This demo, by retrosound, of the Roland VP330 Vocoder Plus, highlights the sound that Vangelis popularized in his soundtrack to Blade Runner and other works.
Richard Clews of SOS said this about the VP330:
If you ignore the hype and look at this instrument dispassionately, you’ll see it for what it really is — a 1970’s string [...]

In this interview, Vangelis talks about his philosophy of creating music, and the importance of immediacy and improvisation in his music. He also talks about his approach to Blade Runner and the new expanded version of the Blade Runner soundtrack.

This 1988 Vangelis CD is a bridge between the symphonic electronica sound that Vangelis made popular in the eighties and his current, more dense orchestral sound. Direct is a mixture of electronica, new age, space music, and folk sounds, mixed together in Vangelis’ unique way.
The CD starts of with “The Motion of Stars”, a symphonic [...]

This album is one of the strangest in Vangelis’ discography. The pieces on this 1980 work are a concept album, like many of his early works, but it’s not immediately clear what the concept is.
The six tracks are songs that seem to about a dystopian future. “I can’t take it any more” basically repeats the [...]

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was misunderstood when it was released, but is now viewed as one of the most influential classics of science fiction.
Electronic music fans know it as one of the greatest combinations of electronic music and visuals in movie history. Vangelis’ exceptional score helped create one of the most vivid pictures of the [...]