Vangelis

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Vangelis, the Greece-born electronic composer who wrote the Academy Award-winning score for the film “Chariots of Fire” and music for ...

“Decca had the pleasure of partnering with Vangelis and his team for his past three albums and we will miss him enormously. “Vangelis created music of extraordinary originality and power, and provided the soundtrack to so many of our lives,” it said. When British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died in 2018, Vangelis composed a musical tribute for his interment that the ESA broadcast into space. The signature piece is one of the hardest-to-forget movie tunes worldwide — and has also served as the musical background to endless slow-motion parodies. It’s one of the most instantly recognizable musical themes in cinema — and its standing in popular culture has only been confirmed by the host of spoofs it has sired. He was fascinated by space exploration and wrote music for celestial bodies, but said he never sought stardom himself.

Vangelis, the Greek composer whose rousing electronic theme music for the Oscar-winning 1981 film "Chariots of Fire" became one of the most loved movie ...

But he was also slightly dismissive of the enormous popularity it enjoyed. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Oscar-winning composer was a musical pioneer, renowned for his experimentation with electronic synthesizers.

“Success is sweet and treacherous,” the composer told Britain’s Observer newspaper in 2012. After studying painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Vangelis made his start with local Greek rock bands. He performed his first piano concert at the age of six. Over his more than 50-year career, Vangelis was renowned for his musical experimentation and eclectic influences. Or you might not sell anything feeling very happy,” he said. He also had homes in London and Athens.

Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire composer Vangelis, the electronic music pioneer and sole Greek to win an Academy Award for best original score, ...

"Success is sweet and treacherous," the lion-maned composer told the Observer newspaper in 2012. "When I saw some footage, I understood that this is the future. But this is where we're going," he said. His Oscar-winning main theme for Chariots of Fire beat John Williams' score for the first Indiana Jones film in 1982. Vangelis and Roussos both moved on to successful solo careers. Or you might not sell anything feeling very happy," he said.

The Greek star's Oscar-winning film scores and electronic works created "a new musical landscape".

Its presidents Tom Lewis and Laura Monks said: "The world has lost a genius. He added: "It is also hard to understand how groundbreaking Chariots of Fire was. In addition to Blade Runner, the composer was nominated for Baftas for his scores for Missing and Chariots of Fire. Fellow composer Bear McCreary wrote that he was "a true musical pioneer", saying: "Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner were among the most innovative and influential scores in the history of the medium." Vangelis was "one of my heroes" and "just a beautiful person", Van Buuren wrote on Twitter, adding: "I still listen to his albums a lot." Greek composer Vangelis, who was known for his celebrated film themes for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 79.

Vangelis, the Greek composer whose rousing electronic theme music for the Oscar-winning 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” became one of the most loved movie ...

It was there that he wrote the score for “Chariots of Fire,” the story of the triumph of a group of British runners at the 1924 Olympic Games. “Ad astra, Vangelis” – Latin for “to the stars” – tweeted NASA, saying Vangelis contributed scores to its explorations to Jupiter. In a post on Twitter, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called Vangelis “a pioneer of the electronic sound.” “He began his long journey on the Chariots of Fire. From there he will always send us his notes,” Mitsotakis wrote.

With music that ended up crossing paths with Jay-Z, Donna Summer and Rotting Christ, the late Greek composer's creative mind was thrillingly open.

The Four Horsemen earned the distinction of being effectively rewritten twice – first by the Verve on 1997’s The Rolling People, which tipped the wink to those in the know by taking its title from the lyrics of 666’s Altamont, and then by Beck on 2008’s Chemtrails – as well as being subjected to a cover version by Euro-techno titans Scooter. Elsewhere, the album’s tracks were borrowed by both Oneohtrix Point Never and Dan the Automator and, perhaps inevitably given its title and subject matter, found favour with black metal bands. Their success led to more soundtracks (although Papathanassiou was choosy about the films he worked on) and a series of 80s instrumental albums. Something of 666’s apocalyptic intensity lingered around 1975’s Heaven and Hell, and Odes, the album of Greek songs he recorded with actor Irene Papas (although 1979’s album China and his acclaimed soundtrack to the nature documentary Opera Sauvage were easier on the ear). Murkier, more abstract and far more emotionally ambiguous than the air-punch-inducing Chariots of Fire, its legend was bolstered by the fact that it wasn’t released as an album for over 20 years: a rotten orchestral version, which Scott and Papathanassiou hated, came out in its absence. He also unexpectedly developed a parallel career as a pop star, in the company of Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, an Aphrodite’s Child fan who had contributed to Heaven and Hell and Opera Sauvage. The three albums they released as Jon and Vangelis deftly bridged the gap between prog rock and the vogue for synth-pop. Greek pop music of the 1960s is not an area of musical history where anyone who doesn’t fondly remember it first-hand is advised to dwell.

