Vangelis Lifeless at 79 – Our Tradition

Vangelis, the Oscar-winning composer finest recognized for scoring Blade Runner, Chariots of Fireplace, and lots of different movies, has died. In accordance with the Related Press, the musician died in a hospital in France. Vangelis was 79 years previous.

Born Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou within the Greek coastal city of Agria, Vangelis grew up in Athens and confirmed an curiosity in music as early as age 4. In 1963, he fashioned a band known as Forminx, and have become a author and producer for rent when the group break up in 1966. After transferring to Paris, he discovered success within the prog-rock outfit Aphrodite’s Baby, which he based with different Greek expats and offered over 2 million copies earlier than disbanding in 1972. Having turned down an invite to interchange Rick Wakeman because the keyboard participant in Sure, Vangelis continued composing for movies and commenced releasing solo albums. He moved to London and signed a take care of RCA Data, and his 1976 LP Albedo 0.39 was used to soundtrack Carl Sagan’s in style TV collection Cosmos: A Private Voyage. He later teamed up with Sure singer Jon Anderson, with whom he launched a number of data beneath the title Jon and Vangelis.

Vangelis’ work for Chariots of Fireplace earned him an Oscar for Finest Unique Rating. The soundtrack album additionally topped the Billboard 200 albums chart in April 1982, whereas the theme has usually featured on the Olympic Video games. Vangelis then labored on the rating for Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner, which is well known as some of the influential albums within the historical past of digital music. Vangelis’ last studio album, Juno to Jupiter, got here out in September 2021 through Decca.

Eulogizing the composer on Twitter, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister, wrote: “Vangelis Papathanassíou is not with us. For the entire world, the unhappy information means that the world of music has misplaced the worldwide Vangelis. The pioneer of digital sound, the Oscars, the Fable and the nice hits. For us Greeks, nonetheless, figuring out that his second title was Odysseus, implies that he started his lengthy journey within the Chariots of Fireplace. From there he’ll all the time ship us his notes.”

“Vangelis Papathanassíou was an excellent Greek composer who excelled at a world degree,” Nikos Dendias, the overseas minister of Greece, tweeted. “We are saying goodbye with a giant ‘thanks’ for what he provided to Music, Tradition and Greece.”