ANTARCTICA (OST)

Definetly one of Vangelis most beautifull albums.The synths are as lush as ever and the melodiies are full of richness.You get the atmospehere of Antartica perfectly.Every single peice of music here is a gem.As a synth album it would rate 5 stars but in truth it will get labelled 'New Age' although it is a fantastic instrumental work that should be admired.

Certainly one of his best later albums, not unlike "Chariots of Fire" sonically. Go ahead and lump him in with other New Age artists if you must. Personally, I think that stuff like this gives New Age music some credibility.

After the hit "Titles" on "Chariots of fire", Vangelis proceeded in a similar way to produce another great radio friendly hit: "Theme from Antarctica": very floating, symphonic, ethereal, majestic & emotional, the sound is absolutely crystal clean. The VERY sophisticated & refined overall sound is a bit like the "Soil Festivities" and "Blade Runner" albums. Along with the "Blade Runner" album, it is the beginning of his best created atmospheric soundscapes: the deeply floating, echoed & sustained keyboards sounds occur, like on the "Mask" album. The weak point is the repetitive parts in the compositions: despite the involved tracks do not use the same keyboards sounds, one may consider some of them as catchy variations on a same theme, i.e. variations on the first track "Theme from Antarctica". I find that the album has a rather dynamic & cold atmosphere, absolutely not as warm as "Mask". Nevertheless, it is an excellent album from Vangelis.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Definitely a step up from the previous Chariots Of Fire. This soundtrack has all the cold, lonesome, vast qualities of a massive ice shelf drifting aimlessley around the South Pole.Musically much stronger and the themes blend well in depicting the solitude of the Antarctica. Highlights would have to be ' Anarctica Echoes', ' Song Of White' and the sombre ' Other Side of Antarctica'. A good piece of work from that genius composer Vangelis.

The music on this soundtrack is very well produced, and musically it can be compared to the Oscar-winning Chariots Of Fire soundtrack, which is a good album. But still, I must say I wasn't very impressed when I listened this album completely, knowing three - probably best - tracks in advance. I'll round my 2½ stars down even if it's clearly better than 'collectors/fans only'.

So what's wrong? Is it perhaps as the review on allmusic.com says, that the music fails to capture the iciness of Antarctica? No, actually I disagree on that. The music is atmospheric all right. I haven't seen the Japanese film, but I can imagine Vangelis' music works pretty well on it. Instead, it's the usual fault of the film music: as the main theme, wonderfully introduced in the bright opening track 'Theme From Antarctica', is being repeated in various ways throughout the album, the listener gets frustrated and bored before the end. The second track 'Antarctica Echoes' is however another highlight even if it's just a meditative, slowed down version of the opener.

The rest of the album has a couple of fine tracks that easily fill up the quality standards of Vangelis though not anyhow spectacular, but as a whole, to me this album per se is a bit boring. It's miles from the greatness of Blade Runner or 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise, both of which are among my all-time favourites of soundtrack albums. But their secret lies in the way they were further worked out to function perfectly as individual albums. And this is true about Chariots Of Fire also: if you watch these films and listen to the music on them, those brief music passages have quite a little to do with the album. Now if Vangelis had had the same goal with Antarctica, he could have ended up with another strong soundtrack album.

I don't see the film... But I 'see' its 'O.S.T.'!

I have the perception that this O.S.T. be a great album also if independent respect to the film. Furthermore Vangelis don't do anything to look like a great composer but manages to convey very well the atmosphere of the film in music. I have also received the atmospheres depsite I don't see the film!

It is true that I have a limit if I seek to judge this O.S.T., but I think that this O.S.T. not present Prog music but a sort of Symphonic New Age in Prog field! And sure I have the perception that this O.S.T. be an immortal O.S.T.!

