Freedom to Music
Posts tagged Vangelis
Vangelis – 1492 : Conquest of Paradise (1992) (@256)
13 Dec 2007
(Review from progarchives.com, amazon)
You mean there was also a movie?
Vangelis has created a stunning soundtrack that doesn’t need the movie to support its musical theme. If you did not know this album was a soundtrack from a movie, there is nothing from the music that would tell you.
The album is usually classified as “new age”, which is a bit of a stretch. It can be difficult to classify someone like Vangelis, who uses synthesizers in combination with cameos by several other instruments and vocal performances when required to create a work that sounds more like a full orchestra versus a guy with a bunch of keyboards and a mixing board.
With its romantic approach, where emotion is more important than technique, there are no words to describe how great and deep “Conquest of Paradise” is. Within songs like “Hispanola”, the title track and “Pinta Nina Santa Maria” are contained several different emotions and rooms that will blow the various corners of your mind away. It is impossible to not get touched by the beauty contained on each of these twelve songs.
This music is ideal for someone who likes classical music and progressive rock. If you enjoy traditional classical music such as Dvorak and Stravinsky, and you also like groups like Yes, Moody Blues and King Crimson, then this album will likely appeal to you.
An amazing and emotional album, try to forget any prejudice against Vangelis (and new age music in general) and listen to this album, you won’t regret it.
Track List:
01. Opening (1:22)
02. Conquest of Paradise (4:48)
03. Monastery of la Rabida (3:38)
04. City of Isabel (2:16)
05. Light and Shadow (3:46)
06. Deliverance (3:28)
07. West Across the Ocean Sea (2:53)
08. Eternity (1:59)
09. Hispanola (4:56)
10. Moxica and the Horse (7:06)
11. Twenty Eighth Parallel (5:14)
12. Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria (Into Eternity) (13:20)
Links in comments.
Aphrodite's Child – 666 (1972) (@256)
01 Apr 2007
(Info from wikipedia)
Aphrodite’s Child was a Greek rock band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards); Demis Roussos (bass guitar and vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Anargyros “Silver” Koulouris (guitar). Papathanassiou and Roussos had already been successful in Greece (playing in the bands Formynx and Idols respectively) while they got together with Sideras and Koulouris to form a new band.
The band began to record their crowning achievement late in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical Book of Revelation, entitled 666. Silver Koulouris, having finished his Greek army duty rejoined the band. However, relations between all the band members were not good at the time, and continued to worsen during the album’s creation.
Essentially, 666 was Vangelis’ concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic and progressive rock oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Furthermore, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and recorded his first solo single “We shall dance” (with Sideras on drums), and his first solo album On the Greek side of my mind, whereas Vangelis recorded the score for L’apocalypse des Animaux and worked on a single with his girlfriend Vilma Ladopoulou, performing with Koulouris using the pseudonym “Alpha Beta”.
The double LP 666 finally came out in late 1971 but the band had already split. Both Vangelis and Demis Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis as one of the pioneers in New Age music. Koulouris worked with both on occasion. Loukas Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing an album and the single “Rising Sun” after the break-up.
Line-up:
* Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards)
* Demis Roussos (bass guitar and vocals)
* Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals)
* Anargyros “Silver” Koulouris (guitar)
Track List:
CD1
01. System – 00:23
02. Babylon – 2:47
03. Loud, Loud, Loud – 2:42
04. The Four Horsemen – 5:53
05. The Lamb – 4:34
06. The Seventh Seal – 1:30
07. Aegian Sea – 5:22
08. Seven Bowls – 1:28
09. The Wakening Beast – 1:11
10. Lament – 2:45
11. The Marching Beast – 2:00
12. The Battle Of The Locusts – 00:56
13. Do It – 1:44
14. Tribulation – 00:32
15. The Beast – 2:26
16. Ofis – 00:14
CD2
01. Seven Trumpets – 00:35
02. Altamont – 4:33
03. The Wedding of the Lamb – 3:38
04. The Capture of the Beast – 2:17
05. Infinity – 5:15
06. Hic and Nunc – 2:55
07. All the Seats Were Occupied – 19:21
08. Break – 2:59
Links in comments.
