Customer Reviews

Mask

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...is in for a wakeup call here. Literally. This work runs the gamut between the crashing, thunderous grandeur of a Tchaikovsky or a Beethoven and the subtle magnetism of what industry pundits pretentiously call "world music". Movement 1 has the scurrying arpeggiation reminsicent of "Blade Runner". Movement 3 has an emphatic alternation of choral chords and tympani thunder ("awww"...CRASH!..."awww"...CRASH!...) in the main body of the passage (knowing Vangelis, the choir and tympani are real). Movement 4 has a vocal solo chant over some melodic percussion that sounds to me like a cross between marimbas and Carribean steel drums (so who says Bartok had a monopoly on folk roots, and who says you can only draw on Old World sources?). This is where Vangelis' strength lies--being able to draw on sounds usually found in various eras of what is now called "techno" and fusing them with Classical influences. And unlike most "synth players", Vangelis uses traditional instruments when they'll either enrich the tonal color or electronics just won't provide the timbres he needs (as far as I know. you still can't do tympani on a sampler). Don't forget what the main instrument was in the main theme to "Chariots Of Fire"--the grand piano. Anybody looking for the soporific sound of New Age (which is valid enough in its own context) will find this one-man Philharmonic either a rude awakening or a breath of fresh air. Consider what you're looking for before you buy. For my own part, his name is enough to make me add it to my Shopping Cart. I can't say that about all that many artists.

This, along with Soil Festivities, is a distinct break from his earlier works. This one opens with a gong, agitated rhythm, punctuated theme followed by a thunderous intense (synthetic?) wordless latin-like syllabalic chorus-like voices on top. I don't see any vocal attributions to a single person let alone a whole collection of voices, so I assume it is some pretty sophisticated synthesizer stuff. Nevertheless, it could be real humans not listed in the credits. In other movements, in addition to the chorus voices, there are lyrical passages in the alto/tenor range with similar wordless syllabalic nature that I also assume are synthesized.

Throughout the movements (6 of them) Vangelis explores themes and motifs ranging through lyrical, light, majestic, dark, brooding, abrupt, agitated and thunderous. The material is interesting, complex and rich. If you're looking for elevator/supermarket/reception/on-hold fluff, then this is not the place to find it.

Its tensions never get strident or dissonant. If you are familiar with orchestral works, then, by comparison, the intensities and tensions don't reach the levels found in Ralph Vaughan Williams' 4th or 6th symphonies, Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique or Gustav Holst's Planets. You won't need therapy and it won't wear you out.

If you listen to all the movements in one sitting, the last movement will give you some well placed light etherial majestic relief and closure to the set of movements.

I listened to this CD along with Soil Festivities while driving a motorhome up Red Mountain Pass in Western Colorado in 1985. On board were my family, mother-in-law and a guest British/Welsh family. The material gave great sonic material to accompany the visual material around us as we drove through some of the steepest and narrowest mountain highways in the US. The passengers found it a riveting experiance visually and aurally and one that they all remember years later.

This is one of my most listened to CDs. If I had to liquidate my CD collection, this one would be one of the last to go.

This album is so strange and can't be classified, really. It's too exotic to be classical music, much more elaborate to be simply stuffed under 'new age', it's a class of its own - haunting vocals, strange sound effects adding to Vangelis' superb use of synthethisers to create an orchestral sound... again, a unique listening experience. Together with 'Soil Festivities' as its purely instrumental counterpart, it's a must-have for every fan of good, multilayered atmospheric music.

Yes this is one of my favorite Vangelis works because it combines the coolness of his futuristic sound (ala Bladerunner) with orchestral choral grandeur. So it is a spaceage opera.

Vangelis did OK with this one. I did like very much the vocals (That is the only instrument outside of synthesizer here). It's not an infinitely playable album, because so much uncomfortable emotion is expressed. However, Movement six, once you get to it, is well worth the wait and very tension releasing. It reminds me of coming home from a long day at work. Another piece of art by Vangelis, though one of his more unusual.

