BIOGRAPHY
Vangeli's career as a composer started at the age
of four.
At the age of six, without having had any formal musical
training, he made his first public appearance performing his own
compositions.
From this early stage he was expanding the existing spectrum of
sound and musical language.
In the late 1960s he moved from Greece to Paris in order to
continue the development of his exploration in music and sound
through electronics.
He composed and recorded several works including Earth and the
Poeme symphonique, and Fait que ton reve plus long que la nuit.
He also began a creative relationship with Frederic Rossif, the
French film director, and composed several scores for him,
including Cantique des creatures, a trilogy for the painters
Georges Mathieu, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, and a series
of wild-life films; Apocalypse des animaux, La fete sauvage,
Opera Sauvage and Sauvage et beau.
In the mid-70s Vangelis moved to London, where he built his own
music laboratory to create an environment where he could compose,
perform and develop his work.
Works such as Heaven and Hell, Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Beauborg,
China, See you later were examples of his new, almost complete
fusion of acoustic and electronic sound; a pioneering sound that
has gained world-wide acceptance.
In 1978, returning to his roots, he collaborated with the Greek
actress Irene Papas on the album Odes, a classic collection of
Byzantine and traditional Greek folk songs interpreted by
Vangelis and establishing a new direction for Greek music.
In 1979 Vangelis unexpectedly joined forces with Jon Anderson of
the avant-garde group, Yes.
The pair produced three albums Shorts Stories, The friends of Mr.
Cairo and Private Collection.
In 1981, Vangelis was awarded an Oscar for the music of Chariots
of Fire.
This international success was'followed by Works such as his
score for Antarctica (the film by the Japanese director Koreyoshi
Kurahara, which has become the most popular film ever in Japan),
the broading futuristic music for Ridley Scott's feature film
Bladerunner and his score for Costa-Gavra's Missing.
He has composed music for the theatre too.
In 1983, he wrote the music for Michael Kakoyanis's staging of
the Greek tragedy Elektra with Irene Papas, performed in the
open-air amphitheatre at Epidauros in Greece.
In 1984, Vangelis released Soil Festivities, an album inspired by
the cycle of nature, and he composed the music for the new film
version of the Bounty with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.
He also released a symphonic work entitled Invisible Connections.
His recent endeavors in the classical world resulted in RBSque
(1983), his first ballet score with choreography by Royal Ballet
Principal Waynes Eagling.
Followed by two bullets comissioned by The Royal Ballet Company
which were performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and
the La Scala Milan
1. Frankestein the Young Prometheus
2.Beauty and the Beast.
Vangelis was once asked, during an interview, about the way he
perceived and delivered his music.
He replied "I simply function as a channel through which
music emerges through the chaos of noise".
Vangelis does not employ the use of prerecorded tapes or programs
during his performance.