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Vangelis - Opera Sauvage Audio CD

A fair review of the Vangelis "Opera Sauvage" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Vangelis reviews here, or go back to the Vangelis tabs.

Vangelis Band: Vangelis
Title: Opera Sauvage
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Hymne 2: Rêve 3: Enfant 4: Mouettes 5: Chromatique 6: Irlande 7: Flamants Roses

Ok.
Opera Sauvage doesn't touch the quality or talent I was so impressed by in my first two album reviews, but its Ok. after "Bladerunner" and "The City", I've been reviewing more of Vangelis' work.

I've so far come to categorize Vangelis into three catagories: (1)Impressive, Spiritual & Moody (2)slightly boring, dated and unimpressive (3)Horrible . . . as in the 1492 Soundtrack.

A quick "wtf?" to anyone who gave 1492 a good review.

Opera Sauvage falls into the category #2 for me.


A pleasant piece of work
The material is in a New Age musical direction. Comprised of seven tracks, Vangelis' Opera Sauvage was released in 1979. The songwriting, musicianship, and sound quality of the album are pleasing. My favorite compositions are "Reve," "L'enfant," and "Chromatique. " With a length of almost 13 minutes, "Reve" is a well-written piece. At first, I found this composition to be pleasant, but meandering; after repeated listens, it grew on me, though. "Reve" is also relaxing, quiet, serene, beautiful, and captivating. The curious-sounding "Chromatique" displays a nice melody with an interesting, eerie keyboard timbre. The CD insert contains two color photos--one of these is of Vangelis. The disc is just over 43 minutes. Opera Sauvage is an album that I actually rate 3. 5 stars. I recommend it. .


get this for one song
This cd has music that seesaws between pretty and pretty boring. . but then you get to the song "Hymn". It is a drop dead, completely gorgeous and jubilant piece of work. As much as the other songs are unimportant, nothing, boring, stereotypcial, new age, synthesizer, schmaltz, "hymn makes the whole purchase totally worthwhile.

The song is that beautiful!.


Moody music from Vangelis
Although there are moments that sound a bit new age-ish (as on the short opening track and L'enfant) there are disproportionately more pieces on this album that are moody and simply excellent. My first exposure to the music of Greek electronica composer Vangelis was through the science fiction film Bladerunner sometime during the late 1990s and it was not until recently that I snapped this 1979 album up out of a discount bin. In fact, the haunting 12'26 Reve, which is played largely on what sounds like a heavily echoed electric piano stands out as a personal favorite. As to be expected, synthesizers including instruments by Moog, (possibly) Oberheim, and ARP are used prominently on this album, in addition to a host of percussion instruments - the liner notes depict Vangelis playing what appears to be a marimba and is seated in front of a number of gongs. Mouettes is a very short and dreamy piece played entirely on synthesizers, while Chromatique features acoustic/electric guitar, bass guitar, and synths. It is worth noting that Chromatique is a piece that utilizes (you guessed it) a chromatic scale and as such is pretty interesting - I can't say I have heard this before in rock music. Irlande is somewhat gloomy and displays tinges of medieval (English) musical themes while the 11'54" closing piece Flamants Rose is somewhat more varied in terms of timbre and dynamics. In fact Flamants Rose comes quite close to being electronic art music, and alternates deeply reflective moments with flourishes on percussion coupled with blaring, assertive lines played on the synthesizers. As a huge Yes fan I was happy to see that Jon Anderson shows up on this piece (he played harp). All in all, I can highly recommend this album to electronica fans along with Heaven and Hell (1975) (Jon Anderson sings on this album), Albedo 0. 39 (1976), and Spiral (1977) - yes, I am on a quest to collect all of the 1970s work by Vangelis.


Opera Sauvage ~ Vangelis
I love l'efant, irlande and Hymne. Opera Sauvage~ Vangelis is 70's synth music at its best and one does go on a nostalgia trip when one hears the soft and warm sounds of the 70's and I can see in my minds eye Vangelis hard ay work with keyboards of the time like Moog, Oberheim and Rolan to mention a few. The 70's synths have a sound that is so superior to the keyboards of today and they were true master works and have not been duplicated. I love the synth sound in the begining of the track Irlande, the amazing string sounds. This is as about as complete as an album can get and is one of the best modern synth albums that I have ever listened to.


You can see a complete list of all Vangelis discography, or go back to the Vangelis tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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