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Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary [3 CD]

Vangelis - Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary [3 CD] Audio CD

A fair review of the Vangelis "Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary [3 CD]" 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.

Band: Vangelis
Title: Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary [3 CD]
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-12-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Main Titles 2: Blush Response 3: Wait For Me 4: Rachel's Song 5: Love Theme 6: One More Kiss, Dear 7: Blade Runner Blues 8: Memories Of Green 9: Tales Of The Future 10: Damask Rose 11: Blade Runner (End Titles) 12: Tears In Rain 13: Longing 14: Unveiled Twinkling Space 15: Dr. Tyrell's Owl 16: At Mr. Chew's 17: Leo's Room 18: ONE ALONE (Bonus Track) 19: Deckard And Roy's Duel 20: Dr. Tyrell's Death 21: DESOLATION PATH (Bonus Track) 22: Empty Streets 23: Mechanical Dolls 24: Fading Away 25: Launch Approval - Scott Bolton, Bryce Bolton 26: Up And Running - Sir Ridley Scott 27: Mail From India - C. Lambrakis 28: BR Downtown - Oliver Stone, Akiko Ebi, Cherry Vanilla 29: Dimitri's Bar - Akiko Ebi, Oliver Stone, Dimitris Tsakas 30: Sweet Solitude - Dimitris Tsakas 31: No Expectation Boulevard - Rutger Hauer, Wes Studi, Bhaskar Balakrishnan 32: Vadavarot - Irina Valentinova, Florencia Suayan Tacod 33: Perfume Exotico - Edward James Olmos 34: Spotkanie Z Matka - Roman Polanski 35: Piano In An Empty Room 36: Keep Asking - Bryce Bolton

A decent compliment to the bootlegged versions.
The rest is re-composition, re-orchestration and disc 3 is all new material from Vangelis. As the other reviewers comment, this only adds a little bit of actual new music from the film previously unreleased.

For blade runner fans, it's still worth having, the material on disc 2 is crisp and of a higher quality than the bootlegs. You can also finally hear a version of "fading away" that does not include Rutger Hauer's magnificent speech.

For Vangelis fans, it's worth having as the first new release in a long time from a composer who more or less appears to be retired at this point. (He is 66 as of this writing and has not released an album or score in 8 years. )

The last few tracks on CD 3 are very good, Spotkanie Z Matka, Piano in an Empty Room and Keep Asking. I am not fond of the remixes-to-a-beat of some of the other songs, but some Vangelis fans might find them to their liking.

Overall it's a good buy but nothing incredible. In the sound track world, a lot of wrongs have been righted, but this looks like one that will never completely be righted by one set of CDs. In the context of all the other blade runner material out there, it rounds off and finishes the collection, though not how many of us would like it to have been. Owing to the ages of the film itself and the people involved, this will probably be the last item we will see related to the film, along with the excellent "Final Cut" version of the film.

.

Revisiting Perfection
After all, I've worn laser grooves into my copy of the Vangelis CD for the 1982 version; and while iTunes reports its my number 2 album overall, I DIDN'T like the Director's cut (Ridley's Scott's last version) of the film (I much preferred the original Harrison Ford's narration overdubs, akin to Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon). I wasn't paying much attention it seems, when the 25th anniversary edition of Blade Runner came out, so I wasn't that interested. Still, a director is allowed to rethink his life's work, so why not my own preconceptions (at least with the music).

So i gave it a try.

WOW.

Disc 1 was NOT the same as the 1982 release; it added 4 more cuts, some overdubbing from the film dialogues, and the tracks that were the same as the 1982 version appeared to be from different recording sessions (different tempos, different keys, different volumes, and so forth). It played like variations on a theme (like the Brandenburg Concertos); something different, something familiar, nothing boring. Some tracks were retitled as well from the 1982 release.

Volume 2 was MORE. Stuff that was missing from the 82 release (like Dr. Tyrell;s Death, and an extended version of Fading Away.

