English).
6. ↑ Magdi Aboul-Kheir: Vangelis has released an album for the space mission "Rosetta". In: Südwest Presse , October 5, 2016.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US