This is Paul Shillito’s Tomita-style version of Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring Introduction.

Shillito calls this his classitonic style – influenced by the electronic interpretations of classical music done by Isao Tomita and Wendy Carlos in the late 60’s and 70’s.

He plans a complete version of The Rite Of Spring.

Soft synths used on this included the Arturia Minimoog V2, Arturia Moog Modular, Arturia Jupiter 8V, Arturia Yamaha CS80V and soundtoys effects.

via paulshillitomusic:

Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring – Introduction.

Done in my Classitronic style, Classitronic is what I call electronic classical music with my style being heavily influenced by Isao Tomita.

This is the first part of the classic Stravinsky ballet The Rite of Spring which caused a near riot when it was premiered in Paris on May 29th 1913.

The rest of this work is to follow, so watch this space

The guru of symphonic electronica, Vangelis, demonstrates his approach to virtual orchestration in this video, Vangelis and the Journey to Ithaca.

If anyone has more information on this video, leave a comment!

Debussy – Danse in an Isao Tomita Style

via paulshillitomusic:

Electronically created version of Debussy’s Dance or Danse as it is also known as, in a Isao Tomita style.

Another one of the pieces I created about 10 years ago, the video is a bit more abstract, again playing around with After Effects CS3, no meaning to the video just something show.

Synths used making this include Roland JV1080, Korg Prophecy, Waldorf wave, Yamaha AN1x , Waldorf Pulse and sequenced on Cubase.

Let me know what you think of this switched-on piece. Do you think it captures Tomita’s style?

Here’s a treat for fans of Sean Connery and Vangelis:

C.P.Cavafy’s poem Ithaca, recited by Sir Sean Connery, with music composed by Vangelis.

Scenes taken from Ron Fricke’s film ‘Baraka’.

ITHACA [1910, 1911]
As you set out for Ithaca
hope that your journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare sensasion
touches your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope that your journey is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and learn again from those who know.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so that you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would have not set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

via babylonianman

You can preview them below:

Official Wim Bio

Ketil Lien, aka Wim, was born in the Viking City of Trondheim, Norway in 1972. He started listening to the electronic music of Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream in the 80’s and they quickly became his biggest early influences. He also has a great liking for Kitaro, Vangelis and Mike Oldfield and the warmth and depth of their music is clearly evident in Wim’s emotive style.Wim focused his efforts in the 1990’s on compositional skills, learning to compose in the manner required to create his own unique style of structured melodic instrumental music with warmth and emotion. The advent of virtual synths and more powerful computers in the new millennium meant he was at last able to create the musical visions he wanted.

Wim looks upon his music as paintings where the instruments are substitutes for the colour palette. He says; “I treat each song as a different landscape of sound and try to paint an expressive, emotional soundscape using warm, enveloping sounds that capture the listeners imagination.

mik300z has posted a sort of cheesetacular YouTube video, his version of Rodrigo’s guitar concerto, played Vangelis style! The video is pure synth porn.

Here’s a live video of him doing one of his originals, Far Away Cafe:

Here’s what he has to say about the track:

I’m using the Korg X5’s choir , Microkorg some sweeping and beeping using its arpeggiator at the slowest speed. The Ensoniq Esq1 is making that lovely old piano sound, synthesized as it is, it has a lovely warm tone. ESQ is also making the “Vangelis” type leads . The Junos are doing the rest.

The stunning music of Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Vangelis) for Blade Runner.

This video is for the well-known Love Theme.

via Ingersh

Neodrone is Magnus Tak, the composer/producer; Johanna E Martell, vocalist; and Brent Swarthout, lyricist. The three make music with a neoclassical symphonic electronica feel. Martell is classically trained and brings an operatic style to her vocals; Tak seems to be as comfortable exploring the Vangelis-style world of orchestral electronica as he is making techno grooves; even Swarthout’s lyrics have a classical quality about them.

Opera and electronica have a long history, ranging from the music of Philip Glass to Operatica to Malcolm McLaren’s take on Madam Butterfly to Eric Serra’s score for The Fifth Element. When done well, the mix can work stunningly, but locking an opera singer to a rigid beat can also deprive a vocalist of one of opera’s most important expressive elements – a fluid, rubato approach to rhythm.