Vangelis, the Greek musician who won the Oscar for his 'Chariots of Fire' score and whose other credits included 'Blade Runner,' has died.

His choral symphony “Mythodea” was adopted by NASA as the theme for its 2001 Mars Odyssey mission and he penned original music for the European Space Agency’s 2014 expedition to Comet 67P. After relocating to Paris, In 1968 he formed the progressive-rock quartet Aphrodite’s Child with a group of Greek expatriots, including Demis Roussos. The group enjoyed chart success in several European countries, particularly the single “Rain and Tear.” The Mel GIbson remake of “The Bounty” followed in 1984. But it was his music for the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” that brought him worldwide fame. 1 on the Billboard charts and was nominated for a Record of the Year Grammy. The self-taught musician enjoyed a long career in European pop music before the magical colors and textures of his 1970s solo albums brought him to the attention of film and TV producers.

His assistant, Lefteris Zermas, confirmed the death but did not provide a specific cause.

He provided music for high-profile special occasions, including for the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004. He received his first Hammond organ as a teenager, and painted it gold. "I won't even rerecord a thing if I play a bum note," he told Beat Instrumental in 1975. Vangelis began playing the piano at four, but received little formal training. It became an exemplar in the genre and continued to influence bands and film composers decades later. Its theme remains one of the most recognisable - and parodied - in film music history. "Honestly, my hairs stood on end," Scott told The Post in 2017. His father was "in property," he told the Los Angeles Times, and was "a great lover of music." The band split in 1974, and Vangelis moved to London to make solo albums - including "Heaven and Hell," "Spiral" and the more avant-garde "Beaubourg." "It was too sophisticated for the group," he said of their ambitious album "666," in a 1974 interview with the magazine Sounds. "I realised that I couldn't follow the commercial way anymore; it was very boring." "He was the soul of the movie." "I'm a runner at the time, or in the stadium, or alone in the dressing room ... and then I compose ... and the moment is fruitful and honest, I think."

Composer whose work ranged from pop, jazz and classical to the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire soundtrack.

In 2014 he composed three pieces for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, and these appeared on his album Rosetta (2016). He even had an asteroid (no 6354) named after him by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. Its combination of warm, accessible melodies and conventional instruments alongside a Yamaha CS-80 synthesiser helped bring Vangelis to the attention of mainstream film-makers (Peter Weir used music from it in The Year of Living Dangerously in 1982). It set the stage for Vangelis’s pivotal partnership with Hudson, whom he had first met in Paris in the early 70s, on Chariots of Fire. In 1979 he formed Jon and Vangelis with Anderson, who reached the UK Top 5 with their album Short Stories, the first of four they would make together. His choral symphony Mythodea, which he performed in Athens in 2001 with the operatic sopranos Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, was adopted as the official music for Nasa’s Mars Odyssey space mission. Vangelis, who played all the soundtrack instruments himself, won the 1982 Academy Award for best original score, and the fact that Chariots of Fire won the best picture Oscar probably owed much to the impact of Vangelis’s music. In 1974 he auditioned for the British prog-rockers Yes at the instigation of Anderson, but turned down the job after problems with work permits. Vangelis began playing the piano and other instruments from the age of four, and his parents sent him for music lessons when he was six. A progressive concept album devised by Vangelis, 666 was based on the Book of Revelation. His bandmates were not enthusiastic about this new direction and the members went their separate ways. Equally significant was his score for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner (1982). Vangelis created a stunning sonic panorama of the fragmented, alienated world that Scott depicted on the screen, where advances in technology were matched by the decay of human emotions. At the time his stage name was Vagos. “It was just our idea of having fun,” he recalled, but Forminx became one of Greece’s best-known bands. However he did it, he created a string of enduring and hugely varied works, ranging from pop and semi-classical compositions using a mixture of synthesisers, electronica and traditional instrumentation to some of the most memorable film scores in cinematic history. They split in 1966, and Vangelis met Demis Roussos the following year.

The Greek star's Oscar-winning film scores and electronic works created "a new musical landscape".

Its presidents Tom Lewis and Laura Monks said: "The world has lost a genius. He added: "It is also hard to understand how groundbreaking Chariots of Fire was. In addition to Blade Runner, the composer was nominated for Baftas for his scores for Missing and Chariots of Fire. Fellow composer Bear McCreary wrote that he was "a true musical pioneer", saying: "Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner were among the most innovative and influential scores in the history of the medium." Vangelis was "one of my heroes" and "just a beautiful person", Van Buuren wrote on Twitter, adding: "I still listen to his albums a lot." Greek composer Vangelis, who was known for his celebrated film themes for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 79.