 Vangelis One of the great things about reviewing albums (to say nothing of the increasingly obsessive reviewing of movies, books, mailboxes, and sugar that have characterized my work of late) is that I end up listening to lots of albums I haven't heard in a long time, but which I love. I was surprised that I actually still had Antarctica, supposing it gone in one of my many CD collection purges which have rid the lot of almost everything I owned prior to like 1993. Like Kitaro's Silver Cloud and a couple Tangerine Dream albums (Underwater Sunlight I think was one of them), this soundtrack by Vangelis was one of my favorite new age albums in the mid-80s, back when new age was somewhat undefined in the public mind. Nowadays it's come to define recordings that have a specific design to mellow people out, help them meditate, and/or provide "pretty, soothing music" for them while they do yoga or fight cancer, but in the 80's it was a new concept that was supposed to present cutting edge electronic music that was spacey and cool. The yuppies ruined it, like cocaine and everything else from the 80s. I swear, I can't have a bag of cocaine anymore without someone calling me a damn yuppie. This album consists of music from the film "Antarctica," which I haven't seen but which must be pretty gol-dang beautiful if the music is any indication. Vangelis sticks to his usual palette of synth coloring, with lots of swooshy synth lines, bell-like tones, tons of reverb, and a little bit of a beat behind some of it that gives the music the trademark Vangelis sound (i.e. "Chariots of Fire"). The main theme is great, very similar to "Earth Born" by Kitaro and Pachelbel's Canon – simplicity in action, highly memorable, characterized by a koto-like synth sound playing the melody. The theme repeats throughout the album and in my opinion is a bit of a classic. Several of the tracks are basically explorations of the theme, with lots of beautiful, spacious, reverby synths all over the place. It's a really relaxing album, although it gets a bit dark in a few places (as most instrumental soundtracks do), but the tension is relieved quickly by more astral-sounding music and sleepy sound beds. The gorgeousness of the record is not without a cheese factor, I suppose, but really, if it's good and you like it, then it's good and you like it, eh? Like sweet cocaine and sweet pain. New age, even Vangelis, can be a pretty cool thing. Now, don't write me off; I still love Ozzy and bossa nova (wait, did I just lose or gain credibility? Maybe a draw?), but new age has its place. Don't worry, I won't recommend any Andreas Vollenweider or David Arkenstone, I'm not that much of a pervert. But I am glad I rescued this one from my "hidden box" of CDs that have been hovering in limbo – mainly CD's I've intended to get rid of, or wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to over the years. It's really a shame that new age has become so hyper-marketed and niche-driven, the end result being that albums like this one end up out of print – albums I consider "real" new age. More and more I'm seeing late 70s-early 80s new age music as about as appealingly on-the-fringe as the porn from that era. If only the two could be fused!
Review by Lila Baines |