Fortunately, Neodrone largely avoids the potential pitfalls of the combination and creates some attractive, expressive music on Extended Horizon. At its best, the electronic orchestrations and classical vocals play off each other perfectly, creating a blend that seems to extend the worlds of electronica and classical music both.

The music on the CD is a mix of classical pieces arranged for synth orchestra and orginals. The CD gets off to a mixed start. Solar Storm features some lovely arranging, but strays a bit too far into lite new age territory.

Neodrone seems to hit its stride, though, with Aurora Borealis. The track features an attractive neo-classical melody, gorgeous symphonic electronica arrangement, and ethereal wordless vocals. It also doesn’t shy away from mixing more traditional-sounding imitative synthesis with some more bizarre electronica sounds, which gives the track an expanded orchestral feel.

The highlight of the CD is Lascia Ch’io Pianga, a classical aria by G.F. Händel. Tak’s arrangement is fairly traditional, but he doesn’t shy away from introducing some unexpected elements. Tak also makes great use of dynamics, dropping from full synth orchestration to simple accompaniment in a beat. Martell seems most comfortable with the more classical pieces, and this arrangement very effectively showcases her vocal performance.

Another highlight is I’ll Find You, a fairly straight-ahead trance track that sounds huge because of Tak’s combination of symphonic electronic orchestration with trance beats. Enjoy The Ride is a solid minimal techno/trance track, and Vengence Aria answers the question of what Mozart might have done if he’d had a TB303.

Overall, Extended Horizon is an interesting mix of electronica and classical vocals. Martell’s vocals throughout are throughout and the arrangements are often gorgeous.

You can preview the music at the Neodrone site.

Tracklist

• Solar Storm
• Chasing Shadows
• Extended Horizon
• Aurora Borealis
• Lascia Ch´io Pianga
• Used To Be
• I´ll Find You
• Vengeance Aria
• Enjoy The Ride
• What They Want

Vangelis – Mythodea – for the NASA Mission Mars Odyssey 2001

via kataigida21:

Music for the Nasa mission 2001 Mars Odyssey.

Concert conceived and designed by Vangelis at the Temple of Zeus in Athens Hellas ( Greece)

The Chariots Of Fire theme performed by Vangelis as an encore of the Mythodea Concert at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens on June 28, 2001.

The soundtrack of “Chariots of Fire” won the Oscar for Best Original Music Score back in 1981. It spent 5 months in the US Billboard and it was the biggest-selling single of the year in Japan. It was also used by the BBC as the opening theme for the coverage of the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games.

Mythodea: Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey is a choral symphony composed by Vangelis. It was made the official theme music of the 2001 NASA mission to Mars, involving an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the planet.

Music Composed, Arranged and Produced by Vangelis.

Electronic Keyboards by Vangelis.

The London Metropolitan Orchestra

Blake Neely, Conductor.

via babylonianman

Bogaert’s music is in the symphonic electronica tradition of synth artists like Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Deep Forest. Bogaert uses primarily synth sounds, augmented with samples and some traditional instrumentation, and layers them to give his music symphonic variety and scope. In particular, his use of CS-80 style sounds and timpani build on Vangelis’ idea of a synth orchestral palette.

Bogaert’s music also draws upon world influences. Bogaert uses the sound of instruments from around the world, world-music samples and even does a version of Rorogwela, a traditional folk melody of the Solomon Islands that was made popular by Deep Forest as Sweet Lullaby.

Highlights of One Out of Five include Human, a grooving synth-jam reminiscent of Vangelis’ Soil Festivities; Deserts, a melodic track that starts with a simple string melody and builds to a climax that combines world vocal snippets and bagpipe-like synthwork; Home by the Sea, a new age piece that starts with the sound of a penny-whistle over surf and then takes a tour of world instruments and sounds; and Geographic, a piece that starts with hymn-like grandeur and then moves to a driving world-music second section;

One Out of Five showcases Bogaert’s flair for tasteful arrangement of folk-like melodies and also his ear for synth orchestration. Though the CD clocks in at over an hour, it manages to be full of variety and will probably inspire many listeners to want to dig into his back catalog.

In addition to the music, it’s worth noting that Bogaert provides an elegant package for the CD, with an 8-page booklet full of beautiful images.