Volume 3 was WAY out there. Inspired by the premises of the film, it goes places the original wasn't allowed to go to (think My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Eno/Byrne, or something by Jon Hassell). Techno-progressive in some places, and oddly retro in others, it certainly wasn't BORING! Or like the extra bonus music tracks from the Matrix Collector's Edition (adjuncts that didn't make it in due to time constraints, but continuing the music tradition). Perfume Exotico was breathtaking and Launch Approval sounded like the prologue to the film (i could SEE the Replicants boarding the shuttle before hijacking it to Earth, and so, sparking Deker's mission). Piano In An Empty Room feels right at home with Harrison Ford/Sean Young in his apartment.

I highly recommend it (but if you have the original 1982 version, even more so; it expands on that release, gives you more perspective, another alternative take, and maybe, just an inkling into the creative process that must obsess over something we would take as minutae, but which in the end determines to the artist whether something has made the grade). IMHO, it did.

But decide for yourself.

Very Mixed Feelings...Lessons for All Artists
This is very irritating. For Vangelis and/or Amazon to market this as a release of "all" the music from Blade Runner is a fraudulent lie because there are many excellent pieces from the movie that are NOT on this set. For those of you who call us "BR Purists". . . doesn't it bother you that you were lied to so as to dupe you into buying something other than what you thought you were getting? If this had been marketed as "New Music Inspired by Blade Runner" then I would have no complaint (except for those below).

Now having said that there are some nice pieces in this set. But. . . and now for my other complaint. . . the best of them are on disk 3 and they are practically ruined by these stupid and barely intelligible "voices" that are thrown in here and there (e. g. , "Ridley signing off. . . Ridley signing off. . . Ridley signing off. . . "). I hate when artists do this. They seemingly want to "spice up" there work with something unusual so they throw something in that really doesn't belong like nature sounds or spoken words. A good example is the track "Up and Running". It is a really cool piece of music but it is basically ruined by a looped sample from the track "One More Kiss Dear". I mean what in hell was Vangelis thinking? Does he really think we want to hear "One more kiss dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . dear. . . This brings up another point. Artists of the world. . . are you listening. . . repetition almost always sucks! It gets very irritating very quickly and especially when it involves human voices. Don't ruin your otherwise good material with it.

It's more than you could ever want....
It's still available for purchase, but its an oddity at best. For years, Blade Runner fans had to endure the New American Orchestra soundtrack, which was simply inferior to the sensual, atmospheric music found on the soundtrack. Although, sometimes, I pop in the player just for old times sake.
Then, in 1994, the new CD of Vangelis' soundtrack was announced and I still recall buying it on the first day of release. I loved it, but some die-hard fans felt it was an unexpected slight. I adored the reworkings and ambient dialouge insertions and listened to it many times over the years.
In later years, Gongo (a fake US based company from 'Romania') took advantage of a public need and released the original soundtrack in its full glory (how they got it is debatable). The disc quality was good, but not mind-blowing. The Gongo edition is essentially the purest edition of the soundtrack that mirrors the Vangelis score found in the motion picture.
The new 3-disc 25th Anniversary disc has now been released. Oddly, disc one is the 1994 release. In the liner notes, Ridley Scott clearly understands that some fans were not that thrilled with the release, but there it is. Why not make disc one a remastered disc of the Gongo edition?
Disc 2 is an incredible collection of unreleased 1982 tracks as well as extended versions of familiar tracks from the film.
Disc 3 is newly created by Vangelis that are inspired by the original score. Again, Vangelis mixes in soundtrack elements along with dialouge readings from everyone to Roman Polanski to Oliver Stone. In short: its awesome!
Buy it, but shop Ebay for that Gongo disc just to be sure you have it all.

bladerunnerfan
Dream like, it evokes the futuristic aspects of the film and is both relaxing and stimulating to the senses. This is the definitive music to accompany one of the best movies ever made. .

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.