CHINA

This is the album I like best by Vangelis and it has been awhile since I played this until today. He inserts a little more power into this effort as I think the subject matter requires those grand, majestic, and climatic moments. However, there are also the lovely compositions that bring out the image of the peaceful, contemplative side of that land.

The opening track, Chung Juo starts us off on a grand note full of synths that have a slicing oriental sound throughout. The Long March is a beautiful piano melody with some background synthesizer. The Dragon brings us back into a power mode and is one of the strongest songs on album with heavy keyboards and some nice percussions.

Now back to the beauty side, The Plum Blossum is a delightful violin playfully dancing around a methodical piano melody. It also mixes in some strong well placed synths. Very nice.

Continuing into the peaceful side of things, the next three songs mix some traditional oriental instruments with keyboards and spoken meditative words in one song, The Little Fete. The Tao of Love has a wonderful melody.

Now the epic and my favorite, Himalaya. Power synthesizer filled journey up the mountain. It winds and builds its way up to a climatic peak, which fits into the next song, Summit. It gives you that atmospheric feel that you accomplished the climb and now you soak it all in.

Excellent album, 4 plus stars but will keep it at 4.

AEProgman

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