| Evangalos Odyssey Papathanassiou, 29 March 1943, Valos, Greece. Self-taught musician. A child prodigy, Vangelis gave his first public performance on the piano at the age of six. In the early 60s he joined the pop group Formynx, later forming Aphrodite's Child with vocalist Demis Roussos and Lucas Sideras (drums). The group moved to Paris in the late 60s, recording the international hit 'Rain And Tears'. Here there's a strange coincidence, the words "Rain and Tears", if swapped, are the same ones pronounced by Roy Batty before dying. |
| The band split up after their controversial double album 666. Vangelis remained in Paris for a while, recording a couple of film soundtracks for the French director Frederic Rossif (among these L'Apocalypse Des Animaux and La Fete Sauvage) and giving an amazing performance at the "Olympia" to promote his first solo album, Earth, on the Philips label. After it disbanded in 1972, Vangelis concentrated on electronic music, composing classical works as well as film scores for wildlife. |
|
In 1974 he moved to London in the midst of a storm of rumors that he would be joining the group Yes as Rick Wakemen's replacement on keyboards. After rehearsing with Yes for several weeks Vangelis left, explaining that his musical theory and directions and the group's were too far apart. It was during his stint with Yes that he and Jon Anderson became friends and collaborators. Vangelis soon signed a recording contract with RCA, and assembled his own 24 track studio known as Nemo Studios, realizing his dream. The first album cut here was Heaven and Hell. This first album on the RCA label, a collection of extraordinary and forceful music, catapulted him to the forefront of popular music in Europe and the United States. To this date, all albums that followed Heaven and Hell were equally internationally acclaimed and enormous sellers. Vangelis achieved an array of awards, among them an Oscar in 1982 for the soundtrack of the film Chariots of Fire. Vangelis is a very serious and professional person who doesn't like to stand in the public eye.Very shy and reluctant to give interviews, he prefers to express himself through music. The music of Vangelis is too diverse to be described as either pop, rock, classical, jazz, or new age. Explaining his music, Vangelis says, "All I try to do is let people know what I think through my music. I just bring the music to you and it is up to you to do what you want with it." |