Invisible Connections

Vangelis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 20, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00000E30I
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,478 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Invisible Connections - Vangelis

2. Atom Blaster - Vangelis

3. Thermo Vision - Vangelis

Editorial Reviews

Invisible Connections

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You either get it or you don't., August 2, 2006

By 

James Leatherbarrow (Kent, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Invisible Connections (Audio CD)

I bought this album when it first came out in 1985, unsure as to what to expect. I'd been a Vangelis fan for about a year and knew that his style could be rather eclectic. I'd really grown to love China, Soil Festivities, Albedo 0.39, and Beaubourg, each of which is very different from the others. Nothing quite prepared me for Invisible Connections though.

The Vangelis album it is most similar to is Beaubourg, although it is a much colder, harsher and more sterile sounding work. The warm analogue of Beaubourg has been replaced by colder more digital sounds. If you're looking for Chariots of Fire, then this isn't the CD for you.

Side one I just "got" immediately. It's a single track about 18 minutes long. The opening build up of percussion noises is intriguing, but it's the ending of this track that really affected me. A wailing synth sound cries out gently once. It is answered by a lower voice. The first voice cries out again, but this time no answer. The rest of the track is the first voice crying out for it's companion, but always unanswered. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but the end of side one is so haunting and sad, seemingly representing loss. I was deeply moved by this piece.

Side two comprises two shorter tracks. These I just don't get. I've listened to them several times, but I got none of the emotional connections that I'd found from the title track. I give this CD 4 stars based on the haunting first piece.

It's hard to know whether to recommend this album wholeheartedly. The sadness and emotion I get while listening to track 1 is based on my own interpretation of the meaning of the piece. You may listen to it and think "What was he talking about??" Approach with caution. Maybe you will hate side 1 and love side 2! It's all a question of "getting it".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vangelis in Experimental Mode, January 3, 2010

By 

Mike Borger (Nappanee, Indiana) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Invisible Connections (Audio CD)

"Invisible Connections" (Deutsche Grammophon 1985) is an extremely interesting album. I have been a decades-long Vangelis fan and I am working to gradually study everything he has recorded. My own interest stems from working as a keyboard synthesizer musician on many recording projects. He has been the single most influential synthesizer musician that I have encountered, and I highly respect his musical integrety. I have enjoyed Vangelis as a wonderful musician both from the beauty and power of his music and the technical prowess in electronics that he exhibits through all of his work.

This album is a departure from nearly all his work that I have heard so far. While it has the raw synthesizer sounds so common in his music, this is a bare-bones electronic drift of sound. The direction of the music falls into the circular model of the raga rather than the linear model of Western orchestral music that we have come to expect from Vangelis. The music is very spare and features more silence than sound for much of the album.

The attention here is on raw sound. Vangelis uses ongoing hums and electronic ambience as a pond on which to float his water lillies of music. If you like the work of Tangerine Dream in an abstract moment or perhaps John Cage in a more musical than usual mood, you get the idea.

If you are looking for an album to stretch your ear and musical sensibilities, this is a good one. Do not expect the usual Vangelis trademark sweeping orchestral music. This is more on the experimental side. Many more conventional music critics would call this self-indulgent, but I do not. It is the sound of one of the greatest musicians of our times thinking out loud.

The use of electronic sources and instruments for music has matured through the years to the point we find ourselves experienceing now. Keyboard based synthesizers have become more sophisticated and the least of what you can buy for a very reasonable price now leaves the Cadillac synthesizer of 1978 deep in the smoke and dust of the past. The ready availability of software-based synthesizers that model the great sounds of yesterday with the sophisticated sound processing of today have moved this musical area forward as well.

Listening to "Invisible Connections" is a wonderful experience as it reveals the thinking and doing of Vangelis through the sounds and music one hears. As a synthesizer musician and artist I truly appreciate the work of Vangelis, even one as abstract as this. Listen to this album if you want to learn about synthesizer sound, voicing, and ambience. There also is a great deal of play with sound and silence. This is definitely worth checking out, but it is not for the musically faint of heart.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemplative, subtle, and eerily unsettling., March 13, 2006

By 

Emlyn Addison (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Invisible Connections (Audio CD)

This is a profound foray into the Ambient style, but it requires an OPEN MIND, and time to become accustomed to its slightly Stockhausen-like rhythmic ruminations.

It's truly a masterpiece in its own right--there isn't anything else on the planet quite like it, and it demands a certain aesthetic maturity to fully appreciate.

Lie back and let the thick vibrations saturate your senses.