Now this is much better, a true return to form. Lush and melodic, the bright tones and dramatics reflect the cold, hard Antarctic environment. And yes, it is another soundtrack, this time for a Japanese documentary on an Antarctic expedition, which was apparently one of the most popular films in Japanese history. I must watch it sometime if I can find it. The opening Theme From Antarctica is a Vangelis classic, reminiscent of Chung Kuo from China. Antarctic Echoes is the piece, however, that sets the mood for the rest of the album. Kinematic is the weakest track here, but is a hard driving albeit repetitive piece. Song of White has two sections, the first of which features a synthesized flute-like sound that is one of the most moving pieces of music Vangelis has ever done. Even after listening to it for 20 years, it still captures me and sends me off to another dimension, much like certain sections of Heaven and Hell do. This short section, too short in my opinion, segues into a reprise of the theme melody. On special mixes in the past I used to combine this with the actual title piece to render a ten-minute edit. Can't do that anymore with my CD burning software. The next three pieces, Life of Antarctica, Memory of Antarctica, and Other Side of Antarctica perpetuate and amplify the tone of icy isolation. The finale, Deliverance, provides a beautiful haunting melody to cap off the album. This type of piece becomes a formula for many of his later albums. On the cusp between excellent and classic Vangelis, I have to give this one a high recommendation and really consider an essential component of a good Vangelis collection.

After the award claiming « Chariots Of Fire », here goes Vangelis with another album containing another of his best known theme: "Antartica".

This opening song is quite delightful, very well known: spacey, atmospheric, and ambient. You name it! It holds a superb and repetitive melody but it is never boring during these seven minutes and a half. Great stuff for sure, it is.

The theme is recurrent and comes back at some other points later in the album ("Song Of White"). I must say that I quite like this (same during "Memory Of Antarctica" but in a much slower mood).

The well named "Antarctic Echoes" is another fine track. It is even more spacey than the opener and should please any fan of electronic prog. So far, this album is quite good and it should reconcile a lot of fans who might have been disappointed by the artist lately.

This album is fully embracing the electronic prog genre; but on the melodic side. It is accessible, beautiful and quite well achieved. Ambient and spacey atmosphere is also on the list ("Other Side Of Antarctica"). What else do we need? Another great melody I guess? You'll get it as well under the form of the fine closing track "Deliverance". It is a great ending for this fine album. As a whole, it is one of my Vangelis favourite album.

Four stars.

Max result with the lesser effort. This time, instead of writing five tracks for the side A and repeating them together for the side B, he writes a single track good for a 3 minutes radio edit and extends it to cover 45 minutes of the same soup with different sauces.

The main theme is not bad, able to capture the icy ambient of the movie. The music was great in commenting the speachless story of a dozen of dogs abandoned in the frozen antarctic winter, but that's all.

A simple and captivating melody based on four chords can't be repeated for 45 minutes just increasing or decreasing the tempo. It can work fine for the movie, by taking different pitches and tempos when they are most appropriate, but not for a whole album.

As Chariots of Fire, this doesn't deserve more than two stars.

I'm not a great Vangelis fan. I would say that there are only few albums from Vangelis that I like, China, Heaven and Hell and of course Antarctica. Bladerunner and Chariots of Fire are hugely overrated as are 1492 and El Greco. But one of his soundtracks/albums rises above them. Antarctica is without a thought Vangelis's best album. It takes the music, we usually think of as background music and turns it into a piece of art. Just Excellent. Ive just bought the album, but the first time I heard it was on Spotify, and the Spotify review said that: It doesn't convey the iciness that the listeners would expect and doesn't feel like the Antarctic at all. I'm totally opposed to that review, I think that there's no other piece of music that would convey the feel of surrounding ice and snow and just total isolation. Musically Antarctica is maybe not the most complex piece of music but the atmosphere it contains is just something extraordinary. Altho the music gets, well, boring, especially on "Antarctica Echoes", the minute it gets boring the musical structures change and a new melody or rhytmus starts luring itself out of the shadows.

This album truly deserves a solid 5 stars.

One for listeners who enjoy the more approachable and melodic end of progressive electronic music, Vangelis' 1983 work `Antarctica' is the soundtrack to a movie on the same topic. While it's not going to gain the same status or level of attention as his pioneering `Blade Runner' soundtrack, it's certainly not deserving of being completely dismissed or ignored either. Perfectly enjoyable purely as its own work, this is the artist at his most warm and easy listening, with the music, although soft and gentle, never simply becoming bland new-age muzak, and some darker flavours here and there are welcome as well.

