R.I.P. Vangelis, legendary composer behind Blade Runner and Chariots Of Fire
The iconic electronic musician also had a long and successful solo career
Aux News Vangelis
One of film’s most iconic composers has died, with Variety reporting that Vangelis—a.k.a. Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou—died on Tuesday in France while undergoing treatment for COVID-19. Vangelis, a multi-instrumentalist who was best known for his synthesizer work, was nominated for three Grammys and won an Oscar for composing the score (and iconic theme song) for Chariots Of Fire. He was 79.
Vangelis was born in Greece in the ‘40s and was interested in creating his own music at a young age, to the point where he would reportedly put nails and pans inside the family’s piano to get it to make different sounds. He briefly took music lessons but preferred figuring things out on his own and eventually joined a short-lived rock band with friends from school called The Forminx. In the late-‘60s, he formed progressive rock band Aphrodite’s Child, which went on to some success with hits like “Rain And Tears,” but the commercial aspect of being in a rock band didn’t interest Vangelis and he broke out on a solo career.
One of Vangelis’ solo albums, which were largely based around electronic music and thematic concepts that embraced different philosophies or political movements, caught the attention of Carl Sagan, who decided to use Vangelis’ a track from the composer’s Heaven And Hell as the opening theme to his Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series in 1980.
With Vangelis new gaining attention from American audiences, he was approached to do the soundtrack for director Hugh Hudson’s Chariots Of Fire. Vangelis was seen as an odd choice for a movie about the 1924 Olympics, an event that greatly pre-dated electronic music and synthesizers, but his score quickly became (and remains) more famous than the film itself. Even if you’ve never seen Chariots Of Fire, you’ve heard its theme used in a slow-motion montage at some point.
Not content with one film-defining score, Vangelis remained in the Hollywood system for the next two years to create what might as well be a genre-defining score for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. The somber, ominous tone of Vangelis’ soundtrack to Scott’s cyberpunk dystopia is as unforgettable as the constant rain and impossible skyscrapers of the film’s visuals, and these days it seems impossible to separate them. It’s telling that, in the soundtrack to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, the most impactful moments are when Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch directly reference Vangelis.
In more recent years, Vangelis continued composing, working on stage productions and more solo albums, occasionally returning to earlier works like his two iconic soundtracks to expand on their themes (like he did for the stage version of Chariots Of Fire). He also made it a career-long point to pay tribute to the culture of his home country, with Variety saying that Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned the favor this week in a statement that referred to Vangelis as “a pioneer of electronic sound.”
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Quick! Stick him in the slideshow!
Ten Important Times Vangelis Elevated Ploblematic Art.
“Ploblematic”?
Was This Vangelis Album Actually Incredibly Racist?
Or there’s the old standby: Here’s Why Vangelis Matters
*cue 500 words of attempted snark that completely fails to land*
The soundtracks are nice and all, but his studio records like Heaven and Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Opéra Sauvage are where it’s really at.
I also really like the soundtrack to the Japanese movie “Antarctica” (1983). Skip the movie though. It’s a depressing story of a a Japanese research expedition where they have to leave their dogs behind (who presumably die).
Nonsense. They clearly now live on a peaceful Antarctic farm with my childhood cats.
“the most impactful moments are when Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch directly reference Vangelis.”Yeah, I was floored at the end of the film when they rolled into “Tears in Rain” as K is laying on the steps, possibly dying, and watching the snowflakes.
IT’S TOO BAD SHE WONT’ LIVE….BUT THEN AGAIN…WHO DOES?
His run from 1975 to 1983 is unassailable (yes, even Beaubourg). Truly an original, who made the Yamaha CS80 forever HIS sound. Can’t think of many artists who so successfully made a career out of steering wildly from pop-appeal accessibility to die-hard experimentation. Hopefully his estate puts out at least some of his unreleased recordings in the years to come.
IMHO the second most accomplished and talented composer after Miles Davis in their respective modern age(and ever really).Also, leaving out Mask and Soil Festivities out of his peak years is silly.
I love Soil Festivities and Mask (and if I’m positively citing Beaubourg, you better believe I also dig Invisible Connections). But I do clearly remember them not being as acclaimed on initial release as his earlier period: Soil Festivities was thought of at the time as being his “sell-out” New Age album. But I agree, they’re both great, if arguably not as influential as what preceded them.
I have both Aphrodite’s Child and Vangelis record and somehow found put today that Vangelis was in AC
Even if you’ve never seen Chariots Of Fire, you’ve heard its theme used in a slow-motion montage at some point.While Blade Runner is legitimately one of my favourite films ever, the thing I’ll most remember about Vangelis music is when the Chariots of Fire theme was played for laughs in various comedies. This clip even has Al Bundy playing the theme on an imaginary piano:RIP
Now that he’s passed on, can we finally agree that the “Chariots of Fire” theme is just “On Top of Old Smokey” in a different key?
Thanks, now I’ll be singing that every time I hear it.
“…all covered in cheeeeeeeeese…”
Eh, rhythm and contour, yes, melody and harmony—not that close.
Not mentioned in the article: His Chariots Of Fire them went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982: https://www.stereogum.com/2086170/the-number-ones-vangelis-chariots-of-fire/columns/the-number-ones/
Started that series a few weeks ago. Only in early 1974 but really enjoying it.
Aww, Murió Vangelis. No…😢 One of the greatest composers of our age. His work was ahead of it’s time.
I miss Music Tele Vision.
The Blade Runner soundtrack is easily one of the best, ever. It kinda helps that the film is great too, but Vangelis captured the mood and blankness of that (future past) future.Also: It’s 2022, dammit, where’s my flying car??
The Year of Living Dangerously • L’Enfant • Vangelis
Oh, shit, man, you can put that film up. Internet’ll lose its shit.
Sad news. Rest in peace.
Aw, I’m sad to hear this. My introduction to him as a kid was via the soundtrack to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and it has never left me. Just utterly transcendent.
RIP.
Unlike a lot of people I know, I had heard of Vangelis before his soundtrack work. Not my type of music but undeniably skilled. But his soundtrack stuff? I know that his work on Chariots of Fire got overplayed and cliched, but man, that was the perfect melding of movie and music. Until Blade Runner… which showed that he really, really knew what he was doing when it came to movie music.(And… I don’t know what people think of Chariots of Fire nowadays, but I love it and can never not watch it when it’s on. I’ve tried to imagine what it would be like without Vangelis and… it would be awful, I think.)
This guy owned “corny futurism.” RIP.
What condescending nonsense. He created gorgeous melodies.
Meant as a compliment lol…
I liked when he played at the Necropolis with Georgio Moroder and Wendy Carlos.