I like that you are open to many styles of music. After the band ended in the early 1970s, Vangelis and singer Demis Roussos had solo careers. Vangelis worked with Jon Anderson of Yes in the 80s, as Jon and Vangelis they had an international hit with "I Find My Way Home". He also wrote film scores such as "Conquest of Paradise" for the film about Columbus. Demis Roussos went to Germany and was a successful pop singer there.
The unmistakable voice of Demis Roussos in 1972, before the band split. More famous for his pop career a few of years later years later. I have his first solo album from 1971- On The Greek Side OF MY Mind, while still with Aphrodites Child, which has some pretty good music on it, with a more Greek Psych/Folk flavour and before he became more main stream pop. He, along with Vangelis made this a pretty important band. Good to hear the drumming so forward in the mix.
Aphrodite's Child's first two albums sold 20 million copies world-wide, between them. So although they were mostly unknown in North America, they were huge in the rest of the world. In the early 1970s, Vangelis became a pioneer with synthesizers, creating soundtracks for many documentary films, as well as experimental albums of electronic music. His soundtrack for the 1981 movie "Chariots of Fire" won the Academy Award. The following year saw the release of Ridley Scott's masterpiece, "Blade Runner". Vangelis's musical score told half the story of this film, his magical synth sounds helping to develop the characters and their emotional connections to each other. In the late 70s, Carl Sagan's groundbreaking PBS television series about Space, Science and Nature, "Cosmos", used many of Vangelis's shorter instrumental pieces, and snippets of longer ones, to great effect. In electronic music, Vangelis stands at the top, with Jean Michel Jarre, Isao Tomita and Synergy, among synthesizer experimentalists. And don't get me started on his four albums with Jon Anderson, lead singer of Progressive Rock band Yes, as Jon and Vangelis.
4 of the best musicians Demis went on to a successful solo career in Europe Vangelis was internationally known after AC for musical genius in movies etc...the drummer and quitar player became huge music producers in Greece. Please listen to Aegean Sea and let your mind travel....my favorite tune from them. They were so far ahead of their time but tension within the group grew to where they couldn't work together anymore unfortunately. Rip Demis Vangelis we miss you🇬🇷💙🤘🤘🤘
Back in the 70s, there was a long version of this song going around that was almost 30 minutes long. I remember hearing it on KSHE 95 many times as a kid.
Aphrodite's Child is a great choice, I don't suppose many people know about them today. One interesting point to me is that in the USA and UK we generally say that the fourth horse (Death's) is pale but in this song it's green. That's because in the koine Greek in which the New Testament was written the word is khlōros from which chlorine comes. So the horse was a kind of pale greenish-yellow.
A Greek band. Most notable are Vangelis (Papathanassiou) on keyboards, who later became known for his beautiful, grandiose piano/synths compositions (including the scores to such movies as The Chariots of Fire or Blade Runner, to mention just a few). and who recorded four albums with Jon Anderson, and Demis Roussos on vocal and bass, who later went into the pop/easy listening direction.
DUDE! so funny. I was LITERALLY going to comment on one of your reaction vidz to suggest this cut. The while album is INSANE and I’m sure you’d love it
LOL This tune is a nostalgic classic (again from 1972 !!!!!!!!!! when all the best of the best were released) which our DC progressive Independent non-commercial Georgetown University Radio station (WGTB) would play. This song and the HAUNTINGLY mesmerizing "Aegean Sea" are my favorites from this very cool but strange double album!
Demis Roussos was the favorite singer of my granny so I heard his voice many times in Kindergarten LOL. Vangelis was an epic composer, you should do some of his albums, also the ones he did with Jon Anderson. He was even invited to play keys for Yes after Wakeman left.
Yer gettin' all Biblical on us! 🙂 The keyboard player is Vangelis (the "g" is like "gh" as in "ghost", not like a "j") - who later won an Academy Award for his soundtrack to the film "Chariots of Fire", as well as several other soundtracks including for "Blade Runner". Vangelis has also done five albums with Jon Anderson of Yes under the name "Jon and Vangelis".
Probably my favourite track from the double album, though there's plenty of other good stuff on there (along with one WTF? track). Demis Roussos was known as the singing tent during his solo pop career, due to his ample size and penchant for wearing kaftans. He was also immortalised by being referenced in the cult classic 70s play Abigail's Party.
Vangelis had produced many solo album, several of them were movie soundtracks. I think I'm missing one in my collection. He also released albums with Jon Anderson from "Yes". Aphrodite's Child (from Greece) also released "End Of The World" and also their debut album. This album (666) from 1972 is obviously all Biblical and put together very well. The production (mix) is very good for the times.
Welcome to the great Vangelis. I hope at some point you get to enjoy the beautiful 4 Albums Vangelis created with Jon Anderson of ‘YES’, who I know you love a lot. Especially the magical ‘Horizon’. 🎶❤️🎶
@@L33Reacts Oh yes, absolutely. Here’s the 4 Jon & Vangelis Album Titles for you. ‘Short Stories’. (1980). ‘The Friends of Mr Cairo’. (1981). With the wonderful title track, The Friends of Mr Cairo. ‘Private Collection’. (1983). Which features the stunning Epic Masterpiece, ‘Horizon’. (23 mins long, but what a magical journey). Goosebumps all the way and you may well be brought to tears again. The whole Album is stunningly beautiful. ‘Page Of Life’. (1991). There is so much magical, musical beauty, on all these 4 Albums. I can do no more than highly recommend them to you. Just my own feelings. 🎶❤️🎶
if you are familiar with sci fi classic Blade Runner 1982, two of the band members are responsible for the soundtrack, and Vangelis worked with lead Yes singer Jon Anderson on the album The Best of Jon and Vangelis
Please check out their collaboration Jon and Vangelis Bladerunner crossed with Yes Notable songs are I Hear you now I'll find my way home He is sailing State of independence Chefs kiss
I thought you had already "stumbled across" Vangelis in connection with Jon Anderson; the two have made several albums together. But I must have mixed you up. In addition to his early psychedelic prog projects and his later solo albums, Vangelis is also known as a composer of film music. He wrote the film scores for "Chariots of Fire", "Blade Runner" and "1492: Conquest of Paradise".
If he was on olias then yeah I've heard him before! If not then I think this was my first time actually hearing him. But who knows I've listened to so much music on here lol
Chariots of fire is an interesting read. So is fingerprints of the gods. I was reading that stuff in like 5th grade... I was a strange kid. Must have been a past life influencing me lol
Holy obscure albums, Batman! 😉 Aphrodite's Child was a pretty successful pop band in Europe before this record (videos can be found on YT). But with this album Vangelis wanted to go in a more proggy direction, and he worked with an outside lyricist. The rest of the band went along with his ideas and vision, although AC pretty much fell apart by the time the album was released. Vangelis went on to fame and fortune as a solo musician (connecting eventually with Jon Anderson of Yes), and that's a serious rabbit hole if you choose to explore his career.
I do really love the whole album, but I know plenty of people that can't stand it. Parts of the album are very strange (especially the track 'Infinity'), and there is a long reprise of the whole album near the end called 'All The Seats Were Occupied' that is pretty cool as well. The guitar work throughout the album is excellent.
