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Designation: Soundtrack Composer True Designation: Vangelis, aka Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou Incept Date: 29 Mar 1943 Incept Location: Volos, Greece

Vangelis is the creator of the Blade Runner soundtrack. Unquestionably one of the finest soundtracks ever created. During the 1960's, together with Demis Roussos and Lucas Sideras, he formed the successful pop group "Aphrodite's Child", that had a number of hits including "Rain And Tears" and "It's Five O'Clock". Vangelis doubled as composer and keyboard player.

Demis Roussos, who was the group's singer, also performed the strange voice in the BR soundtrack "Tales of the future" featured on the 1994 soundtrack release, and in the Offworld & Gongo bootlegs.

In the early 70's the band broke up, and Vangelis started a solo career, becoming a pioneer in the field of electronic music in the process. His biggest success during the 70's was the groundbreaking album "Heaven & Hell", which would go on to provide the theme and part of the soundtrack of Carl Sagan's popular science TV-series "Cosmos".

Vangelis then composed the soundtrack for Hugh Hudson's 1981 "Chariots of Fire", The movie and the soundtrack worked well together and Vangelis would eventually win an Oscar for "Best Original Score" the following year.

Following his success with "Chariots of Fire", Vangelis was eventually named as the composer for Blade Runner. Unfortunately the BR soundtrack featuring Vangelis did not get released along with the movie in 1982. Instead, an orchestral version of the music was released in which Vangelis took no part. Vangelis' involvement with Scott and BR is still somewhat shrouded in mystery and there have been many speculations as to why the soundtrack was delayed for so long. However as no official explanation exists, the reason remains unknown. The release of the original soundtrack would eventually take place in 1994, having then been delayed for 12 years!

Despite the fact that work on BR may not have been trouble free for Vangelis, he found himself working with Scott once again on the 1992 epic "1492: Conquest Of Paradise". The soundtrack was to become Vangelis' greatest ever commercial success and the opening theme became a big hit in the European charts three years later when German Boxer Henry Maske used it as his theme.

Besides doing scores for films, Vangelis has continued to release albums containing his breathtakingly beautiful music. His latest projects include Mythodea, a composition celebrating NASA's 2001 Odyssey Mars mission and the 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Anthem.

Fans of the Blade Runner music might think Vangelis should have won the Oscar for it! Unfortunately this was one of many Oscars that Blade Runner didn't get. The Oscar for original musical score that year was won by John Williams for "E.T." But let us not forget that Vangelis had just won the Oscar for his "Chariots of Fire" soundtrack when Blade Runner was released.

Profile written by Netrunner and Tyge

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