Chariots Of Fire composer valued independence over record sales

ATHENS • Blade Runner and Chariots Of Fire composer Vangelis (right), the Oscar-winning electronic music pioneer whose distinctive musical style defined a generation of film soundtracks, has died aged 79.

According to Greek media outlets, he died of Covid-19 in France where he lived part-time. He also lived in London and Athens.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the great Greek Vangelis Papathanassiou passed away late on the night of Tuesday, May 17," his lawyer told ANA news agency.

Vangelis' Chariots Of Fire theme in 1982 won him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, beating composer John Williams' music for the first Indiana Jones film.

It reached the top of the United States billboard chart and was an enduring hit in Britain, where it was used during the London 2012 Olympics medal presentation ceremonies.

The reclusive, mostly self-taught keyboard wizard was a lifelong experimenter, switching from psychedelic rock and synth to ethnic music and jazz.

In a career spanning more than five decades, he drew on space exploration, wildlife, futuristic architecture, the New Testament and the 1968 French student riots for inspiration.

His work on more than a dozen soundtracks included the films Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest Of Paradise (1992), director Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992) and the Oliver Stone epic Alexander (2004). He also wrote music for theatre and ballet, as well as the anthem of the 2002 Fifa World Cup.

Born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou in the central Greek coastal town of Agria, near Volos, Vangelis was a child prodigy who performed his first piano concert at the age of six, despite never having taken formal lessons.

"I've never studied music," he told Greek magazine Periodiko in 1988, in which he also bemoaned growing "exploitation" by studios and the media. "At one time, there was a craziness... now it's a job."

"You might sell a million records while feeling like a failure. Or you might not sell anything feeling very happy," he said.

Relocating to London in 1974, he created Nemo Studios, the "sound laboratory" that produced most of his solo albums for over a decade.

But he valued his independence over record sales. "Success is sweet and treacherous," the lion-maned composer told the Observer newspaper in 2012. "Instead of being able to move forward freely and do what you really wish, you find yourself stuck and obliged to repeat yourself."

Vangelis, who had a minor planet named after him in 1995, had a fascination with space. "Each planet sings," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2019.

In 1980, he contributed music to astronomer Carl Sagan's award-winning science documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

He wrote music for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) 2001 Mars Odyssey and 2011 Juno Jupiter missions, and a Grammy-nominated album inspired by the Rosetta space probe mission in 2016.

In 2018, he composed a piece for the funeral of British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking that included the late professor's words, and was broadcast into space by the European Space Agency.

He was showered with honours, receiving the Max Steiner film music award, France's Legion d'Honneur, Nasa's Public Service Medal and Greece's top honour, the Order of the Phoenix.

In later years, he moved between homes in Paris, London and Athens, carefully guarding his privacy. "I don't give interviews because I have to try to say things that I don't need to say," he told the LA Times in 2019. "The only thing I need to do is just to make music."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE