Vangelis’ Unreleased Music For Cosmos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxl1vwsQJq4

Vangelis is an artists that often frustrates his biggest fans  – by leaving so much of his music unreleased.

Here’s an example – a suite of music that Vangelis composed for the special edition of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.

The music of Cosmos was very influential for a lot of synthesists, because the soundtrack featured some of the cream of 70’s synth music.

Do these unreleased Vangelis tracks from the Cosmos soundtrack merit some sort of official release? Give them a listen and let us know what you think!

14 thoughts on “Vangelis’ Unreleased Music For Cosmos

    1. Most of our current emotionless electronic music is that way because playing with real passion and grandeur requires patience & attention to detail that goes against the grain of dancing. Dance gets the most attention because it has a low information content and is easily digested. A complex piece it took 3 months to write requires several listenings to de-code, mentally and emotionally. That 7-to-15-minute piece has a steep uphill climb in an iPod world where people flip between tracks as if they had spastic thumbs. I love most of Vangelis’s work. Its basically classical and rewards your time. I just wish more people would go beyond merely re-re-re-playing the theme to “Blade Runner” and instead, build on it in a distinct and personal manner. No matter how gorgeous & reverbed, a giant detuned sawtooth pad is just the beginning, not the destination.

      1. In fact, most of Vangelis’ music are improvisations, sometimes even without overdubs. Sentiments of composing something for three months are applicable to him a lot less than to dance producers. It would be more in the nature of Tomita. Check out “Vangelis, the Sumptuous Synthesizer Saint” interview from 1982, it’s online.

  1. I’m one of those big fans of the original Cosmos, but I never saw the special edition and never knew that Vangelis did new music for it.

    I love his stuff, but he does have a habit of never releasing lots of great stuff.

  2. I hate to ask this and risk upsetting the people who wanted to hear this, but how is this even “legally” available on YouTube? If Vangelis didn’t release it, he (or “Cosmos”) certainly still owns the copyright. And even if he *did* release it, it’s not really supposed to be shared like this.

    I’m hoping someone could shed some light on this for me. Again, this has nothing to do with Vangelis or his music, so please don’t “slam” me about that. I’m just wondering how we’re all getting to listen to it, unless we’re all supposed to turn a “blind eye” to the legal ramifications. And if that’s the case, what happens when it’s *your* unreleased music a “fan” has decided to share with everyone?

    Just wondering….

    Steve

    1. Maybe you’ve not had a lot of dealings with YouTube, but they go to great lengths to connect copyrighted material with the copyright owner and even try to offer them the chance to monetize the video. Some copyright holders require YouTube to takedown the infringing video, other times, they chose to monetize it, less often, they just leave it alone.

      It’s not hard to understand why YouTube would run their business this way, since the early days of YouTube infringing video of one kind or other has been a mainstay of the channel (bad hairbrush covers of popular songs, clips of popular TV shows, etc). If YouTube had to remove all of that content, there would be far less content on the site. Instead, they chose a proactive approach to seek permission of the copyright holder and allow them the opportunity to monetize the infringing content. It’s more win/win/win for all involved.

      I suspect this is why you are able to watch unreleased material on the channel.

  3. Vangelis is one of the greatest composer of our times. Unique in style, approach, in change. The godfather of the synthesizer and a pioneer of electronic music. I think that after many decades it is safe to say that one cannot compare EDM to what Vangelis does. I myself an old synthesist can tell you I have personally seen the evolution of electronic music first hand and I have learned to listen and like EDM, Trance . There is still good synthesizer music out there among the evolutionary noise. It might have a beat but some of it is quite good and even emotional as in the case of Paul van Dyk. I wouldn’t throw it down or even compare it because it is the newest evolution in a continual progression of sound. To me listening to Vangelis is always a longing to go back to the primal of ourselves, which is perfect, reflective and natural. Electronic music at its purest, in a sense a new type of classical music from the past of our electronic history.

    1. “The Cosmos Is All That Is … or Ever Was … or Ever Will Be …” Thus began the epic and optimistic series by Carl Sagan Cosmos. You can watch the complete series of Carl Sagan Cosmos A Personal Voyage HD (1980,1080p, 5.1, Esp Lat AC3, Eng TrueHD, Multisubs spa, eng, fre, por , ger, ita, jap, chi), as well as the book that complements it (read the chapter before seeing it) and more than 12 hours of unpublished music by Vangelis, Tomita, Jean Michel Jarre, Synergy among others. The links are in the video description. If you like the material I share with you, subscribe to my channel.

    1. “The Cosmos Is All That Is … or Ever Was … or Ever Will Be …” Thus began the epic and optimistic series by Carl Sagan Cosmos. You can watch the complete series of Carl Sagan Cosmos A Personal Voyage HD (1980,1080p, 5.1, Esp Lat AC3, Eng TrueHD, Multisubs spa, eng, fre, por , ger, ita, jap, chi), as well as the book that complements it (read the chapter before seeing it) and more than 12 hours of unpublished music by Vangelis, Tomita, Jean Michel Jarre, Synergy among others. The links are in the video description. If you like the material I share with you, subscribe to my channel.

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