As far as I could tell, the CD doesn’t include any unreleased tracks, so Bogaert fans will have to wait for his next release to get a fix of new music. We’ll be looking forward to it.

Frank Van Bogaert’s CD, One Out of Five, is an excellent introduction to his music, and Bogaert has chosen his tracks and sequenced them to make a satisfying stand-alone CD, too.

Tracks:

• Human
• Closer
• Deserts
• Rorogwela
• Home By The Sea
• Ballet
• Falling Leaves
• Violet
• Docking
• Geographic
• Blue
• Atmospheric Conditions
• A State Of Mind
• Earth

Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells 2003

Despite feeling that it was musically his best work, Mike had long been unhappy with the quality of the 1973 recording of Tubuar Bells. The recording had been done in a rush, with most of Part One being recorded in a week’s trial period which Mike had been allowed in The Manor studio by Virgin boss Richard Branson. Part Two was recorded under even more difficult conditions, with Mike being able to use the studio only in periods when no other artists wanted it, meaning that he often could only work for very short periods, or late at night. Despite the fact that the album went on to become a huge selling, classic recording, Mike later complained that the whole thing sounded out of tune, with there having not even been time to tune the guitars, and that he felt the performances were rushed and out of time. The desire to perfect Tubular Bells may be partly what drove Mike to create Tubular Bells II (1992) and III (1998), but he wasn’t able to re-record the original Tubular Bells due to a clause in his contract with Virgin which prevented him from re-recording the album for 25 years after the release of the original album. Come the 30th anniversary in 2003, with the contract recently expired, Mike felt that the time was right to revisit the work and finally do what he wanted with it.

The album was initially recorded into Logic Audio Platinum (v5.3.0) running on a Dual 1GHz Powermac G4 (mirrored drive door model with 1.25 GB RAM, running OS 9 – Mike says 9.4, which doesn’t exist; the latest is 9.2.2), with Digidesign Pro Tools (v5.3.1) being used for various pieces of editing, and to provide the half-speed recording capability needed to create the double speed guitars which were very much a feature of the original Tubular Bells. Material was then transferred to a Fairlight Merlin hard disk recorder, from which tracks were mixed down, via Mike’s Neve Capricorn digital mixing desk.

re on Tubular Bells 2 and 3, the real bells return for Tubular Bells 2003. Used here is the same set (which Mike describes as being like a ‘toy’ set of bells) which Mike sampled for Tubular Bells 2.

via Tubular.net

This is the music video for Vangelis’ classic Chariots of Fire – back when it was cool to smoke through your video!

The music, though, was a welcome surprise. Van and Borner is a duo of electronic musicians out of Poland. The band, made up of Barbara Zielinska Van & Sabina Borner, plays progressive electronic music. Van and Borner play the synthesizers, and they are joined on this CD by Darek Budkiewicz on bass guitar, Marek Gorlitz on guitar and Jola Literska, vocals.

They draw on many influences, including Polish music, jazz, rock, new age and Berlin School synth music. The combination of synths and rock instrumentation lets them create a massive, orchestrated sound, while still retaining the liveliness and immediacy of group playing.

For old-school synth fans, the music features plenty of interesting sequenced synths and effects. Gorlitz’s guitar work is tasteful and ranges from subtle ambiences to distorted leads. The bass work is a pleasant alternative to sequenced synth bass, giving the music more of a live feel, while the vocals help bring out the lovely melodies.

The melodies are the highlight of the music. While sections of the CD explore subtle ambiences, other sections are rousing, with memorable melodies. Some listeners may be reminded of the progressive rock music of artists like Mike Oldfield, Andreas Vollenwieder, or early Steve Tibbets.

The musicians are based in Poland, and the release appears to have limited western distribution. It is available via Eurock and Syngate.

While the release has limited distribution, it is definitely worth looking for!

Tracks:

• Shadow Dancing
• Walking In Clouds
• Golden Spirits
• Masai Boy
• Evening On The Island
• Miracles
• Mystic
• Lullaby For Goodnight
• Walking In Clouds (radio version)

Code Indigo’s music draws upon a wide set of styles, including new age, orchestral electronica, jazz, chill-out, and world music. The tracks on TimeCode blend these styles seamlessly into a continuous musical work.

On this release, Code Indigo is made up of Robert Fox and David Wright on keyboards, Louise Eggerton – vocals, Andy Lobban – guitar, and David Massey – programming and production.

