Vangelis – Spiral

2 reviews for Vangelis – Spiral

1. 

   Ivar de Vries – 1999-11-22

   This album finds Vangelis for the first time making heavy use of sequencers (on all tracks apart from the strange but enchanting Ballad). He does this quite imaginatively and never loses sight of the fact that hes making music – therefore the sequencers make up just one more dimension supporting the thrust of the musical argument. The title-track continues where Albedo left off and could have appeared on that album. But Ballad is entirely different and features Vangelis himself on distorted nonsense-vocals.

   In Dervish D and the closing 3+3 the sequencers return in devastating form – two great fast tracks. Inbetween stands one of Vangelis best-known pieces, the profound ballad To The Unknown Man. It slowly builds upon the opening conversation between bass-line and main melody, adding harmonies and marching-band percussion along the way before it reaches its climax which is completely different musically but a fitting climax nonetheless, nicely getting Vangelis out of the conundrum of how on earth to end the great first part build-up.

   This and the previous album Albedo 0.39 present Vangelis at his most rational and straight-forward but even here theres plenty of looseness.

   1999. Ivar de Vries

2. 

   Travis Briggs – 2022-11-22

   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