The world of music mourns the passing of Vangelis

Vangelis Odysseas Papathanassiou, better known to international audiences simply as Vangelis, passed away at the age of 79 on Tuesday night in a hospital in France, where he was recently treated for Covid-19. He was best known for winning the 1981 Academy Award for Best Original Score for the film “Chariots of Fire” and scoring Ridley’s Scott “Blade Runner.” He also wrote music for films including “The Bounty” and “1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alexander” (2004) and the 1980 PBS documentary series “Cosmos,” by Carl Sagan. In the early 1980s he collaborated with Jon Anderson, frontman of the progressive rock band Yes, with the two releasing multiple albums under the name Jon & Vangelis. A composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, and orchestral music, Vangelis was born in 1943 in Agria, a coastal town in Magnesia in central Greece, and raised in Athens. His career began in the 60s as a member of pop groups such as The Forminx and Aphrodite’s Child. In the 1970s, he composed the scores for several animal documentaries, including “L’Apocalypse des Animaux,” “La Fete sauvage” and “Opera sauvage,” which paved the way for his later mainstream success.