Vangelis

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is an electronic musician and composer with a string of successful projects in his career including ground-breaking concept albums and award-winning musical scores.

Vangelis taught himself the keyboards in the early 60s. He started the band Formynx, a five-piece performing covers and originals written by Vangelis. The band split up after releasing nine singles and an EP. After the split, Vangelis spent two years writing and producing for others.

In 1968 Vangelis formed Aphrodite's Child with fellow Greek Demis Roussos. The prog-rock outfit, based in France, found popularity in Europe with their first two albums, End of the World and It's Five O'Clock. However the band split during the recording of their third album 666 (1971), a psychedelic prog-rock album that has been hailed as a classic of the genre.

Vangelis went solo again and had a steady programme of album releases which were a mixture of electronics and ambience. 1979's release Opera Sauvage provided the soundtrack for a natural history documentary and drew Vangelis' work to the attention of other film-makers. He was asked to provide the score for a British film about the 1924 Olympics. The film, Chariots of Fire, was a huge international success, earning the Oscar for Best Film and winning Vangelis an Oscar for Original Music Score, while the single "Titles" went to No.1 on the Billboard charts. This was followed by other distinctive and successful film scores including Bladerunner, The Bounty, and 1492: Conquest of Paradise which was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

Vangelis teamed up with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson for five albums, including Short Stories and The Friends of Mr Cairo which produced the singles "State of Independence" and "I'll Find My Way Home".

In addition to his composition and performance of pop music he has written contemporary classical music, including the opera Elektra and three ballets.

In 1992 he was declared a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.