Vangelis - Opera Sauvage (1990)

Noted film composer Maurice Jarre scored the soundtrack to The Year of Living Dangerously, but the theme everyone remembers from that film is "L'enfant" by Vangelis. That track originally appeared on Opera Sauvage, a Vangelis album that slipped in under the radar just before he scored Chariots of Fire. The simple pentatonic theme of "L'enfant," with the piano chirping out the sparse melody over a two-note synthesizer ostinato, remains powerfully evocative. The cinematic expressiveness of "L'enfant" can be found on most of the music from Opera Sauvage, including the mournful "Hymne," the tremulous "Mouettes" with its quavering thereminlike lead, and the surprising "Chromatique," one of the few times Vangelis uses an acoustic guitar. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Opera Sauvage is that the entire album wasn't co-opted for soundtrack music.
"Hymne", "L'Enfant", "Mouettes" and "Irlande" build on fairly simple themes that are developed instrumentally. "Rêve" is, indeed, as the title suggests, a dreamy calm piece. "Chromatique" has a chromatic instrumental line with chords on an acoustic guitar. "Flamants roses", finally, consists of several parts, from slow to upbeat, and finishing off with a bluesy finale; Jon Anderson features prominently on harp.

Vangelis plays several synthesizers, piano, electric piano (featured extensively on "Rêve"), drums, percussion, xylophone, and acoustic guitar ("Chromatique"). Jon Anderson is credited with playing harp on "Flamants roses".

The music was recorded at Vangelis' Nemo Studios in London, U.K, in 1978 and 1979, with engineering by Keith Spencer-Allen, assisted by Marlis Duncklau and Raphael Preston.

Product Description
Limited edition Japanese reissue of the electronic composer's 1979 album, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve, features seven warm & lyrical tracks derived from his music for a French television series. The opening cut, 'Hymn', has been used for a Gallo Wine commercial. Polydor. 2004. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (born 29 March 1943) is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis (English pronunciation: /væ?'g?l?s/).[2] He is best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Chariots of Fire, and scores for the films Blade Runner, 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Alexander.
Vangelis began his professional musical career working with several popular bands of the 1960s such as The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child, with the latter's album 666 going on to be recognized as a psychedelic "classic". Throughout the 1970s, Vangelis composed music scores for several animal documentaries, including L'Apocalypse Des Animaux, La Fête sauvage and Opéra sauvage; the success of these scores brought him into the film scoring mainstream. In the early 1980s, Vangelis formed a musical partnership with Jon Anderson, the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes, and the duo went on to release several albums together as Jon & Vangelis. In 1981, he composed the score for the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. The soundtrack's single, "Titles", won Vangelis the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and also reached the top of the American Billboard.
In a career spanning 50 years, writing and composing more than 52 albums, Vangelis is regarded by some music critics as one of the greatest composers of electronic music of all time.