Vangelis - Keyboardist Extraordinaire Quiz

Answer: Greece

Vangelis was born in the then village of Agria, which was about seven kilometres away from the port of Volos and since 2011 a municipality of the city. Vangelis showed great musical aptitude from the age of four and performed in public his own compositions at the age of six.

Answer: Musical instrument

The phorminx was a stringed musical instrument that had between two and seven strings. It was mainly used by the singers of Homer's epics. In the group Vangelis was on keyboards. The group had a big hit in Greece with the song "Jeronimo Yanka". The group split up in early 1966.

Answer: Aphrodite's Child

Vangelis played keyboards and flutes, Demis guitars and vocals, Loukas Sideras was on drums and vocals and Silver Koulouris on guitar. The group split up in 1972 after releasing their concept album "666" based on St. John's Revelation. The music for it was written by Vangelis and the lyrics by Costas Ferris who penned a concept book as well. In parallel with his work with the group Vangelis wrote music for both TV and films.
Pyx Lax was also a Greek rock band, Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant and Aphrodite's slipper is an orchid.

Answer: Heaven and Hell

The album was released in December 1975 well before Black Sabbath's album with the same name.
Apart from synthesisers and piano, Vangelis also played percussion on the album. The album also featured the English Chamber Choir conducted by Guy Protheroe. The album charted at 31 in the UK album charts. One of the tracks of the album became the theme for Carl Sagan's TV documentary series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage".
The other three options are albums by the English band Yes.

Answer: China

Up to that time Vangelis had never visited China but he was very impressed by the achievements of the people both in technology as well as in music and arts. The album was a mixture of electronic and acoustic sounds. Some of the tracks were "Chung-Kuo", "The Dragon", "The Plum Blossom" and "The Tao of Love". On the cover of the album there was the figure of a man swimming under water and the inner red sleeve displayed the yin-yang symbols.

Answer: Jon Anderson

Vangelis met Jon when he had auditioned in 1974 for keyboardist with Yes after the departure of Rick Wakeman from the group. He was not hired for various reasons but the two worked together on the album "Heaven and Hell", Jon providing the vocals on the track "So Long Ago, So Clear". Together they produced three more albums the last one of which was released in 1991.

Answer: Chariots of Fire

Vangelis released an album with the same name in April 1981 which was a great success gaining top spot in the US Billboard 200. The opening track of the album, "Titles", was released as a single and also topped the charts on US Billboard 100.
The other three options were also films about the Olympics. "Foxcatcher" was about wrestlers in the 1988 Summer Games, "Olympia" about the Berlin 1936 Games and "Miracle" about the US hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Answer: Missing

The film was based on the true story of an American journalist who disappeared in Chile after the coup by Pinochet that toppled Allende. The soundtrack of the film was never officially released but Vangelis has used parts of the soundtrack on some of his albums. The 1989 album "Themes" by Vangelis includes the track "Main Theme" from the film "Missing".

Answer: 1492: Conquest of Paradise

The soundtrack of the film was released by Vangelis in 1992. The track "Conquest of Paradise" was released as a single. Both album and single enjoyed great success: the single topped the chart in various countries including Austria, Germany and Netherlands and the album was certified Gold.
All four options were films by Ridley Scott. "Gladiator" was released in 2000, "Robin Hood" in 2010 and "Prometheus" in 2012.

Answer: Space probe

Rosetta was built by the European Space Agency with a mission to explore the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe was launched in 2004. Ten years later the probe went into orbit around the comet. In November of the same year the module Philae soft landed on the comet.

The probe ended the journey by landing on the comet in September 2016. The album follows the various stages of the journey with tracks such as "Origins", "Celestial Whispers","Rosetta" and "Philae's Descent". The album consisted of thirteen tracks in total and was dedicated to "Everyone who made the mission possible". Rosetta Cattaneo was a sprinter and Rosetta Smith a slave trader.