Customer Reviews

Spiral

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My credentials: Countless hours of listening to electronic music since I was a child.

My favourites: Klaus Schulze (the 70's analog albums), Tangerine Dream (the 70's analog albums), Jarre (the first 3 albums), Vangelis (the 70's analog albums).

The favourite of my favourites(of the lighter tone space music): Albedo 0.39 and Spiral by Vangelis

Because a review is not helpful if you dont know the taste of the reviewer. I think that the above comments will give you a hint.

This album is a recording that belongs to the highest achievements of music as a whole. It is a treasure and I am glad that I was fortunate enough to grow up in an environment that appreciated this kind of music. Vangelis explores the universe with this music and all listeners around the world follow him in a journey through creation, evolution and nucleogenesis. Carl Sagan used this music for his popular TV series "Cosmos", a great influence for my point of view of the world and probably one of the reasons that I became a particle physicist!

As I have written in another review for Tangerine Dream, Vangelis is not only a musician. He is a researcher. His studio is not only a music studio but an experimental lab. It is not far from the accelerators that physicist use to unveil the laws of the universe. They do it with mathematics, Vangelis does it with analog synthesizers. It is the same thing. Another thing that adds up to the brilliance of the album and to the musical genius of Vangelis is that he was among the first to explore this kind of technology. He was at the forefront of this "research". Not only he mastered it well but he became the world leader in space music.

I really dont have words to describe this brilliant, inspiring, captivating music. No one deserves to be called a music lover if he or she has not listened to this album (a rather strong statement but its true).

P.S. This review applies to both Albedo 0.39 and Spiral because these 2 albums comprise a musical entity of Vangelis work.

I must heartily disagree with the below reviewer, who claims that this album does not have a central theme. On the contrary, "Spiral's" theme is the realization of the infinite spiraling of the universe and everything within it. All of the songs reflect this in some very profound fashion. "Spiral" is amongst my favorite Vangelis albums -- it is highly listenable while maintaining an eerie and ominous persona that infiltrates the depths of one's mind. The title track "Spiral" is first on the album, and it is perfectly named. I heard somewhere that the spiraling sound you hear throughout the piece was brand new technology when this was released, and that Vangelis was first to implement it. This track is haunting and powerful, and after its initial introduction it really begins to satisfy. The next track, "Ballad" is extremely eerie and bizarre, and its slow paced progression is incorporated with the moaning/singing of a strange (very strange, yet very cool) voice, that is possibly synthesized, although I'm not positive. "Dervish D" is certainly the most "pop-like" song on the album, and with its high-paced beat and infectious melody, its possibly the most widely appealing song that the master composer has written. "To the Unknown Man", has the below reader has noticed, seems to be a precursor to the main theme of "Chariots of Fire" with its moving chorus and march-like beat. I personally like "Unknown Man" better. "3 + 3" is yet another tune that realizes the spiral theme, and has some incredible sequences and chord progressions. As I complete this album, I am always thoroughly satisfied with it, and feel enriched and intrigued with the splendor of the universe. An incredible album.

'Spiral' is a good album, following similarly in the genre of predecessors 'Albedo 0.39' and 'Heaven and Hell'. There really isn't a central theme behind 'Spiral', which contrasts it with both of those prior albums. Rather, we are given five tracks representing the wide range of creativity from this Greek composer.

There is a fast-paced song in 'Dervish D' - which is dedicated to the 'dervish who recognizes the truth through his whirling', according to the liner notes. 'Ballad' has a vocal accompaniment in the backgroud, in a tongue I couldn't distinguish.

The best track on the album has to be 'To The Unknown Man'. It has the structure which is eerily reminiscent of Vangelis' later hit 'Chariots of the Fire'. 'To The Unknown Man' takes more time to develop thematically, it would certainly have been well suited for use in a climatic scene in the cinema.

I would recommend 'Spiral' for those who are familiar with the genre of Vangelis' work in the nineteen seventies or early eighties. It is hardly a 'pop' album, but will strike a chord with those who enjoy the musical journies composed by the Greek maestro.

This 1977 release is another great Vangelis album and once again demonstrates his skill as a fantastic composer and familiarity with a wide range of instruments (synthesizers, percussion, and drums). The music of Vangelis is varied enough that it could defy description, yet it seems clear that "progressive electronic" aptly describes Spiral. The four tracks on the album range in length from 5'14' to 9'35" and cover a wide range of dynamics and moods. Synth textures/timbres of all description are used on the album ranging from the cheery and upbeat to the spacey and gloomy, making for a very interesting listening experience. Fortunately, the synth textures he uses are very warm and natural sounding and Vangelis is extremely clever with respect to orchestration.

Although a complete list of synthesizers is not provided in the credits, being a bit of a synthesizer nut I did a little bit of digging on the internet and came up with some detailed notes regarding synth use on Spiral. Apparently, 1977 was the year that the Yamaha CS80 came out and Vangelis used it to take the place of the ARP Pro Soloist that he had played on several earlier recordings - in fact, the natural sounding tones of the CS80 are featured on every track. Other pieces of equipment used by Vangelis include the ARP Odyssey; Korg Minipops 120; Roland System 100; and an ARP sequencer (this instrument is used a lot too). For those of you that are curious, the Korg Minipops is a drum computer - my guess is that the drum computer was used on To the Unknown Man although I am not positive. Vangelis also used three effects units to create the odd sounding voice on Ballad including the Roland Space Echo 201; Boss Chorus Ensemble; and the EMS Vocoder 1000.

All in all, this is yet another great album of progressive electronic music from Vangelis and is recommended along with Heaven and Hell (1975); Albedo 0.39 (1976); and Opera Sauvage (1979).

This is the best work by Vangelis by far. OK maybe Blade Running has some better moments.

never listened to any of his music but wow im hooked and looking out for moreeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I won this CD as a Birhday gift. This one is really fantastic, because Vangelis can create an atmosphere with a lot of magic, which gives us an impression of infinite somewhere and unknown (vide "To The Unknown Man"). And, look, this title was released in 1977. Another curiosity was the track "3 + 3", which was used to playing on several channels of television, on radio stations in Brazil.
To sum up, I like this album a lot. "Spiral" has to remastered several times.

This album promises to put you in whatever mood you may.

"Spiral" is a vicious nor'easter the size of The Perfect Storm, "Ballad" is wistful, "Dervish" is frenzied jazz, "Unknown Man" is a prelude to "Chariots of Fire", and "3+3" completes the set.

Companion to Albedo 0.39 for the Vangelis Starter Collection.

It's a pity the album isn't available! It's one of my favourite albums.