Vangelis, ovvero Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, è nato in Grecia, a Volos, il 29 marzo 1943; è un tastierista e compositore di musica elettronica e New Age. Un’Americana a Venezia con la sua vivacità intellettuale si sofferma su alcuni tratti della biografia e della produzione artistica del musicista greco. (RR)
If the gods needed cell phones, I know who would compose their ring tones. He is a prolific greek genius who calls music “the language of the soul” which, if used correctly, can heal and help mankind. On March 29, 1943 in the seaport town of Agria Volos, Evangelos Papathanassiou was born. When he was a small child, the man known today as Vangelis displayed endless absorption in the quality of sounds by deliberately striking and experimenting with various objects. He even altered the family piano. Later, as an adult, he explained, “I function as a channel through which music emerges from the chaos of noise.” Without training, he began playing keyboards at the age of four. At six, he gave a concert of original piano music. Later, he studied painting. Never interested in a traditional career, he didn’t even care to read music! For a while he composed songs and performed in a couple of successful bands. First, The Forminx, “the Greek Beatles.” Then he led another greek group which went to Paris and became the progressive rock band called Aphrodite’s Child, famous in Europe for “Tears & Rain” and “It’s five o’clock.” They made three albums before splitting up. Eager to experiment on his own, Vangelis was soon asked by the British progressive rock band Yes to replace their keyboardist, Rick Wakeman. Briefly, Vangelis worked with Yes in the studio. An enduring friendship with Yes’ original lead singer, Jon Anderson, began. Years later, they made four LP’s together as “Jon & Vangelis.” Meanwhile, Vangelis’ first solo album was well received (Heaven and Hell, 1975). Dozens of albums and countless projects later, Vangelis is still channeling sounds. Aside from composing 1-man soundtracks for documentaries and many films, including “Chariots of Fire” and “Blade Runner,” Vangelis’ electronic sounds have been inspired by his own vast interests: Cosmology and Mother Earth; oceans and underwater worlds; microscopic life; atomic particles and spirals; world cultures, folk music, masks. Dance,
ballet, theatre and art. He has composed themes for international sports events as well as for the late Carl Sagan’s televised series “Cosmos.” Vangelis, who is also an exhibiting painter and sculptor, has received NASA’s Public Service Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the agency’s vision. He says, “I am no more than a radar which receives a message from the spheres.” Also nearing the age of seventy, like Vangelis, Jon Anderson enjoys painting, and meditation, when he isn’t making acoustic music in company with youth orchestras and/or keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Long ago, Jon fell out with Yes members over the increasing length of his songs, “too far out” and not readily marketable. Songs have often taken shape for him in a matter of hours, Jon says, but he was never inclined to drill them out for profit. Then when he fell deathly ill in 2008 and Yes went on tour without him, the break-up was definitive. During the Golden Age of Progressive Rock in the 1970’s, however, I attended my only Yes concert. Jon was performing when a man leapt onto the stage and tried to kill him. The lights in the packed 
arena went on, the police intervened, and the band went backstage. At last, Yes reappeared. When the cheers finally died down, Jon spoke to us in his distinctive high voice and Lancashire accent. He was so big-hearted and forgiving that an awesome feeling of good will swept through the crowd and that concert, which he finished, became one of everybody’s “Yes!” moments in life. But back to Jon & Vangelis. They made sounds together off and on between 1980 and 1994. Their collaboration was appreciated mostly in Europe and Canada. I myself bumped into those four albums on the Web where I’ve also heard Jon say in an interview that he loves Vangelis like a brother, a mentor, and a teacher. Vangelis is an artist capable of painting soundscapes in the vast reaches of imagination, allowing us to space travel without ever leaving our chairs. As Jon wrote in I’ll Find My Way Home, “Somehow I know we’re going somewhere.” Sounds good. See you there! Un’Americana a Venezia
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