Coda.fm

Heaven and Hell

by Vangelis

• Listen to a preview now
• Buy it at Amazon.com

It's easy to forget the sheer freight of Vangelis's 1975 recording, Heaven and Hell. Released five years before his infamous score for the film Chariots of Fire, Heaven and Hell is a symphonic suite for orchestra and chorus; only the orchestra is all Vangelis, playing an array of electronic keyboards and percussion, joined by the English Chamber Choir.

It's a magnificent work, both bombastic and serene, part Carl Orff, part Bach, but rich with that indefinable, spatial moodiness that's trademark Vangelis. The choir calls out to the heavens, synthesizers spin in counterpoint to tuned percussion, and timpani and cymbals crash on the shores of Vangelis's electronic orchestra. The second movement begins in pure abstraction before leaping into a joyous Asian-inspired section of rippling koto and plucked synth timbres and chimes. While the title suite makes up more than 40 minutes, the album's still best known for Vangelis's delicate if overly sentimental duet with Yes singer Jon Anderson on "So Long Ago, So Clear." Twenty years on, Vangelis can still move heaven, hell, earth, and your stereo system. --John Diliberto