Released in 1995, Vangelis decided to build upon the tremendous success of his previous album, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, and release something thematically similar, yet different enough to stand out. While arguably not along his top five albums, Voices is exactly that. Even more powerful and uplifting than his previous album, yet replacing the South-American motive with a very modern one, this album is a great example of a routine work by a musical genius.

The album offers lots of different tunes and rhythms. Ranging from an eerie slow melody to a full-blown powerhouse, the album is truly eclectic. Unlike his better works, however, the album suffers from a relatively poor transition between tracks and a rather wide range of themes. While on one hand almost every New Age fan will find a track he or she likes, very few people will like the whole album, making it a hard sell for the full place.

Let us look now what the album has to offer:

Voices
When 1492: Conquest of Paradise was released, Henry Maske, a German professional boxer and at that time maybe the most popular German athlete used its powerful main theme as his staging song. I can well imagine the atmosphere around the ring once that song started. This, among other thing, has made the album one of the best selling albums in Germany. Rumor has it that Vangelis was so pleased by Mr. Maske using his song that he created and dedicated Voices to him. This rumor could be the explanation why this song is so incredibly powerful and uplifting. Unlike other songs, this one does not offer too much contrast, growing from a very mild tune to a sharp peak. Instead, it remains incredibly powerful almost all the time. It starts with very few instruments playing a simple melody, less than two dozen tunes long. Later, more instruments join and finally the whole Athens Opera Company choral, erupting into a perfectly arranged full-blown sound. This melody later becomes the main melody throughout the album, even though is not as prominent as in some of his other words.

Echoes
This song is very hard to describe. Maybe it serves to calm down the listener, as the main motive from the previous track is still very prominent, but the overall speed is much slower and more laid back. Yet, you get different instruments and voices joining in, playing around the main tune for a while and disappearing again. In the second half of the song, a sax becomes the prominent instrument, with the motive still rather prominent in the background. For some reason, I sense a lot of tension in this song, as if it took an unusually long time to write and arrange - it simply does not flow as easily as I am used to from Vangelis.

Come To Me
Now you get a very slow tune, which, however, has a small problem tying into the previous song. What is highly unusual, however, is the fact that the song features not only a lead female voice, but the song actually has lyrics. Very easily recognizable lyrics, I may add. Unfortunately, the voice seems not to harmonize with the background music perfectly - it sounds a bit rough compared with the crystal-clear melody that gains on prominence from time to time.

P.S.
A rather short intermezzo (slightly over two minutes), ... provides a nice break between two parts of the albums. The sax in the background reminds me a little on the famous sax solo in Blade Runner, but you must listen well to hear the sax at all. In fact, due to other familiar sounds, I assume Vangelis has his Blade Runner soundtrack on mind when composing this song.

Ask The Mountains
Another unusual song for Vangelis, it features a female lead singer again, but this time the voice is in an almost perfect harmony with the melody. Both are very subtle, as is they would break if you move your discman too fast. While I am not very happy about the fact that the song takes over two minutes to start, once it does it offers a beautiful melody and a clear voice that is understandable but makes little sense. While there are a few lines of lyrics, the voice is used mainly as another instrument. And I must admit Vangelis is very good at using the human voice as a musical instrument - this song is one of the finest the album has to offer.

Prelude
This is another track that reminds me on the Blade Runner soundtrack. It is a very sad song with a prominent piano solo and occasional Arabic-style vocals in the background. As much as the previous song was complex, this one is simple, slow and clear, yet in some sense more powerful than any other track in this album - it will make you sit down, lose yourself in the melody and reflect. You will be reflecting even when this song is over, not noticing that another already started until the power of the next song really hits you.

Losing Sleep (Still, My Heart)
This track is considerably faster and more rhythmical than the previous song. It features male vocals with lyrics corresponding with the previous songs. It appears that the whole album takes place in a dream, as the themes of dreaming, sleeping or waking up appear in every single song that has lyrics. This track offers a rather smooth transition from the previous one, which also means that the piano still has an important role to play, but you can clearly feel that it shifted from the main role to a supporting one. Overall, it is a very soothing track, yet a little too complex especially if you like to listen with your headphones on and spy out every nuisance of the music you are listening to.

Messages
This is simply a beautiful song. Human voices will again play a vital role here as musical instruments, the song will be at least as powerful as the first track, yet its arrangement makes for a much better experience. The song follows the good old recipe of every great song by Vangelis - start out subtly and quietly. Slowly add more instruments and increase their overall volume. Keep the most powerful instruments repeat the same simple tune while keeping the rest in the background, holding a steady rhythm. The result is mind blowing. This is exactly the track you are waiting for - the track you can listen to again and again and always spot a new instrument or a new tune at its edge somewhere. In addition, because its growth in power takes almost seven minutes, it will always surprise you how powerful it became at the end, yet not losing any of its softness, unlike the first track. Needless to say this is probably the best song on the whole album.

Dream In An Open Place
While offering another beautiful piano solo, this song has one big problem - it simply does not belong on this album. It comes without any transition behind a song that clearly marked the end of the album. However, out of the context of the album, the song is beautiful. While having quite hard edges, it is another one of those reflecting and memories invoking songs. Sometimes I played it as the last song of my radio show and even after it ended and I signed off, I just kept sitting there and thinking.

Overall, this album features great craftsmanship, but also too many hard edges and poor song transitions for my taste. I was thinking long and hard why it is so much worse than other recent albums by Vangelis that it deserves only four stars. I think it is mainly because the songs somehow lack a soul. They all seem so cold, sharp and somehow not caring. The album is a must for any Vangelis fan, but I would buy a different album by Vangelis if I did not know him at all.



Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying