Claviaturi: Vangelis

Vangelis fancied himself a synthesizer artiste, an avant-garde pioneer in the medium of the future: electronic music. His best work, like his Academy Award-winning score for Chariots of Fire, did use the medium to create interesting and unique effects that would not have been possible with acoustic instruments. But this 40-minute composition consists primarily of pretentious bilge. The music, which Vangelis credits himself with composing, arranging and interpreting, is divided into two wildly divergent parts. "Parte 1" is an attempt at a synthesized classical composition. It has its moments, particularly at the end when Vangelis adds synthesized choral voices. But on the whole, the piece suffers from the composer's predilection for strange rumbling noises and spacy noodling. The tinny sound of the synthesized strings becomes tedious after awhile, and the piece is only fitfully melodious, diverging from any semblance of tune for extended sections of synthesized noise on several occasions. If "Parte 1" is sometimes lacking in melody, "Parte 2" is almost completely devoid of it. The second part is divided into several clashing sections which seem to have nothing to do with each other, let alone with "Parte 1." It begins with a synthesized approximation of an electric guitar riff before launching into an extended segment of repetitive percussive nonsense. Only the last movement is even remotely listenable.