"Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Greek: [evaelos ođiseas papaanasiu]), born 29 March 1943, is a Greek composer of electronic jazz, progressive, ambient and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis.
He is best known for his Academy Award winning score for the film Chariots of Fire, and scores for the films Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise. Vangelis began his professional musical career working with several popular bands of the 1960s such as The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child, with the latter's album 666 going on to be recognized as a psychedelic "classic".[3] In the 1970s, Vangelis formed a musical partnership with Jon Anderson, the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes, and the duo went on to release several albums together as Jon & Vangelis. Towards the end of the 1970s, Vangelis composed music scores for several animal documentaries, including Opéra sauvage; the success of these scores brought him into the film scoring mainstream. In 1981, he composed the score for the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. The soundtrack's single, "Titles", won Vangelis the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and also reached the top of the American Billboard.
In a career spanning over 49 years, writing and composing more than 40 albums, Vangelis is regarded by some music critics as one of the greatest living composers of electronic music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangelis"
Some of my favorite songs from this amazing composer:
Enjoy!
Vangelis was also member of the legendary Greek group Aphrodites's child.
Their record 666 is a classic an Icon of Progressive Rock and one of the first conceptual albums in history.
The short story of APHRODITE'S CHILD starts in 1968, when the Greek/Egyptian bassist and vocalist named Artemios Ventouris Roussos (Demis Roussos) and the powerful drummer Lucas Sideras were supposed to meet the multi instrumentalist Evengelio Odyssey Papathanassiou (VANGELIS) who had left his first group FORMINXS, but the first two were not admitted to England because they had no working permits but custom officers discovered photos and tapes in their luggage so they assumed the musicians intended to stay.
A few months later the three musicians join in Paris with Anargyros Koulouris (Silver Koulouris) a very competent guitar player and they decide to form a new band which was supposed to mix traditional Greek music with Western Pop and Psychedelia, but they ended doing much more than was expected.
Due to their financial situation they had to sign a terrible contract with a record company. Soon after the birth of the band, Silver Kouloris has to leave the group because he was called for his Military Service and only joins again for the recording of their last album 666, during these years Demis Roussos has to play guitar and bass.
Their first two releases "End of the World" (which includes two hit singles, "Rain and Tears" and "I Want To Live", the last one reached N° 1 in most Europe) and "It's Five O'Clock" showed a commercial oriented band with a very peculiar sound, but it's not until 1970, when they start to record the brilliant and adventurous "666" that they get a place in progressive Rock history even when the relation inside the band was at the lowest point, mostly because VANGELIS wanted to do more serious music than Lucas Sideras and Roussos.
The paradox is that this masterpiece which combines 100% Symphonic structure, British Psychedelia, Greek Orthodox Religious music with a touch of pop was only released in 1972 (after the band had already split) due to several reasons like the controversial concept ("The Book of Revelations"), the confession made by the band that "666" was conceived under the influence of Sahlep (some people believed this word was referred to some kind of pagan divinity when in fact it's a common non alcoholic beverage from Turkey) and the track "Infinity" sung by the great actress Irene Papas which is really a five minutes orgasm.
After APHRODITE'S CHILD disbanded, the members took different paths, like Roussos who became a well known pop singer and VANGELIS who is still a respected Progressive/New Age artist, but none of their later works will have the importance of "666", an Icon of Progressive Rock and one of the first conceptual albums in history.
Power through Knowledge
"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
Nikos Kazantzakis
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
BUMP for this great Greek composer for the London Olympics.
If you happen to watch the Olympics in London you probably hear Vangelis - Chariots of Fire all the time; it is the music in the first video in this thread. Enjoy some nice music!
Power through Knowledge
"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
Nikos Kazantzakis
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
![[Definitive Lapse of Reason]](http://www.network54.com/Realm/Commons/Partners/dlorlogo2.png)
![[Click here to Join WAFF!]](http://www.network54.com/Realm/Commons/Titles/gtv2.21.png "JOIN WAFF NOW!!!")
![[linked image]](http://users.sch.gr/atmatzidis/images/pyrovoliko_1.GIF)
![[linked image]](http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/Destan01/Bayrak101.png)
![[linked image]](http://www.vangelislyrics.com/covers/h666.jpg)
![[linked image]](http://www.dailyairforce.com/HDD/greekmilitary_2.gif)
![[linked image]](http://www.dailyairforce.com/HDD/greekflame.gif)
![[linked image]](http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g323/__Anthropos__/GreekArtillery.gif)
