Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou – better known to the music world as Vangelis –has died. He was 79. People know Vangelis as a soundtrack composer. And he reached influential heights in that department, but he was a pop star, a prog-rock legend, a shapeshifting jazz-fusion experimenter, synthesiser pioneer and so much more.

I probably first knew Vangelis – like a lot of people (my generation) because of the monumental music that frames the key sequences of Chariots of Fire; I grew up with that score, loved it, loathed it, now love it all over again. That was the early 1980s. The following year, Vangelis created the soundtrack to Blade Runner – as crucial as the film itself. Maybe more so. It is such a legendary and influential piece of work. So, after that, I started listening to his albums and finding him unfairly dismissed as easy listening.

Papathanassíou had played in Greek beat combos and prog bands – most notably, with Demis Roussos, he was part of the collector’s wet-dream, Aphrodite’s Child. Their best and most important record is a holy grail for record-buying anoraks. The music on it is still wonderful.

And across the 1970s Vangelis was restless. Prog, jazz, fusion – his early soundtracks too, short films and nature docos, and pop riffs and licks. To write him off as any one genre, or as distinctly ‘easy’ is to miss the point entirely.

There was also his side-hustle as the duo with Yes lead singer, Jon Anderson. There are people out there that don’t like Yes and don’t care about Vangelis all that much that love the work of these two together, and of course they bought members of their respective audiences together.

Just recently I started going back through all of the work of Vangelis. Including several albums I hadn’t ever heard. It’s just mesmerising, miraculous – barely a dud track, let alone a bad album. And there’s such phenomenal range, and just bursting with ideas.

I sometimes think we – too easily – categorise to suit. But, hey, if he was just Vangelis: Film Score Composer, he still would have given us Blade Runner and Chariots and 1492: Conquest of Paradise – which just might be the finest example I can think of where the music is sublime, the movie is an overcooked turkey and the score is the one redeeming feature.

For 35 years I’ve been a Vangelis fan. For a while there it felt like, to do so, you needed to hide in a musical closet. Watch everyone rush out to proclaim his genius. Well, good. I guess. Those that knew always knew. Those that get to catch up now are in for a treat.

One of the true giants has passed. His music will once again be everywhere. But if you knew where (and how) to listen it already was, of course.

R.I.P. Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou / Vangelis
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