CAN YOU HEAR THE DOGS BARKING? [AKA: IGNACIO] (OST)

A soundtrack album.......my original LP was titled "Can You Hear The Dogs Barking?", and I remember buying the "Ignacio" LP later, only to find out it was one I already had. Although the release date says 1977, this album sounds like early-70's Vangelis: few synthesizers, so-so sound quality, and a pretty ladi-back feel. The final track is my favorite, just because it has a very Mediterranean feel, with fake mandolins done on keyboard. It sounds like something from his album "Earth". The rest of the album is a mixed bag, with a lot of mediocre material that was probably improvised in one take, rather than composed and orchestrated. I'd give it two stars, but that last track always makes me forget what came before.

On the first side, there are fast piano notes through tymbals and low frequency keyboards: it is quite interesting, but a bit scattered. Some bits are really floating and melodic, and music here is rather loaded. This album is not very well known, but it surely contributed to Vangelis' particular sound and approach of the melodic New Age style. There are some choir-like arrangements, which contribute to give grandeur to some bits.

The other side is completely different: it is made of totally experimental, scary & dark sounds, which will give you disorientation. It could be an horror movie music. I do not like this side of the album. It is ended with a "beach xylophone" atmosphere.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Quite an unusual release from Vangelis. One side being typical Vangelis theme based pastoral soundscapes and the second side almost ambient, abstract more untenable sounding music. Overall though the music is not too bad at all. The CD version has the complete song of ' Ignacio' all 39 minutes of it. Interesting to note this album is hinged between the excellent La Fete Sauvage and equally good and more progressive Spiral albums. Recommended to any Vangelis fans wanting to fill up their back catalogue with good structured material from an enjoyable work.

I quite like the Vangelis's progression since "Heaven & Hell". After the very good «La Fête Sauvage" which is my favourite Vangelis album so far in his discography it was a challenging task to follow up. I fully agree with "Progosopher" (aka Robert who sounds as a Vangelis specialist) while he is depicting this work as similar but in reversed order compared to "La Fête".

I would add though that while the previous effort featured sublime melodies and poignant musical moments, this Ignacio" is not so powerful or melodic. More biblical is my feeling (especially the church organ and choir-like during the last section of Part I). The music leans nicely towards a more electronic prog and I am quite keen on this. The first part is the soft side of this album, and also my fave. There are some fine combinations between keys and percussion and the short intro is the most captivating part IMHHO.

After almost twenty-minutes, the mood is totally different: it sounds as a furious moog ballet sustained by a strong and hypnotic beat. Quite a change! At times, it sounds experimental as well (mainly percussions) and conveys some scary atmospheres. It is less accessible than the melodic first half but it has its own merit as well although I am not sure that the closing marimba-like part is the best idea.

I am missing the presence of a recurring theme as during "La Fête"; but some reviewers found that it was too repetitive. In my view it was a wonderful asset and cared for a great album. This work should please fans of bombastic and electronic prog music. It is probably not a superb work but good enough to deserve a three stars rating.

In Italy this album was released in a double compilation together with La Fete Sauvage. The compilation was simply entitled "Vangelis Papathanassious" and the cover was totally black with a photo of the artist in the internal sleeve.

Even if the package was quite poor, I have to say that the two albums listened together are better than taken alone. I have given a low rating to La Fete Sauvage, but listened together with Ignacio (aka "Entends, Tu Le Chiens Aboyer") the effect is enhanced. They are more than the sum of the parts.

The side A of this album is dark and symphonic. Maybe for the low pitch choir, maybe because of the deadly bells, a great part of side A is like a journey into the ancient Greek "Ade". Close to the infernal part of Heaven and Hell. There are no demons. Only lost souls. When it pauses from being dark it becomes celestial but it's just question of "moments". As on La Fete Saucage there is a central recurring theme that comes and go several times, but unlike La Fete Sauvage, this central theme is good enough. It closes the Side A.

What next? the B side is totally different. It opens jazzy. It has rhythm, something that is totally absent from Side A. 6 minutes of this jazzy part and it stops. What we have now are "noises" of the kind that Vangelis will exploit more on his controversial "Invisible Connections" eight years later. I remember a review on a magazing of that time comparing Ignacio, and in particular this noisy part to Ummagumma. I totally disagree. Ummagumma was usually taken as a reference for each "noisy" music by some reviewers without a prog background.

