Vangelis Odyssey The Definitive Collection Songs

[Tamar Navratil]

Odyssey,' despite its sub-title, has nothing of 'the definitive' about it. In theceaseless line of best-of compilations for the one-time-Oscar-winning Greek composer,each release has to distinguish itself at least a little bit from the others, or atleast I would have thought so. To add to this insanity, 'Odyssey' isn't even the mostrecent of these carbon copies, although it remains the last to be officiallyendorsed. It seems that Universal's goal is merely to fill an accessible 'greatesthits' spot on HMV shelves for eternity, while drawing in the hardcore fans by addingone or two rare and previously unreleased tracks completely out of context.Context is indeed the major factor lacking here, though this is something thatplagues all compilations for all bands. As partially ambient electronic works,Vangelis' individual tracks appear almost always to be crafted with the rest of thealbum's companion pieces in mind. To take examples from this collection, 'Pulstar'and 'Alpha' may have been the strongest picks from 1976's 'Albedo 0.39' LP, butremoved from that space-jazz craziness of that original release they sound feeble,dated and out of place amongst the more contemporary orchestral works. This is evenmore of an issue for soundtrack segments, though the collection wisely choosesopening and closing titles for the majority of these, free from the burden ofdepicting characters and action. Even so, this electronic 'odyssey' fails completelyto represent the true Vangelis experience despite spanning almost his entire career.What the listener receives instead is an arbitrary stop-start performance of catchymelodies and dramatic, bombastic film introductions that lead immediately to nowhere.Vangelis' film scores rival and sometimes even exceed the quality of his independentstudio work, but none of this works when blended together in this thoughtless manner.Even when Pink Floyd released an inevitable career-spanning compilation 'Echoes' in2001, the seemingly disparate tracks were well sequenced, and effort was even made tosegue many of them together. 'Odyssey' is like listening to an album on sites likeAmazon, in thirty-second audio clips that end abruptly and leave the listenerunfulfilled.Yes, yes. I know. This CD was never intended to be an original musical statement fromthe composer, and people do buy collections like this as a cheap way of accessing thewell-known songs they like. Even taken under these conditions, 'Odyssey' isn't allthat good a collection, and has to occupy a mediocre middle ground between theconsumer and the connoisseur. The irritating 'Chariots of Fire' theme is gotten overwith quickly so that some more obscure material can be dealt with, without forgettingthose other staples of Vangelis soundtrack compilations: the 'Blade Runner' endingtheme and 'Conquest of Paradise' opener. Beyond this, there's not a lot that wouldring a bell for non-fans. Ranging from 1975 to 2001 it's certainly one of the morecomprehensive overviews, though there are many important albums unrecognised;something from 'Heaven and Hell' would be especially welcome, and it's odd that eventhe most recent studio effort 'Oceanic' is ignored in favour of obscure film themes.These rare tracks are the major selling point of the album to collectors, namely'Theme from Cavafy' and 'Celtic Dawn.' The album tries to impress with 'Mutiny on theBounty' excerpts, but these had already been dealt with on 1996's 'Portraits'collection. These aren't Vangelis' greatest work, and won't remain in your head afterspinning the CD multiple times, but I guess it's nice to own them. No, forget that:they are pointless, worthless even, without their rightful place. Whether you thinkVangelis' spacey keyboards can adequately convey emotions or not, these eighteencontradictory experiences are skimmed over so hastily that it's hard to get anythingat all from this CD other than noticing "oh, this one sounds very seventies. Thismust be one of those older ones then." Maybe I'd better get on to talking about theactual music.1. Pulstar2. Hymn3. Chariots of Fire4. Missing5. Love Theme from Blade Runner6. End Titles from Blade Runner7. The Tao of Love8. Theme from Antarctica9. Theme from Cavafy10. Opening Titles from Mutiny on the Bounty11. Conquest of Paradise12. La petite fille de la mer13. L'Enfant14. Alpha15. Celtic Dawn16. Movement 1 from Mythodea17. I'll Find My Way Home18. State of IndependenceAs I stated earlier, this collection is a hybrid of Vangelis' own conceptual albumsand the film scores he produced over the decades. As most people know him for'Chariots of Fire' and 'Blade Runner,' it's the film scores that are granted the mostattention, ranging from the high-budget seafaring orchestral grandeur of 'Mutiny onthe Bounty' and 'Conquest of Paradise,' the latter being an impressive rip-roaringvictorious march dominated by triumphal brass and an emphatic chamber choir, to thecold minimalism of independent films like 'Antarctica' and the afore-mentioned rarity'Cavafy,' less instantly memorable but still highly impressive and technical. 'Hymn'and 'Missing' were themes composed for television soundtracks and thus a poorerquality can be expected, however the former is a concise uplifting piece thatdeserves a place among the composer's best work. which this largely isn't.While any resonance that the 'Chariots of Fire' and 'Blade Runner' themes may haveonce possessed has clearly been lost through reduplication, they still stand strongas expressions of Vangelis' more commercial tendencies, especially in the simplisticpiano melody of 'Chariots,' the culmination (however annoying) of a tune that can betraced right back through albums of 1977 and '75. The end titles of 'Blade Runner'strive for epic sci-fi excitement in their techno background for sweeping strings,and if one piece of that excellent soundtrack could justifiably be placedindependent, it's this one. But then we also get an edited version of the 'LoveTheme,' which works less well. While the end titles were