Four members have composition credits. They must have been very much in sync, because the tracks are endlessly melodic, and sound like the work of a group, not a like bunch of tracks by different people. While Fox, Massey and Wright’s keyboard work and programming provide the overall sound of the album, the importance of Eggerton’s vocals and Lobban’s guitar work can’t be overestimated. Eggerton’s wordless vocals soar above the tracks, giving them a sense of immediacy and humanity. Lobban’s guitar work is understated and tasteful. In places, Lobban solos over orchestral electronica backgrounds, creating an effect that is reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. In other places, he contributes distorted but subtle guitar chords on top of the synths, adding an extra dimension to the sound.

The tracks on TimeCode are loosely themed around ideas of time and space.

The CD starts off very slowly, with the track Existence. The track uses drones, synth strings and wordless vocals to build from nothing to a massive sound. This establishes the mood of the album and leads seamlessly into Zero Hour, one of the highlights of the CD. Zero Hour is a lengthy track that combines the contributions of the various band members very effectively. Massey sets up a chilled groove, while Fox and Wright create a lush backdrop for Eggerton’s vocals and Lobban’s guitar solos. The band members vary the arrangement throughout, sometimes building to a very orchestral effect, and at other times dropping down to almost nothing. Towards the end, the track gives Lobban some space for an extended solo. His guitar work shines here, melodic and a little bluesy, but not showy.

TimeCode is another extended track that shows off the group’s sound. The band brings a rich sense of history of electronic and new age music to this track. The arrangement seems to draw on influences from the 70’s synth music of Jean Michel Jarre all the way to current tracks by groups like Afro Celt Sound System.

The next track, Stasis, is a lovely interlude that focuses on Eggerton’s vocalizing. 24am is the jazziest track on the CD. It features a piano melody that builds as it goes up and down the scale, and a lovely chordal chorus. Synth harmonica adds to the effect. While the track has a jazzier feel, nobody breaks out into bebop solos; instead the track focuses on tasteful, mellow keyboard work.

Eden to Chaos is another long groove. It maintains the chilled-out mood of the previous track, but adds a strong undercurrent of tension. The gives Lobban plenty of room to cut loose. He again delivers the goods, with some barely-contained soloing. This track should appeal to fans of the early space-rock of Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream.

The next two tracks, Foundation and Galileo, are shorter pieces that showcase the group’s arranging. Galileo is one of the most orchestral-sounding tracks on the album. It combines a horn-like lead melody with lush synth string backing for a lovely combination.

Call of the Earth moves the CD into more of a world-groove territory, and has the most mainstream new age sound of the tracks on the CD. Massey’s drum programming features more of a ethnic feel than on other tracks, which adds some interest. While the track again highlights Code Indigo’s tight group sound, the track lacks the tension and hints of darkness that give other tracks more of an edge.

Code Indigo wraps up the album with an extended track, Endgames, that has a blissed-out feel. This track has beautiful synth and guitar work, but is let down somewhat by the vocals. Here Eggerton switches from wordless vocalizing to sing “la-la-la-la”, along with occasional words, such as the CD title or the band name.

Overall, though, the CD is a very strong release. The CD packaging has a 8-page insert that features layered images relating to space and time that is a nice complement to the music. Throughout the CD, the production is excellent. With TimeCode, Code Indigo delivers a solid collection of instrumental music that should appeal to fans of new age, space music and anyone that appreciates a laid-back groove.

Eno was born Brian Peter George St. Baptiste de la Salle Eno in England. As a child, he was fascinated with recordings of American pop, because he felt that they seemed mysterious and without a context. He studied art in Ipswich and Winchester, where he learned about avant garde composers such as Cornelius Cardew and, especially, John Cage. Eno participated in performances of avant garde works, and became interested in systems of generating music and art. In 1968, he self-published a book titled Music for Non-Musicians, exploring a theme that has carried through his career.

After he graduated, he joined Roxy Music, as a technician. He contributed signifantly to their early sound, but his flamboyant image (he cross-dressed) and theorizing put him at odds with leader Bryan Ferry.