However the problem with this album, as well as for La Fete Sauvage, is that the two sides are totally disconnected. This noisy part is not bad, but there's not a fall and a rebirth, as on "Echoes" or on "Saucerful of Secrets" (just to speak of noisy Floyds). We move from the jazzy start to a noisy, then to a spacey and psychedelic section that apparently doesn't lead anywhere. The spacey part is very good and people who likes Tangerine Dream will really appreciate it.

The last five minutes with a mandolin and minor chords don't have anything to do with the rest. The taste is Mediterranean, more Italian than Greek maybe. I personally don't like this genre, even when played by Vangelis. A bad filler to reach about 40 total minutes.

Having rounded down "La Fete Sauvage" I will now round up its twin that's a bit better. 3 stars for the dark, the noisy and the spacey parts. Let's ignore the rest.

Here's a little Progressive Electronic trivia to start your day: how many degrees of separation connect Greek keyboard maestro Vangelis Papathanassiou with Krautrock's Florian Fricke, the enigmatic leader of Popol Vuh?

Only four, surprisingly. Arranged like this: in 1977 Vangelis released his album "Ignacio", a soundtrack to the 1975 François Reichenbach movie "Do You Hear the Dogs Barking?"...the film was a nominee at that year's Cannes Film Festival...at which the big award winner was "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser", directed by Werner Herzog...featuring (in a small but memorable role) Herzog's friend and collaborator Florian Fricke, as a blind pianist.

All pretty much useless information, I know. And totally beside the point of this review. But arguably still part of any wider appreciation of a neglected minor gem hidden within the larger Vangelis discography.

"Ignacio" was released soon after the conspicuous success of "Heaven and Hell" and "Albedo 0.39", and before the relative blockbuster "Spiral" and "China" albums. So it's no surprise that the soundtrack to an obscure European film was somewhat lost in the shuffle. And yet it features some of the keyboard wizard's best music from his '70s heyday, organized over two side-long mini-suites filled with quintessential cinematic synth and percussion atmospheres.

Part One introduces one of his trademark simple-yet-familiar themes, instantly recognizable even if you've never heard it before (selections were featured in the Carl Sagan PBS show "Cosmos"). The music develops in slowly overlapping waves over the album's first half, showing more taste and sensitivity than Vangelis often exhibited in his more popular work. Imagine "Heaven and Hell" without the extremes of bombast and occasional tackiness, and you'll find a pretty close approximation of "Ignacio".

Part Two opens with an assertive, almost techno-rock jam, before (thankfully) moving into more abstract and eerie territory, totally percussive at first and then drifting into ambient space. The unexpected coda borrows a wistful melody from Side One, arranged over a melancholy rhythm box and what sounds like a synthetic bouzouki. It's one of the rare moments of genuine Greek flavor on a Vangelis album, evoking the Arcadian ruins of a Hellenic temple in an ancient grove of olive trees.

I'm getting carried away now. But in its own quiet way this otherwise low-profile, throwaway effort stands taller than you might expect among the bigger, better-selling Vangelis albums of the era.

This is a fairly unknown album from Vangelis that was actually music from a French film entitled "Entends ? Tu Les Chiens Aboyer?" which means "Can You Hear the Dogs Barking?" Well, I couldn't hear any dogs (except for the neighbor's) and I haven't seen the film, but I can still rate the music. This is made up of a single track (divided in 2 for the vinyl version: Part 1: 20:42 and Part 2: 17:45), but the actual music is separated by occasional track breaks, so it could have been intended to be individual tracks.

As for Side 1, you get a nice, beautiful and melodic sound. Of course the music is electronic, but there is an abundance of piano throughout the side with a lot of atmospheric keyboards sometimes taking the lead and at others providing the atmosphere surrounding the piano. This side is some of Vangelis' most beautiful work and would appeal to many listeners. Side 2 is a lot more experimental, but flows nicely. It is not experimental in the same vein as "Beaubourg" or "Invisible Connections" because it is not sparse or non-melodic like those albums were. One section consists of a lot of percussive sounds but they are arranged in a way to not be considered avant-garde. The flow is constant and easy to listen to, nothing too challenging, but still very interesting and moody. At other sections, the music becomes more tense, but throughout the record, things don't stray too far from the norm. This is more of a psychedelia sound than it is unconventional.

All in all, this is a very good album with enough variety between the two sides to make it interesting throughout. Not necessarily essential, but still excellent and I believe it should appeal to the fans of Vangelis' more conventional sound like "Chariots of Fire" or "Spiral" and venturing a bit into "Albedo 0.39", but not commercial as was "See You Later". 4 stars. Worth searching for.