(18th May 2022)
Working on the final stages of Blade Runner’s soundtrack, Vangelis noted that ‘My score is not on paper, but on tape’. Supposedly unable to either read or write music, the composer utilised his instinctive mindset to compose the dystopian sounds of Ridley Scott’s cult classic. The Yamaha CS-80, the synthesiser which he made his own, produced alien sounds that evoked pathos and tragedy capable of creating narrative meaning both with and without dialogue. Rutger Hauer’s improvised final speech at the film’s conclusion was made yet more poignant through Vangelis’ ethereal music, which was resurrected and adapted by Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer in the similarly emotional closing scene of Blade Runner 2049.
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou was born in Agria. Despite his parent’s efforts to develop his burgeoning musical interests by arranging music lessons at age 6, he ultimately found the experience to be too restricting, instead wishing to develop his skills independently. After playing in rock band The Forminx with a group of friends, he pursued solo projects as he composed scores for the Greek films My Brother, the Traffic Policeman, 5,000 Lies and To Prosopo tis Medousas, ultimately moving to Paris after being rejected from the UK to avoid the uprising of the Greek Junta in 1967. He explored musical collaboration once more when he established Aphrodite’s Child, but ultimately split from the progressive rock band due to his ambivalence with commercial dynamics.
Vangelis gained mainstream success with period film Chariots of Fire, where he subverted the genre trend of orchestral music scores with his novel synth composition. Although he won the Oscar for Best Original Music Score, he was unable to attend the ceremony due to his fear of flying. Despite the opportunities to capitalise on the soundtrack’s success with the numerous offers he received, Vangelis once again refused to be pigeonholed into commercial templates. His increasing notoriety for tardiness with film scores supposedly led Ridley Scott to hire a backup composer for Blade Runner, which ultimately led the composer’s refusal to release his work. Musicians were hired to compose adaptation of Vangelis’ score, and his work was ultimately released 12 years later.
Little is known about Vangelis’ personal life due to his resistance to interviews, although reports have linked the composer with the photographer Veronique Skawinska and the singer Vana Veroutis. While Roy Batty’s memories of attack ships on fire and seabeams glittering in the darkness may be lost in time, it’s certain that Vangelis’ influence will continue for many decades to come.