He was considered a pioneer of electronic music and composed catchy melodies for films such as “Blade Runner” and “Chariots of Fire”. Now Vangelis has died at the age of 79.
Vangelis in 2001 in Athens
His compositions for films like “Blade Runner”, “1492 – The Conquest of Paradise” or “The Hour of the Victor” (original title : “Chariots of Fire”) made Vangelis world famous. With his music for “Chariots of Fire” he even won the Oscar in 1982 and reached the top of the US Billboard charts. As Greek media reported, citing the musician's lawyer, Vangelis died on the May 17th in a French hospital.
“666”: progressive rock classic
Vangelis, real name Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, was born on March 29, 1943 in the central Greek coastal town of Agria near Volos. He originally wanted to be a painter and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens. He taught himself the music.
In 1968 he moved to Paris, where he celebrated his first international success together with the Greek musicians Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras. “Aphrodite's Child”, as the band was called, achieved cult status and sold millions of records with hits like “Rain and Tears” before they broke up in 1972. The LP “666” (1972), for which Vangelis composed the music , is considered a classic of progressive rock.
Vangelis recording with children in London
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A year later, Vangelis launched his solo career and experimented with electronic music. And after winning the Oscar for “Chariots of Fire”, which tells the story of two British runners in the 1920s, success followed success.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Vangelis also started experimenting with orchestral music. In 2002 he composed the music for the soccer World Cup in Korea and Japan.
In 2018 he wrote a piece for Stephen Hawking's funeral, which contained the words of the late professor and was transmitted into space by the European Space Agency.
Vangelis: “Just make music”
Vangelis founded the institution “Evangelos Papathanassiou” in Athens, which wants to support young musicians and contribute to the promotion of music .
In later years, Vangelis lived in Paris, London and Athens, carefully guarding his privacy. Little is known about his private life. “I don't do interviews because I have to try to say things that I don't have to say,” he told the LA Times in 2019. “The only thing I have to do is just make music.”< /p>
bb/ww (dpa,afp)