The main `Theme from `Antarctica' has soothing washes of synths that lap at the background over unobtrusive programmed percussion, quickly taking on symphonic and victorious themes. Synths rise and fall in a delicate manner throughout the pretty and dream-like `Antarctic Echoes', with the tiniest little electric piano tip-toes. The dramatic `Kinematic' has a skittering frantic programmed beat over imposing electronics, and `Song of White' floats wistfully on ambient flute-like synths before a reprise of the main theme. The synths glisten as if brilliant crystal-like shards on `Life of Antarctica', some darker tones almost resembling Tangerine Dream in parts, and it's one of the more memorable moments on the album. `Memory of Antarctica' is a low key and placid alternate take on the main theme with brief cinematic-like touches. `Other Side of Antarctica' (another refreshingly darker highlight) has a slightly eerie, foreboding, even alien quality, and `Deliverance' closes the album with spiralling synth loops and soothing victorious strains.

Over his career, Vangelis has tackled many different genres and styles, especially fascinating is his early to late 70's period that is full of scattered experimental gems, each more baffling and unique than the last, but all well worth discovering. `Antarctica' is not exactly cutting edge or as genre-bending as those works, but it is evidence of this sort of an artist having completely honed his electronic skills. This is an often hypnotic work, full of movement and variety, making it perfect for newcomers to the progressive electronic genres.

Three stars.

1. Theme From Antarctica for the electronic symphonism and the layout of the film's story; synths swirling everywhere, ethereal, solemn choirs, minimalist drums that still impose themselves with the rumbling of the gong that reverberates in your head; the melody passes, bewitches the mind, makes you levitate, there is a bit of 'China' that remains 2. Antarctica Echoes on a hovering, foggy synth, on the apocalypse of animals, which sends us back even further; or how with a few notes to open our ears to introspection, to the harsh reality that is brewing? A moment of sweetness that declines into an echo, in which the air becomes majestic Olympian; simplicity of the notes created that many Sunday musicians will not be able to conceive, yes it took a genius to compose that; the last notes tick away gently, letting the heavy atmosphere settle in like a sonar searching for an echo 3. Kinematic occurs, the heartbreaking moment of the story, or how to live and survive in an instant when everything was fine before? An agonizing synth comes to support the high notes; another whiff of 'China' for this dreamlike crescendo, another ode to life and survival all at once 4. Song of White or how to immediately make one think of the silence of the Antarctic without the noise of men, without their presence, without their help of food and warmth? This blood-curdling Japanese tuba is perhaps the best solution to express this feeling; after this doubt the second part of the piece on a redundant tune will deliver the dogs by giving them the choice of returning to their primary instinct, living alone and free; only we listeners will fear for them

5. Life of Antarctica with the beginning of the new life, a latent air to show that life will not be so easy, but that there is no choice; the Homerian synth pads return to the tradition of the keyboard player, more contemplative than incisive, letting the listener make his own film; a pad, a rumble of drums, a flute, a piano and the Dantesque atmosphere in front of this new life takes its way 6. Memory of Antarctica with a latent electro sound bringing doubt and introspection; a sweet melody where the synth seeks itself, goes from minimalist ambient to the sweetness of hearts, hearts of dogs some of which will stop beating; a hymn to Life, a memory of that moment when I cried just seeing a dog die at the cinema, and where I waited until the end to check that no harm had been done to the animals during filming, or that there were tears for that memory left there; the velvety synths respond to those crystalline keys bringing air and cleaning the tears 7. Other Side of Antarctica with the strongest title of the album; the loss of bearings, the feeling of being irremediably lost, this long invasive crescendo that begins to flow into our brain; there is some JM JARRE in there, it's beautiful; there is some VANGELIS who plays with incisively inflating the air of the piece to carry us, to bring us to the inevitable; the gong comes to amplify the emotion, the rise never ends, mixing the various albums of VANGELIS, between contemplative, admiration, divine joy; the finale on the incessant, symphonic and grandiloquent rise, yes I like these words because they perfectly express the feeling provoked 8. Deliverance immediately signals the long-awaited end; after having survived in the Antarctic hell, some dogs will recognize their masters who have finally arrived there; the music had to be solemn, it is; if you cry, tell yourself that it 'is for joy' and no one will blame you; the majestic synth, the OLDFIELD-style tune, you straighten up with the pompous notes that print the grandiose air that you can have of having also survived this film, this original and singular soundtrack; yes majestic.