ALBEDO 0.39

I kind of see Vangelis as a classical composer using modern instruments in some ways, but Albedo 0.39 does have many progressive elemets, thanks to the real drums and jazz elements, inluding complex time signatures incorporated in some of the tracks, most effectively on the enthralling "Main Sequence." I would say the best way to describe the album, though is as a space album that approaches the subject from a very scientific approach, with heavy new age and progressive electronic leanings. The opening "Pulstar" was used as background music for I believe more than one documentary, and is just the kind of music I think of when imagining the soundtrack for a space themed documentary. It's to Vangelis' credit, though, that the music is not generic by any means, and happens to be some of the best of it's kind. The album transitions smoothly to two consecutive peaceful ambient pieces ("Freefall" and "Mare Tranquilitatis") that employ a great use of found sounds, and just have some of the most genuinely spacey atmospheres I've ever heard. On to the aforementioned "Main Sequence", which returns to the energy of "Pulstar", with a slightly punchier, frenetic sound, and that melts eventually into the beautiful, "Sword of Orion", which greatly foreshadows some of the direction Vangelis would later take in terms of synth sounds and memorable melodies on later works such as Chariots of Fire. Side Two opens with "Alpha", a great electronic symphonic builder with another great melody, and then on to the two-part "Nucleogenesis", a thickly layered and intriguinly complex and and unpredictable synthesiser and drum space rock-out that sets the stage for the album closer with great emotional build-up. The closer, which is the title track, is what really seals the album as a space rock masterpiece, another perfectly applied example of found sounds of more astronaut talk with just the right amount of reverb set to the most perfect ambient soundscape. Whether it's in new age, jazz/rock, or progressive electronice mode, Albedo 0.39 is an album of pure, ideal space music from beginning to end.