VANGELIS Vinilo y CD

Review: Vangelis best-of compilations have been a fixture of the popular music landscape since at least the late 80s, owing to the fact that this sagaciously bearded bard fulfils something of the visual archetype of the multi-talented film compositional genius. But you'll likely find that most of them exist on cassette, and'll be languishing sadly in bargain bins, given decades of wear. That all changes with Music On Vinyl's new reissue of the first ever vinyl comp to essentialise Vangelis' skyscraping career, 1993's Best Of: which reaches the highest firmament point of the late composer's repertoire. From compositional climaxes like 'Alpha' and 'To The Unknown Man' to prog-adjacent collabs such as 'Long Ago, So Clear' (featuring Jon Anderson from the band Yes), the album impresses all the best themes and motifs in the annals of latter-20th Century directorial greatness, including Blade Runner, Alexander, Chariots Of Fire, Antarctica, and The Bounty.

Review: By 1996 Greek synth composer extraordinaire Vangelis - real name Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou - had become such an icon of electronic music not one but two retrospective anthologies arrived around the same time. Not bad considering this was only around halfway through his recording career, and in many ways his work was still in an evolutionary process. Gift was one of those compilations, and focuses attention on the first four records made by this Hellenic legend. Starting out with work from 1975's Heaven & Hell, from which an excerpt of the original (rather longwinded) 'Heaven & Hell Part II' has been lifted, we also get 'So Long Ago, So Clear', the artist's first collaboration with Jon Anderson (the musician-singer-songwriter whose name is credited on several other tracks here), and outstanding outings such as 'Pulstar' and 'Alpha'. A joy from start to finish.