Vangelis

Vangelis, whose instantly recognizable musical theme for 1981's Chariots of Fire won an Oscar and became a sort of aural shorthand for tales of endurance ...

The two would reunite in 1992 for 1492: Conquest of Paradise, with Vangelis’ score earning an Oscar nomination. Originally called, simply, “Titles,” the theme for director Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire, released in 1981, would play no small part in the film’s success, rivaling Bill Conti’s theme from Rocky (“Gonna Fly Now”) as the go-to musical accompaniment for sports events and other tales of hard-won victory. His 1980 collaboration with Anderson, Short Stories, became a hit in the UK. The duo would reteam on various projects throughout the decade.

Vangelis composed the music for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire, which won him an Academy Award.

He believed that there was something inherent in humans to want to discover — whether that meant up in the sky or in a studio. While he was most associated with the synthesizer, the instrument was also a source of frustration for him. Then he moved to Paris and co-founded the popular prog-rock group Aphrodite's Child. The band eventually split and Vangelis got a solo record deal with RCA Records. His efforts earned him a win for best original score at the Academy Awards. According to his assistant Lefteris Zermas, Vangelis died on the May 17 in a hospital in Paris, due to heart failure. The success led him to other film work.

Vangelis, the Greek musician who won the Oscar for his 'Chariots of Fire' score and whose other credits included 'Blade Runner,' has died.

His choral symphony “Mythodea” was adopted by NASA as the theme for its 2001 Mars Odyssey mission and he penned original music for the European Space Agency’s 2014 expedition to Comet 67P. After relocating to Paris, In 1968 he formed the progressive-rock quartet Aphrodite’s Child with a group of Greek expatriots, including Demis Roussos. The group enjoyed chart success in several European countries, particularly the single “Rain and Tear.” The Mel GIbson remake of “The Bounty” followed in 1984. But it was his music for the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” that brought him worldwide fame. 1 on the Billboard charts and was nominated for a Record of the Year Grammy. The self-taught musician enjoyed a long career in European pop music before the magical colors and textures of his 1970s solo albums brought him to the attention of film and TV producers.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Vangelis, the Greece-born electronic composer who wrote the Academy Award-winning score for the film “Chariots of Fire” and music for ...

“Decca had the pleasure of partnering with Vangelis and his team for his past three albums and we will miss him enormously. “Vangelis created music of extraordinary originality and power, and provided the soundtrack to so many of our lives,” it said. When British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died in 2018, Vangelis composed a musical tribute for his interment that the ESA broadcast into space. The signature piece is one of the hardest-to-forget movie tunes worldwide — and has also served as the musical background to endless slow-motion parodies. It’s one of the most instantly recognizable musical themes in cinema — and its standing in popular culture has only been confirmed by the host of spoofs it has sired. He was fascinated by space exploration and wrote music for celestial bodies, but said he never sought stardom himself.

Greek composer Vangelis, who was known for his celebrated film themes for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 79.

Its presidents Tom Lewis and Laura Monks said: "The world has lost a genius. "It is also hard to understand how groundbreaking Chariots of Fire was. US composer Bear McCreary wrote that he was "A true musical pioneer", saying: "Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner were among the most innovative and influential scores in the history of the medium." Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted: "Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer with us. In addition to Blade Runner, the composer was nominated for Baftas for his scores for Missing and Chariots of Fire. Greek composer Vangelis, who was known for his celebrated film themes for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 79.

Greek composer and musician Vangelis has died aged 79. Best known for his instantly recognisable Oscar-winning theme for the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, ...

Originally called, Titles, the theme was originally released as a single where it quickly reached the top of the American Billboard Hot 100 chart. Vangelis moved from Athens to Paris to London, scoring various films and TV shows with soundtracks that began to top the charts. As reported by Deadline, Vangelis' assistant Lefteris Zermas confirmed the composer died in a French hospital on May 17, but refrained from providing a specific cause.

The Greek composer, who won an Oscar for his best-known work, reportedly died in a French hospital while being treated for Covid-19.

Think of us as your eyes and ears. His score beat the theme for the first Indiana Jones film and received one of Chariots of Fire’s four Academy Awards in 1982. While he played in many bands and recorded solo, Vangelis is best-known for composing the famous theme song to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, a film that told the story of two 1920s British runners, and received four Academy Awards in 1982.

Oscar-winning composer was a musical pioneer, renowned for his experimentation with electronic synthesizers.

“Success is sweet and treacherous,” the composer told Britain’s Observer newspaper in 2012. After studying painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Vangelis made his start with local Greek rock bands. He performed his first piano concert at the age of six. Over his more than 50-year career, Vangelis was renowned for his musical experimentation and eclectic influences. Or you might not sell anything feeling very happy,” he said. He also had homes in London and Athens.

Vangelis, the Greek electronic composer who wrote the Academy Award-winning score for the film “Chariots of Fire” about the 1924 Paris Olympics died at 79.

“The only point of reference that’s left to humanity today, the gathering together every four years in a ‘peaceful’ way, is the Olympic Games. This may be an opportunity every four years for every company … to make fortunes and to push the Olympic Games artists, the athletes, to push them to advertise their products. “We don’t have Olympic Games anymore, real Olympic Games,” he said. What happened after, you know, but no one could know at the time.