simply an enjoyable butinconsequential electronic piece to play out as the cinema audience leave their seatsfor the foyer, the 'Love Theme' comes from the middle of the film, in the thick ofthe plot and character interaction. It's certainly lacking the atmosphere that wouldbe built from the tracks preceding it, and can easily be skimmed over as "the saxsong" here, robbed of its essential context more than anything else on thiscollection, which mainly provides endless false starts. Vangelis' soundtrack to'Blade Runner' works perfectly in the film, complimenting the equally incrediblevisuals to the point that I never even care about the weak story and numerous plotholes. As an audiovisual experience, I consider 'Blade Runner' a special treat, andone that fails to be represented even when juxtaposing these two segments of thesoundtrack.With this one exception, Vangelis' non-soundtrack albums have always been of far moreinterest to me. Even when they're really bad, it's at least interesting to dwell onwhat exactly the old Moogmeister was trying to do. This album stays well away fromimpermeable disasters like 'Beaubourg' and 'Invisible Connections,' but also sadlymisses out even some of those best-selling progressive albums from the 1970s.'Pulstar' and 'Alpha' are taken from 'Albedo 0.39,' and 'The Tao of Love' from'China,' but even Vangelis' most unashamedly pop-centric albums 'Spiral' and 'Direct'are ignored, perhaps for reasons of space. The two tracks from Albedo are about asgood as Vangelis gets in his purely electronic phase, both based around repeatingmelodies and riffs that expand and evolve organically over five to seven minutes.'Pulstar' is fast and energetic, and works perfectly as the opener for thiscollection just as it did for the original studio release. 'Alpha' is far morerestrained and gradual, evolving from a nice keyboard base to end as one of the mostcraftily uplifting songs I've ever heard, performed in excessive major keys. Theseare two of my favourite songs from the album, despite suffering from the contextualissue. By contrast, 'The Tao of Love' is probably the weakest offering they couldhave gleaned from 'China,' itself an un-incredible album. Stereotypically and, again,deliberately Chinese sounding (Vangelis never even went to China), this isinteresting for the first bar and then repeats itself to death. I heard this playingin the background of an Ainsley Harriott show, set in China: it really does lenditself as generic Oriential sounding music.One of the more interesting sections of this collection, where a sense of coherencemanages to seep in, comes with tracks twelve and thirteen, both piano-based,melancholic songs. Oh yes, they both have French titles too, though they don't comefrom the same album. 'La petite fille de la mer' is the oldest song here, from asoundtrack Vangelis recorded for a nature documentary. It's sad, soft and subdued,aiming for a different goal than the cheery and prominent style of most of theprevious songs, but suffers for its long length and over-repetition, even if it'sintended to be hypnotic. 'L'Enfant' is far superior, expressing a distinctiveVangelis aura even in its unplugged state and being one of the purest emotionalexpressions of this release, equal to the earlier 'Hymn' (both songs come from thesame album, the soundtrack to 'Opera Sauvage.') 'Celtic Dawn' is a new song in thatit was previously unreleased, not recently recorded, and could easily be filed amongmost of Vangelis' forgettable compositions of the 1980s and 90s. The 'pure Vangelis'part of the album closes by bringing the listener back to the present, with the grandoperatic opening of 'Mythodea,' originally performed in Athens in 1994 but revampedas the official music for NASA's Mars Mission in this century. It suffers from thepompous pretentiousness of all Vangelis' operatic and symphonic work, but the subduedpresence of his synthesiser is so well integrated within the volume that I can't helpbut like it, though I wouldn't be able to sit through the whole 'Mythodea'performance. Occasionally, the tasters this collection provides are more than enough.The final two tracks are a radical departure from the previous sixteen, taken fromVangelis' collaborations with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. Cheesy and simplisticallypoppy, these songs aim to provide cheap, bland thrills to the masses through thecombination of Vangelis' dance-like keyboards and Anderson's approachable androgynousvocals. 'I'll Find My Way Home' is admittedly catchy and quite nice, but 'State ofIndependence' should have been replaced with something more memorable.'Odyssey' isn't the best collection of Vangelis' music, and despite price cuts, isn'teven the cheapest. Those looking for an engrossing audio experience won't find itamong these disparate compositions, seemingly arranged at random with a couple ofnoted exceptions, and long-time collectors won't even be impressed by the artwork.Overall, this compilation works best as a sampler of Vangelis' albums, mostly hissoundtracks, and even those who own more Vangelis than any sane person should beallowed (I have quite a lot) will likely find introductions here to material thatwould otherwise be unavailable, especially the more oblique soundtracks such as'Missing' and 'Cavafy.'Vangelis' only new material since this collection was the disappointing soundtrack to'Alexander,' perhaps signifying that his illustrious and wildly inconsistent careeris over, though he could always surprise with another orchestral classic like 'ElGreco.' Either way, 2003 was a meaningless time to release a self-important'definitive collection' such as this, and primarily offers an inexpensive means forthe sound team of Ainsley Harriott shows to acquire generic archive material for thefuture, as they have already done with 'The Tao of Love.' If Ainsley winds up cookingkrill and albatross in Antarctica, it's a safe bet what his soundtrack will be.Frankingsteins 2/5 2007-3-13MEMBERS LOGIN ZONEAs a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

3a8082e126