IN MEMORY OF VANGELIS
His iconic movie soundtracks paved a new path for electronic music, but there was far more to Chariots Of Fire and Blade Runner composer Vangelis than dramatic film scores. The Aphrodite’s Child instrumentalist and Jon Anderson collaborator became a synth pioneer whose iconic music has even journeyed into space. His death at the age of 79 comes less than a year after the release of the long-awaited Juno To Jupiter. We join the prog world in paying tribute to him.
Words: Jeremy Allen
The stellar career of Vangelis means many things to many people, such was the magnitude of his success. He was an electronic pioneer to some, a neoclassical titan to others; a highly decorated soundtrack composer who could do light as easily as shade, a magician, a guru, and a prog god on top of it all. The Greek musician, who died of heart failure in a Paris hospital on May 17 aged 79, was all of these things and more. Not that Vangelis felt comfortable with the word ‘career’. In a rare and exclusive interview with Prog in 2016, he said: “I make music every day because it’s been like this all my life and I continue to do so the same way. I have never felt comfortable to be part of the music ‘business’. For me, ever since my earliest days working with record companies, it has been a means for me to create music on my own terms as much as possible.”
Instinctively, he had a knack f r plucking indelible, simplistic musical phrases out of the air, and for taking sophisticated musical ideas and making them sound simple – amark of a great composer.
The intensely private musician’s reluctance to make live appearances or do face to face interviews added all the more to his mystique. His was a talent that he tried not to analyse too much for fear of spooking his muse.