This was the beginning of Eno’s explosion of creative work in the seventies. In 1973, he collaborated with Robert Fripp on the album No Pussyfooting. The album features Eno’s tape-loop treatment of Fripp’s guitar improvisations. The result holds up very well as a precusor to the ambient music that followed. He also released a string of LP’s that showcased his quirky approach to pop music, including Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World, and Before and After Science. These albums are exciting and frustrating, innovative and strange, and have been tremendously influential.

His interest in more mellow sounds continued, with more albums with Robert Fripp, and his Discreet Music, which some consider the first ambient music. His ideas about this type of music came together with Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

He founded Obscure Records, and released several albums by experimental musicians. Eno also began handling production for many significant pop musicians. He worked with David Bowie on some of his best albums, Low, Heroes, and Lodger. At the end of the seventies, and in the early eighties, Eno continued to produce, working with Ultravox, Devo, Talking Heads, and U2. His work with David Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was some of the first pop music to explore found samples and the idea of “world” music.

More recently, Eno has worked extensively in the area of video installation, and has applied the same ideas he explores in his ambient music to video. His more more recent ambient music is extremely minimal, which makes it very functional, but maddening to listeners looking for traditional “musical” signposts.

Eric Tamm has written an excellent book on Eno and his work.

Recordings:

• 1973 No Pussyfooting (with Robert Fripp)
• 1974 Here Come The Warm Jets
• 1974 Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
• 1975 Evening Star (with Robert Fripp)
• 1975 Another Green World
• 1975 Discreet Music
• 1977 Cluster & Eno (with Cluster
• 1978 Before and After Science
• 1978 Ambient #1 / Music for Airports
• 1978 Music for Films
• 1978 After the Heat (with Roedelius and Dieter Moebius)
• 1980 Ambient #2 / The Plateaux of Mirror (with Harold Budd)
• 1980 Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (with Jon Hassell)
• 1981 Ambient #3 / Day of Radiance (by Laraaji with Eno producing)
• 1981 My Life In The Bush of Ghosts (with David Byrne)
• 1982 Ambient #4 / On Land
• 1983 Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
• 1984 Begegnungen
• 1984 The Pearl (with Harold Budd)
• 1985 Thursday Afternoon
• 1985 Hybrid (with Daniel Lanois and Michael Brook)
• 1985 Begegnungen II (with Roedelius and Dieter Moebius)
• 1989 Textures
• 1990 The Shutov Assembly
• 1990 Wrong Way Up (with John Cale)
• 1992 Nerve Net
• 1993 Neroli
• 1995 Spinner (with Jah Wobble)
• 1997 The Drop
• 2001 Drawn From Life (with Peter Schwalm)
• 2003 January 07003 | Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now

The best orchestral electronica uses electronics as an important element in a wider palette of instruments, to create new types of orchestration that would be impossible using traditional instruments. It takes the ideas of traditional orchestration and expands them, using the new capabilities that electronic instruments and studio treatments offer.

Some of the composers that work in this style are Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, and Mychael Danna. Vangelis is the most prominent composer using this approach. His soundtracks to Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise are good examples of the style. On both of these soundtracks, Vangelis uses traditional orchestral instruments and voices, but he dramatically expands the orchestral range through the use of synthesizers and electronic processing.

Chariots of Fire captures Vangelis at the peak of his early sound. While no one will have escaped the catchy main theme, there is a lot of other music on Chariots of Fire that is not as well known, but that holds up well after twenty years. The first five tracks introduce the main themes that were used in the film. After the “Titles”, “Five Circles” is a quiet, pensive them. It’s played with a synthesized brass sound that sounds vaguely like a french horn. “Abraham’s Theme” is another reflective song. It’s played with the bell-like tone of Fender Rhodes piano. The main theme is simple and folk-like. Vangelis adds tension by adding a variety of strange synth sounds in the background.

“Eric’s Theme” is classic Vangelis, with a simple melody supported by synth strings, wordless vocals, and orchestral percussion. The music is tastefully arranged, and is one of the best examples of Vangelis creating a large orchestral sound by combining synthesizers with acoustic percussion. “Eric’s Theme” builds to a huge crescendo, and then modulates to another key and builds to another great crescendo. This track captures the full glory of the Olympics.

The next cut is the abstract “100 Metres”. This cut sounds like it could be straight off of Vangelis’ CD Beaubourg. This abstract music captures the tension and focus of the runners as they prepare for, and run their races. This fades into the next track, “Jerusalem”, which is a straightforward take on the traditional tune.

