Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου, pronounced [eˈvaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsi.u]; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis (/væŋˈɡɛlɪs/ vang-GHEL-iss; Greek: Βαγγέλης, pronounced [vaɲˈɟelis]), was a Greek composer and arranger of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
First, we have to talk about this. This is iconic. My wife and I were talking yesterday morning. She started by saying, “When you listen to this composition…”
I cut her off, “You can just picture running on the beach.” She laughed and said I literally took the words out of her mouth.
One of my absolute favorite science fiction movies, based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:
This is a haunting speech. And song.
As a space nerd, I also love that he did the score for Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”…
He also did some amazing orchestral work.
Καλημέρα από τις δυτικές ευχές. (Good morning from Western Wishes.)
Kilgore
This is the part where I post links to the rest of the series, but it’s getting a bit long. So, I’ll be maintaining THIS POST so you can go through the archives.