VANGELIS & IRENE PAPAS: ODES

Even if this is an Irene Papas' album, I keep this record in my Vangelis' section, simply because it is the genuine music of Vangelis: like Jon Anderson used to sing for Vangelis, Irene does the same job here, and she succeeds very well. The music is absolutely beautiful and VERY expressive. There are drums & percussions that, combined with the echoed chants, give a traditional character to the music. The music is globally rather mellow and relaxing. There is a permanent echo applied on the instruments & vocals, so that it really gives a concert ambience. The music is probably sung in Greek, and the modern keyboards are not endlessly floating, so that the ancestral & folkloric dimension involved can stay in the foreground. The tracks have elements coming from many of the Vangelis' albums: they have the modern sonority of albums like Opera Sauvage and China, but they also borrow ideas from earlier albums like Earth, Heaven & Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Spiral, among others.

On "Les 40 Braves", the voice of Irene Papas and the Gregorian chants act in unison with Vangelis' keyboards: some bits remind me the majestic Mask album! There are many tubular bells sounds, which remind the arrangements of the aforementionned albums. The instrumental "La danse du feu" has a beginning pretty similar to the "Nucleogenesis" track of the Albedo 0.39 album. This album is very underrated. Any serious Vangelis' fan must have it!

Rating: 4.5 stars