It’s about the human drama, and ignores any idea of futuristic space music that might accompany this far distant future. But that’s just the Wagnerian technique of leit-motifs for the characters and emotional underpinning of the drama. Then there’s John Williams’ score for Star Wars. It was a stroke of genius and has been rightly celebrated as such ever since. And the slow, balletic movement of the space craft is beautifully reflected in the visuals. But that makes artistic sense - It was literally a dance. Sure - there have been great films that have made this coupling - and Stanley Kubrick was perhaps the iconic one to do this, with (amongst other sections), the Blue Danube choreographing the docking of the pod. So, to me, Vangelis is on the wrong tip here - lush romantic soundtrack for a nuclear-powered lump of metal designed to collect and emit electro-magnetic radiation? Where’s the connection? It just. It makes no sense - I don’t think lush warmth when I think of the cold vacuum of space, I think of a terrifying void which our earthly paradise protects and shelters us from! So why on earth (!) is lush, late 19th century Romantic music so frequently paired with it? Why?!! Humans have barely dipped their toes into it, and where human-built craft have ventured further, they are cold, hard, metallic objects, utterly functional in design and devoid of the warmth of human life… It’s been a Hollywood trope for decades, but we have to ask is it really appropriate?Ĭonsider ‘space’: it’s a dark, cold vacuum, totally inhospitable to life. The other thoughts I had were of a more philosophical bent about the pairing of grand symphonic music to the idea of ‘space’. The overall effect is clearly evocative and even I can’t help pairing it in my mind’s eye with visual splendour (though admittedly I seem to turn to aquatic imagery rather than space imagery) But I know many people do enjoy this style and find it to be highly evocative and powerful - and that’s totally great. I’ve never felt replicating orchestras is a particularly interesting thing to do. I guess I’m just saying that musically, this isn’t to my taste particularly. And the notes and chords and melodies all just blend into one evolving mush without any real sense of purpose, drive or melody. There’s the blooming timpani every five seconds, standing in for ‘drama’.
Then there’s the brass sound - occasionally featuring the CS-80 swell we’ve known and loved for 40 years. Some modulation, yes, but seemingly all in sync at the same time. With way too much reverb into which everything disappears into an indistinct mush.įor me, the ‘string/brass/wood section’ sound does just sounds like a load layered E-mu Proteus GM synth tones, all the attacks the same, each note the same general timbre. Whilst it’s impressively virtuosic to watch, a lot of this album sounds kinda like that - a guy pleasing himself with a General MIDI orchestra set, improvising as he goes. I think we’ve all seem him use his incredible keyboard set up where he can improvise to his heart’s content adding and subtracting symphonic tones at the drop of a hat, using knobs reminiscent of sophisticated organ stops. So, yes - instead of raging torrents of Juno & Jupiter synth lines, we get Vangelis’ preferred mode of pseudo-orchestral synth work that’s dominated his recent musical output.
Thirdly - I thought given the title literally comprises the names of Roland’s finest poly synth series (the Junos’ 6/60/106 & Jupiters’ 4/6/8), there might be a nice overlap between the celestial objects of inspiration and their musical instrument counterpoints here on earth - but … no, opportunity missed! (No, not that Opportunity, that roved across Mars between 2004 & 2018 either…) Secondly - I don’t wish to be unduly negative about this latest work, given the foregoing, but I may offer a word or two of criticism!
A central plank of my electronic music upbringing and one of the first who inspired me with his use of synths on albums like Albedo 0.39, Hymnn, Heaven & Hell, soundtrack to Blade Runner, and his collaborations with Jon Anderson.Īnd to be honest, this isn’t going to be a review of the music as such, but more a train of thoughts it set off, that I thought I’d capture for the fun of it.įirst off - let me say that if I’m still able to compose, complete and release music at the age of 78, nothing else would really matter! It’s clear Vangelis has lived a life of music and he embodies innate creativity and a certain genius, which us mere mortals can only marvel at. I don’t often write reviews of commercial music here, preferring to discuss synths and related matters - but feel I have to make an exception for Vangelis.