Heaven and Hell

Vangelis

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 29, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1975
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Windham Hill Records
• ASIN: B000000NN1
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,809 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description
Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing. BMG. 2008. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vangelis's Peak #1, May 13, 2000

By	DAC Crowell (Rankin, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This, "China" and the "Bladerunner" soundtrack are probably the three pinnacles of Vangelis's work. And in the manner of the latter two, "Heaven and Hell" offers up music which shifts through a variety of moods, styles, and evocations, all handled with a stupendous command of both the studio and the music created therein. The album's title really sums things up here; Vangelis takes the listener from both blissful and powerful symphonic visions of heaven, to dark and foreboding views of hell. Even the Jon & Vangelis collaborative track here, "So Far Away, So Clear", really fits well, in my opinion. But where things really shine is in Part II, where Vangelis shows his command of both some very tranquil and achingly beautiful music based around wordless Greek folk vocals, as well as a couple of sections where his music shows that it can stand up against the likes of avant-gardists such as Kryzystof Penderecki and George Crumb, both of whose musics bear a resemblance to parts of this latter half of this album. So, herein you will find much variety. "New Age"? Uh...bits of it. Pigeonholing this in that really cheapens it. It's so much more, and so much more complex.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vangelis at the top of the Cosmos., September 8, 2000

By	Bernardo Vargas (Weimar, Germany) - See all my reviews

In my opinion this one is by far the finest work made by Vangelis, and one of the most outstanding albums in the history of contemporary music. Here Vangelis shows his mastering and genius in the highest possible way, not only in composing but also by playing all the instruments! Besides, he produced and arranged the album. I came into it around 1985 when a good friend told me that it included the theme music used in the appreciated TV series COSMOS, and since then it has remained as one of my favorites.

The first piece is smashing; it features some of the strongest chords I've ever heard. The combination of synthesizer, choir, and frenetic percussion produces a quite captivating atmosphere. The second one is a more choral piece, which seems to evoke some unknown grandiosity. Then it comes the third piece. Oh boy. I'm afraid I don't have enough words to describe the emotion it produces on me. This is the theme used in COSMOS, and I really thank Carl Sagan, wherever he is now, for having chosen it. This is the most perfect and moving vision of heaven I can remember; it presents an incredibly majestic conception of the universe, and inspires me (I hope everyone) the highest spiritual values. It really makes me cry.

The next piece is a fruit of the long-lasting cooperation between Vangelis and Jon Anderson of Yes. Jon's angelical voice is the most adequate to guide you thru this voyage to heaven. The second part of the album consists of one single and long piece where Vangelis leaves no doubts of his skills as a man-orchestra. The wonderful choir is present throughout the piece and somewhere in between there is a splendid female solo.

Vangelis' music is nowadays commonly calssified as "new age". I absolutely disagree because new age was not yet invented when most of Vangelis' productions appeared, and above all, his vision is totally different from today's new agers. If it would need classification, I'd rather take it as progressive rock or progressive jazz, but never as new age.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A journey thru the human soul, January 23, 2000

By	Nicole Longdo (Lansing, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

I first was exposed to Vangelis at the age of 4, when the series, Cosmos, first aired. I remember being entranced by not only the show, but the story told thru the music, Later, at the age of 7, my father gave me the tape to listen to, for I could not sleep... I found myself drawn into a fantastic journey of sound and song, from the madness of Hell to the heights of Heavan. In my mind, as I closed my eyes, I was thrown into images and stories beyond my comprehension at the time. Now, I am much older, but I still shiver with the power and the pain of this music everytime I hear it. I still get goosebumps when I listen to So Clear. I encourage you to buy this CD, to feel the pleasure and the pain and the subtelties of not only great music, but also the nuances of the human spirit