In the wake of the mainstream successes of such albums as Opera Savage, Direct and The City, Vangelis reveals his darker side in an incredibly powerful, almost "violently charged" series of instrumental pieces that will leave the listener literally exhausted at its conclusion. Vangelis unleashes the raw electronic power of his particular genre of music in a way that is, for the most part, unprecedented in his chronology of work. Combining the best (and darkest) aspects of his various soundtracks (Blade Runner and The Bounty came to mind) Mask establishes a convergence of the most energetic and untamed aspects of Vangelis' creative tendencies. One is left with the impression that he was extremely angry when composing this album (with the obvious exception of "Movement 6" - a heavenly, almost angelic tune that left me with profound spiritual visions and sources of inspiration). The implications of this album remained to be interpreted by the individual listener, as is always the case. However, it should be noted that of all his works, this is the one least likely to end up in any wine commercials. Dante had his inferno and Van Gogh had his ear. In "Mask" Vangelis shows us just where he keeps his demons. 5 stars all the way.

I bought this album when I was 15, being a Vangelis fan as a teenager. This is an improvement over his album "Heaven and Hell" (1975), which has, I think, more a mixture of good & bad work on it. I personally think this album is even better than Mythodea. Unfortunately, it seems that Soil Festivities & mask are highly underrated.

Mask (1985) on the other hand, shows Vangelis at his peak. Only Soil Festivities (1984) beats this album. Like SF, Mask is divided up into six movements (the disc for SF says 5 movements - but the original LP I had listed 6, the disc combines 5 & 6 into one final movement - must've been a typo). Like Heaven & Hell and Mythodea, this disc has Vangelis performing with a chorus, singing this sort of Esperanto-syllabic "lyrics." Vangelis supplies his own electronic "orchestra."

Needless to say, Yanni it ain't! Six movements ranging from a terrifying hurricane to simple stately hymns, very "pagan" in nature. The music is very dramatic, and suggestive to me of maybe The Iliad or maybe Sophocles' tragedies.

If you want some great classic Vangelis, pick this one up - it is a real treat!

So here it is 2002 and after almost 20 years this CD still puzzles and amazes me! I have a strong classical and electronic music background and still to this day I would consider this work to stand alone in it's own genera. It is definately inspired by opera and symphonic works but still there is so much musical style here which had never been explored by any artist (including Vangelis) that anyone's first listen would be an experience unlike any they had ever had. The combination of synthesizers and human voice Vangelis creates is a union so smooth and subtle he instantly erases all expected stereotypes of both musical approaches! Truly in my top 3 all-time favorites of ANY musical style.

A very classical, choral work with a strong, almost trance like, electronic pulse. There are a good mix of pieces from the traditional melodic synth string pads we are familiar with to driving rythmic/hypnotic pieces that simply spellbind you! The overall feel is......well.....all I can describe it as, is electronic gothic. It's just so full of atmosphere and dynamics. That Yamaha CS80 synth string sound that Vangelis uses on everything (just about) is there in abundance. This mixed with the choral elements and a fantastic use of gregorian chant, results in one of Vangelis' best albums. I am an avid fan and it took me a little time to get into this album. After a couple of weeks of listening to it ,on and off, I put it on one day and the whole thing just clicked with me. I was entranced!

As near to a style of electronic opera as one can imagine. While the tonality is firmly rooted in western modes, Vangelis manages a level of timbral and textural depth that is striking, furious and beautiful. After his Beaubourg series, this is likely one of his darkest works (though more accessible).

This album might indeed be his analog electronic music swan song, for none of his subsequent works in the years since has employed his trademark analog sound to the same effect; like so many of his contemporaries, he was all too quickly infatuated with the meaningless bric-a-brac and sonic mimicry of the digital sampling age.

For aficionados of the analog electronic sound, I can't recommend this highly enough.