The highlight of the album is the long track “Chariots of Fire”. This music is inspired by the movie, but not taken directly from it. The music is a sort of new-age piano concerto or fantasy. The work is vaguely programmatic, inspired by the events of the movie.

It starts with the sounds of surf, and a synthesized french horn that plays the main title theme. The “Titles” them is then introduced on piano, with synthesized orchestral support. Vangelis treats it very freely and interweaves other themes from the movie. Vangelis captures all of the emotions of the movie, but puts them together into a grand symphonic electronic fantasy.

Chariots of Fire is a landmark of movie music, won the Academy Award for best soundtrack, and holds up well as a great example of symphonic electronic music.

The CD starts of with “The Motion of Stars”, a symphonic electronica cut on which Vangelis plays lush string synths over a constantly shifting sequenced background. It sounds as if Vangelis may be playing over a continous sequence while he changes the sound that is played. The style is similar to his album Masks.

“The Will of the Wind” is more symphonic electronica. The cut features heavy drum machine backing, with an sampled asian flute melody.

Blade Runner fans should love “Metallic Rain”. It begins with a synthesizer solo over a droning string synth background. This section sounds a lot like Bladerunner Blues. The cut picks up after about a minute, and then builds to a rock-like section. The rock section has a blues-like feel also, but adds drums, a guitar-like distorted synth sound, and heavy blues bass. The remainder of “Metallic Rain” contrasts the mellow blues sound with the rock sections.

“Elsewhere” sounds like it could have come from one of his earlier albums. The melody sounds a little like some of the music on Opera Sauvage. The cut starts with a sequenced backing and adds a lilting melody over the top. It’s a pleasant enough cut until the drum machine cuts in, about three minutes into the song. The drum machine work is unoriginal and detracts from the rest of the song. The song returns to its original texture before a fade-out.

The next cut, “Glorianna (Hymn a la Femme)”, is one of the strongest cuts that Vangelis has recorded. On this track, Vangelis uses synthesizers and orchestral percussion to support two wordless vocalists singing in an operatic style. The result is operatic electronica, very melodic and beautiful. “Glorianna” points to one of the directions that Vangelis followed in the late 90’s, towards more of an operatic orchestral feel.

“Rotation’s Logic” is the sort of throw-away pop-electronica tune that Vangelis can churn out. The melody isn’t original enough to grab you, though, so it sounds like new-age background music.

Vangelis comes through with another classic piece of music with “The Oracle of Apollo”. This cut combines harp or sampled harp with synthesized strings and bass. The melody carries a sense of wonder and mystery, and is beautifully arranged. It also has a real direction and form, contrasting the original melody with a section that adds some tension. “The Oracle”, like “Glorianna”, capture many of the best elements in Vangelis style.

“Message” has a sequenced bass and layers lush strings at the start, accommpanying what sounds like a baby babbling. It quickly builds to his melodic symphonic style, and is similar to some of Vangelis soundtrack work for 1492. It’s melodic, grandiose, and bombastic. Cymbal crashes and wordless vocals “Message” sound impressive, even if the melody isn’t one of Vangelis’ best.

“Ave” is pop-rock and leaves little mark. The last cut, “First Approach” ends the CD on a high note. It’s very quiet and contemplative, and features synthesized cello and flute solos. The backing is built of Vangelis’ unique synth string sound, along with wordless vocals. Both the cello and flute sounds are used to introduce the melody, then the music builds to a crescendo. Finally, both instrument sounds are used to revisit the melody at the same time.

There are two extra cuts on the CD that were not on the original album version of this recording. “Dial Out” isn’t very memorable, but fits on the album. “Intergalactic Radio Station” is annoying, and seems out of place. This cut includes spoken vocals over a progressive rock synthesized backing. The vocals are sound like half of a phone call from a strange future. The result sounds a lot like work Vangelis did 20 years earlier on See You Later, but not as original.

Overall, Direct is a mixed outing for Vangelis. Some listeners will like the variety of orchestral electronica and more pop-rock new age cuts. The lack of focus, though, makes Direct sound a little like a grab-bag or compilation. Direct has some of Vangelis best work on it, especially “Glorianna” and “The Oracle of Apollo”, but seems padded out with weaker tracks.