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The Blade Runner soundtrack took too much time to be published. After all, in 1982 the ending titles promised that the soundtrack would have been available soon under the label Polydor. But the official soundtrack hadn't been published till 1994, twelve years later the film! Why? There had been endless rumors about this delay. But a soundtrack had been published in the meantime! Unfortunately it was not performed by Vangelis. To make more confusion, three other versions had been published before the official one. The first recording, The American Orchestra adaptation of Blade Runner 1982, was a work without feeling, a bad copy of the original. The other ones were incomplete or unofficial and so we call them bootlegs. The real soundtrack came out in 1994 with the title Blade Runner: Vangelis. There are twelve tracks in it. Some of them have been mixed together with some parts of the dialogues from the film. It includes the major part of the most popular movie tracks: Love Theme, Tales of the Future, Memories of Green and Blade Runner End Title. But the other tracks have been lost. In fact, these exclusions were not due to an error by Vangelis. During the years spent between 1982 and 1994, the musician has thought the music over again. The record 1492: Conquest of Paradise, has been composed by the tracks that were missing from Blade Runner plus some new ones. Vangelis has always mixed together the new and the old of his records. His working and artistic concept is based on the principle that an artist must completely undertake his own responsibilities. He has always worried that the final consumer had a product on par with the money spent. And that record had to be the best record possible. For the intrinsic nature of film soundtracks, there are many tracks that a customer doesn't want to listen to. Who ever wants to the reprise of the main theme every ten minutes? In composing a soundtrack, Vangelis always tries to create a new artistic experience, an integrated ensemble. But why has Vangelis waited for so long? Perhaps because of the endless remakings imposed by the film director? It could be, but we must understand that Vangelis is a professional score writer and surely he must know that these situations may happen. Another reason could be that he was not completely happy with his work, that in his opinion he could have made better. However he did a very good job! When someone asked him the reason why the soundtrack hadn't come out immediately after the film, the producer Michael Deeley answered: "It seemed to me that Vangelis was in an impossible mood near the end of the production. He hadn't signed the agreement and was distracted by something else. But at the end of the day, the last thing that matters is that he composed the soundtrack. And it takes your breath away". And I agree too! |
