Vangelis Dies at 79

M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
This kind of hit me. At the risk of getting melodramatic, it feels like a little piece of my life is gone. I listened to Vangelis while studying in college, and I can't imagine Blade Runner without his music.

 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
That's sad. Vangelis was a musical genius. His music was used for the 2001 NASA space odyssey:
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
That cool piano playing in Chariots of Fire is something you never forget. Rest Sir.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Very sad. He did so much music. Blade Runner OST is absolutely amazing. Rest in Peace.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Oh holy sh!t. One of the greats. So much good music from him, a musical genius and one of my personal favorite artists. I probably have more albums from Vangelis than anyone else. This one hurts.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Wow. Very sad. Used to listen to his music quite a lot back then. Just hope that J.M.Jarre and Yanni would both live to many more years.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Wow. Very sad. Used to listen to his music quite a lot back then. Just hope that J.M.Jarre and Yanni would both live to many more years.
Jean Maurice Jarre is a lot more energetic than Vangelis and I think in much better health. Vangelis basically died of COVID-19 interfering with other health problems. Hopefully, Jarre is vaccinated. What a life Jarre has lived; he has married or been in a relationship with some of the most beautiful women in the world in their prime: Isabella Adjani, Anna Parillaud (the original La Femme Nikita), Charlotte Rampling, and Gong Li. His music is OK too, but while he is often compared to Vangelis, he doesn't have Vangelis' intuition for melody.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Also, it should be said that while the movie Chariots of Fire is a fine drama, the only reason it won the best picture Oscar was because of Vangelis' score. If it had a conventional score, it would only have been remembered as a historical footnote for being a respectable drama. I would also say that while Blade Runner was a revolutionary movie, Vangelis's score was again the best piece of artistry of that movie, and that was in a movie chocked full of incredible artistry. Very frequently his music was the best element of whatever film he scored. One of his great underappreciated scores is for 1982's "The Bounty." This was an unreleased score, but if you get the blu-ray, the disc allows you to isolate the score and listen to it alone as you watch. I think that score is as good as anything else he did.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Jean Maurice Jarre is a lot more energetic than Vangelis and I think in much better health. Vangelis basically died of COVID-19 interfering with other health problems. Hopefully, Jarre is vaccinated. What a life Jarre has lived; he has married or been in a relationship with some of the most beautiful women in the world in their prime: Isabella Adjani, Anna Parillaud (the original La Femme Nikita), Charlotte Rampling, and Gong Li. His music is OK too, but while he is often compared to Vangelis, he doesn't have Vangelis' intuition for melody.
Jarre shouldn't be compared to Vangelis, who later was a melody expert, Jarre is an experimenter, a pusher of the envelope. His early works, Oxygen, Equinox, Magnetic Fields, and Rendez-Vous were spectacular, genre-defining pieces of art. In addition, all of his live large concerts are still some of the most spectacular and memorable shows ever produced.
Second Oxygen was a decent attempt to return to his greatness, but honestly just decent. All albums after that could be called OK at best. It's also possible that he is so much ahead of the time, that our kids may like his 1990s and later stuff more than we.

p.s: his full name btw Jean-Michel André Jarre, Maurice was his father's name.
 
Last edited:
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
My introduction to Vangelis was when the album The Friends of Mr. Cairo, with Jon Anderson, came out in 1981. I bought the LP for the title track. I still have it.
 
SithZedi

SithZedi

Audioholic General
Remember first hearing a score by him watching Cosmos series. Incredibly ear capturing music that expressed many emotions, especially, for me, in Blade Runner. Bands like Enigma and M83 amoung others owe much to his influence. RIP, but he'll live forever. His music will travel with us to other planets if we ever get off this rock.
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top