BEST OF VANGELIS

This compilation covers only 4 albums that were released between 1975 and 1978 on the RCA lable.Many prog fans understandably regard this as the best period of Vangelis music for the simple reason that the music is more prog sounding.I'm a bit dissapointed that Alpha was ommitted from this compilation (hence the deduction of a mark) but on the up side you do get the superb Spiral (often ommitted from Vanglelis compilations) and the ten minute chunk of Beauborg works surprisingly well with the other peices.

This attempt to condense Vangelis' pioneering synth albums into a palletable single disc was the first bit of his solo music I picked up. As with the similarly celestial and electronic Tangerine Dream, once I consumed the fare, I have felt no subsequent hunger for seconds.

Sure there are some memorable space synth anthems like Pulstar, Aries and Spiral (all pulse rhythms and ambient synths) as well as exciting fusion-inflected experiment Bacchanale and the suitably cosmic So Long Ago, So Clear (with vocals by Yes' Jon Anderson), but there are also dreary lullabies like To The Unknown Man and the New Age forerunner Albedo 0.39 (spacey sounds underpinning a deadpan voice stating scientific facts!). The 10 minute plus excerpt from Beaubourg, which is basically a cacophony of sound effects, is particularly trying.

While Vangelis is a great musician, I'm less than totally enamoured of the sound of him interacting with himself. The lack of rhythmic and instrumental diversity tends to make this music more one-dimensional than it should be. It doesn't really help that while Vangelis originally slaved for hours to create the dense layers of sound that gave his music its character, nowadays any novice can park himself in front of a half decent Korg and replicate music of this ilk with the minimum of effort. I suppose one day I may take the trouble to check out highly rated albums like Heaven And Hell, Earth and Albedo 039. But that's way down my list of priorities at the moment. ... 41% on the MPV scale

Hmmmm....not sure about this one. I find it really hard having the best of albums for artists like Pink Floyd, Vangelis and Mike Oldfield, especially where their works are more continuous in terms of composition. So invariably the song selection especially back in 1978 where album lengths were limited, is in short restricted to 25 minutes approx per side.' To The Unknown Man' and the Jon Anderson collaboration of ' So Long Ago So Clear' from Heaven and Hell are the definite highlights on this generally poor offering.

It is difficult to judge if the music of Vangelis is Prog or not. In my opinion Vangelis' music is Prog but only because not Rock in the sense of Rock with drums, guitar, bass... in other vision Vangelis' music is not Classic Music because have too Rock elements. Sure in my personal vision Vangelis produced good albums with various feelings and power, also for die hard Progsters.

This 'Best Of Vangelis', published in 1978, contain songs from RCA's albums and it is centered in Space music period of Vangelis. All the songs are representative of Space music and at the same level (not 'So Long Ago, So Clear' with Jon Anderson, voice of Yes, that is a POP song). Clear that in this case Space is reported not only to the feelings but also to the structure of the songs, good as describd as New Age.

'Best Of Vangelis' is a good compilation, at the end, a very lake of Vangelis' art. Not only for Vangelis' fans.