Vangelis wrote music for dozens of other movies, including Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" in 1982.

The neoclassical building was nearly demolished in 2007 when government officials decided that it spoilt the view of the ancient citadel from a new museum built next door, but eventually reconsidered. When British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died in 2018, Vangelis composed a musical tribute for his interment that the ESA broadcast into space. The signature piece is one of the hardest-to-forget movie tunes worldwide - and has also served as the musical background to endless slow-motion parodies. "Orchestration, composition - they teach these things in music schools, but there are some things you can never teach," he said in a 1982 interview. He was fascinated by space exploration and wrote music for celestial bodies, but said he never sought stardom himself. It's one of the most instantly recognizable musical themes in cinema - and its standing in popular culture has only been confirmed by the host of spoofs it has sired.

Vangelis, the 79-year-old Greek electronic composer who wrote the Oscar-winning score for Chariots Of Fire and the music for dozens of other films, ...

I still listen to his albums a lot.” Vangelis has also been acclaimed as a "genius" who “created music of extraordinary originality and power" by the worlds of music and film. His fascination with science, particularly the mechanics of music and sound, and space travel led to pieces composed for NASA and the European Space Agency. Vangelis went on to compose music for films such as Blade Runner (1982), 1492: Conquest Of Paradise (1992), Missing (1982), and Antarctica (1983), among others. He played in numerous bands and as a solo performer, and Vangelis' first taste of fame came in the 1960s with his first Greek pop band Forminx, which he formed in Athens with three friends while in his 20s. Vangelis, the 79-year-old Greek electronic composer who wrote the Oscar-winning score for Chariots Of Fire and the music for dozens of other films, documentaries, and TV shows, has died.

With music that ended up crossing paths with Jay-Z, Donna Summer and Rotting Christ, the late Greek composer's creative mind was thrillingly open.

The Four Horsemen earned the distinction of being effectively rewritten twice – first by the Verve on 1997’s The Rolling People, which tipped the wink to those in the know by taking its title from the lyrics of 666’s Altamont, and then by Beck on 2008’s Chemtrails – as well as being subjected to a cover version by Euro-techno titans Scooter. Elsewhere, the album’s tracks were borrowed by both Oneohtrix Point Never and Dan the Automator and, perhaps inevitably given its title and subject matter, found favour with black metal bands. Their success led to more soundtracks (although Papathanassiou was choosy about the films he worked on) and a series of 80s instrumental albums. Something of 666’s apocalyptic intensity lingered around 1975’s Heaven and Hell, and Odes, the album of Greek songs he recorded with actor Irene Papas (although 1979’s album China and his acclaimed soundtrack to the nature documentary Opera Sauvage were easier on the ear). Murkier, more abstract and far more emotionally ambiguous than the air-punch-inducing Chariots of Fire, its legend was bolstered by the fact that it wasn’t released as an album for over 20 years: a rotten orchestral version, which Scott and Papathanassiou hated, came out in its absence. He also unexpectedly developed a parallel career as a pop star, in the company of Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, an Aphrodite’s Child fan who had contributed to Heaven and Hell and Opera Sauvage. The three albums they released as Jon and Vangelis deftly bridged the gap between prog rock and the vogue for synth-pop. Greek pop music of the 1960s is not an area of musical history where anyone who doesn’t fondly remember it first-hand is advised to dwell.

Composer whose work ranged from pop, jazz and classical to the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire soundtrack.

In 2014 he composed three pieces for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, and these appeared on his album Rosetta (2016). He even had an asteroid (no 6354) named after him by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. Its combination of warm, accessible melodies and conventional instruments alongside a Yamaha CS-80 synthesiser helped bring Vangelis to the attention of mainstream film-makers (Peter Weir used music from it in The Year of Living Dangerously in 1982). It set the stage for Vangelis’s pivotal partnership with Hudson, whom he had first met in Paris in the early 70s, on Chariots of Fire. In 1979 he formed Jon and Vangelis with Anderson, who reached the UK Top 5 with their album Short Stories, the first of four they would make together. His choral symphony Mythodea, which he performed in Athens in 2001 with the operatic sopranos Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, was adopted as the official music for Nasa’s Mars Odyssey space mission. Vangelis, who played all the soundtrack instruments himself, won the 1982 Academy Award for best original score, and the fact that Chariots of Fire won the best picture Oscar probably owed much to the impact of Vangelis’s music. In 1974 he auditioned for the British prog-rockers Yes at the instigation of Anderson, but turned down the job after problems with work permits. Vangelis began playing the piano and other instruments from the age of four, and his parents sent him for music lessons when he was six. A progressive concept album devised by Vangelis, 666 was based on the Book of Revelation. His bandmates were not enthusiastic about this new direction and the members went their separate ways. Equally significant was his score for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner (1982). Vangelis created a stunning sonic panorama of the fragmented, alienated world that Scott depicted on the screen, where advances in technology were matched by the decay of human emotions. At the time his stage name was Vagos. “It was just our idea of having fun,” he recalled, but Forminx became one of Greece’s best-known bands. However he did it, he created a string of enduring and hugely varied works, ranging from pop and semi-classical compositions using a mixture of synthesisers, electronica and traditional instrumentation to some of the most memorable film scores in cinematic history. They split in 1966, and Vangelis met Demis Roussos the following year.