BEAUBOURG

One, if not the most controversial of Vangelis' albums, ''Beaubourg'' falls out of his discography. The albums before were near to electronic music with a certain touch of new age, all highly melodic. This album is very different from all he had done before. Here, we have more of sound but of music. Maybe this could be called experimental or avant-garde or whatever, still for me that would be my best excuse for this kind of music. There is no structure in the music, no clear theme, no diversity in sound. Every note is played seperate from the other, if there is a clear melody, it is abandoned for some whistling or noisy play. But the about 40 minutes have three sides (not to be confused with LP-sides, but rather sides of musical direction): The first side is maybe the most difficult to listen to, as we have silence, which is sometimes interrupted by seemingly random tones or noise. This is not dominating, but used too often. The next side is dominated by melodies, scales, chords, all in no special order. Those sections do not follow any musical rules, meaning that either you hear the playing going up and down on the keyboard or some chords are hammering, then fading in silence. A melody (I use the word in the truest meaning, which is an order of notes) is displaced by another and never to be heard again. Music for the moment in the most extreme form. What saves this album from a one-star rating is the spacy side of the album. Melodic rythms or calm playing are the main elements of this side what makes it an experience to listen to. Too bad the mood is interrupted by the disordered playing or flows into the noisy side in the end.

To sum up what I think about this album is not easy. On the one hand, you have a mess of notes and melodies, silence and noise. One may call this experimental or avant-garde, but when I listen to those kinds of music, I really get music, not that. However, you can not deny that this is experimental, in the meaning that you do something and look for the result. On the other hand, there are the calm and spacy moments, which make this album quite enjoyable. As this side is not that much featured, I do not like it that much. If I had not got it for a cheap price (3,33?), I would be very disappointed, but with this, it is certainly worth its money and nothing more. Probably one might think different, but for me this album is disappointing. I get this feeling that this album is a prove that you can sell anything, as long as you put a famous name on it. The main target group of the label certainly not bought it for crazy sound experiments.

Result: For fans of Vangelis: only buy it if you are interested how Vangelis sounds outside his primary direction. For fans of experimental music: try it, either you love it or hate it. For one who is looking for highly melodic electronic works: avoid this one.

2 stars, for collectors/fans only.