score by VangelisA pop star composer and a pop star director, both fresh from polar opposite victories (Chariots of Fire and Alien), achieved in Blade Runnera perfect marriage of tone, subtlety and style. Vangelis was the critical film composer of the 80s, and his scores tended to reflect his popularity, iconizing and, eventually, overwhelming the films for which they were made. Not so with Blade Runner, a seemingly perfect project for his style of electro-bombast and futuristic synth hooks, especially considering its tortured post production. Even so, Vangelis appears to have understood perfectly the film’s subtlety and stylistic immersion, for which he built a score equally quiet, moving, and multi-textured. Especially working against the film’s retro-futurism, Vangelis’ score rises above the 80s electronic conventions it utilizes and completes the environment of the film’s future Earth. Therein, he helps create and impress upon the audience a future dark, mechanical, impenetrable, inhuman, and sublime.
Essential tracks – Main Title, Memories of Green, Tears in the Rain
score by VangelisA pop star composer and a pop star director, both fresh from polar opposite victories (Chariots of Fire and Alien), achieved in Blade Runner a perfect marriage of tone, subtlety and style. Vangelis was the critical film composer of the 80s, and his scores tended to reflect his popularity, iconizing and, eventually, overwhelming the films for which they were made. Not so with Blade Runner, a seemingly perfect project for his style of electro-bombast and futuristic synth hooks, especially considering its tortured post production. Even so, Vangelis appears to have understood perfectly the film’s subtlety and stylistic immersion, for which he built a score equally quiet, moving, and multi-textured. Especially working against the film’s retro-futurism, Vangelis’ score rises above the 80s electronic conventions it utilizes and completes the environment of the film’s future Earth. Therein, he helps create and impress upon the audience a future dark, mechanical, impenetrable, inhuman, and sublime.
