Evangelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, commonly known as Vangelis, has died at the age of 79.. The Greek was known worldwide, especially among science fiction fans, for composing the outstanding soundtrack of bladerunner. In fact, it was this work that allowed him to get one of his Oscars.
According to his relatives (via Guardian), Vangelis died in a hospital in France.. Of course, at the moment the exact causes of his death are unknown.
Vangelis was born a March 29, 1943 in Volos, Greece. His family was already recognized in the musical world, which made it easy for him to launch his own career. However, Odysséas had enough talent to succeed. At the age of only six years he was already making compositions and even performing in public.
Already during his youth, he participated as a keyboardist with the group The Forminx, with whom he was able to release an album. However, it was not until 1966 when she took a key step by composing the soundtrack for the comedy 5,000 liesdirected by Giorgos Konstadinou.
He also accompanied the renowned Demis Roussos in the band Aphrodite’s Child, a progressive rock group with whom he released several albums. A little later, in 1970, Vangelis composed the soundtrack for sex-powerwhich also allowed him to release his first solo album.
It was during that same decade that Vangelis found a very particular style that, some time later, would be reflected in the soundtrack of bladerunner. Accompanied by electronic sounds, Greek became a benchmark for what many still know as “cosmic music.” In Albedo 0.39his fourth conceptual album released in 1976, we can already hear the style that would mark the rest of his career.
Back in the 1980s, Vangelis won his first Oscar for “Best Soundtrack” for Fire cars. It should be noted that among the nominees was also John Williams himself, composer of starwars.
Later, Odysséas was chosen by Ridley Scott to compose the soundtrack for bladerunner (1982), which to date remains one of the greatest exponents of science fiction. Interestingly, the music for the feature film was released in album form more than a decade later, in 1994.
Although he later continued working on other projects within the film world, perhaps none reached the relevance of 1492: The Conquest of Paradise, also directed by Ridley Scott. This film left us with the popular theme conquest of paradise. Certainly, the style is very different from that heard in bladerunner.
outside the cinema, Vangelis even worked for NASA with the aim of composing the theme of the Mars Odyssey mission, which carried a space probe to the neighboring planet to study its climate and surface. He also left his mark on the most popular sport in the world, as composed the theme song for the 2002 Korea/Japan Soccer World Cup.
Vangelis’s last known work was Rosettatheir seventh concept album released in 2016.