#4626, Remembering Vangelis

The late Greek composer Vangelis was famous for his film music, Chariots Of Fire (for which he won an Academy Award), Blade Runner, and Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos, among others. In his long and varied career, which ended in May 2022, at the age of 79, he actually turned down film score work, rarely toured, and rarely gave interviews.

Born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou in the Greek town of Agria, he mostly taught himself to play music. In the late 1960’s he co-founded the prog-rock band Aphrodite's Child (NPR.org, 2016), then went on to collaborate with Jon Anderson of Yes. Vangelis began making music with electronic keyboards and synthesizers, which came to define his solo sound, especially his work as a film composer, (NPR.org, 2016) and later cosmic orchestral pieces like his choral symphony, Mythodea Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey. 

Vangelis granted New Sounds one of these rare interviews, recorded by John Schaefer in the Pierre Hotel in 1985. Listen to that and sample a cross-section of his recorded work, with music from his days with Aphrodite’s Child and up to his work Mythodea – and including, yes, the Chariots of Fire theme, as well. – Caryn Havlik

Program #4626, Remembering Vangelis (First aired 5/23/22)

ARTIST: Vangelis
WORK: Soil Festivities, Part 4 [7:23]
RECORDING: Soil Festivities 
SOURCE: Polydor Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Vangelis
WORK: La Mer Recommencer [5:52]
RECORDING: Apocalypse des Animaux
SOURCE: Polydor Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Irene Papas & Vangelis
WORK: Neranzoula, La Fleuve (The Little Orange Tree)[5:39]
RECORDING: Odes
SOURCE: UMVD 1720633, 1979/reissued 2007
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Aphrodite's Child
WORK: Rain and Tears [:30]
RECORDING: End of the World
SOURCE: Mercury Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Aphrodite's Child
WORK: The Four Horseman [2:27]
RECORDING: 666
SOURCE: Mercury Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Jon Anderson & Vangelis
WORK: Long Ago, So Clear [4:48]
RECORDING:  Heaven and Hell
SOURCE: RCA Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify

ARTIST: Vangelis
WORK: Chariots of Fire Theme [3:06]
RECORDING: Chariots of Fire
SOURCE: Polydor Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music 

ARTIST: Jon Anderson & Vangelis
WORK: Heaven and Hell, Part 1 [1:34]
RECORDING:  Heaven and Hell
SOURCE: RCA Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify

ARTIST: Vangelis, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle
WORK: Mythodea, Part 9 [6:34]
RECORDING:  Mythodea
SOURCE: Sony Classical 
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube Music