On May 17th 2022, legendary composer Vangelis passed away in Paris, France. Vangelis was a huge inspiration of mine growing up, and I literally learnt music by recreating his music in my bedroom with my synthesizers as a kid. Hearing of his passing was a very sad moment. And as a few months went by, I thought that re-creating a cover of one my favorite themes from him, would help me cope with the fact that there will not be more music coming form this genius of a composer.
And so I did. I re-created Conquest of Paradise, the theme he wrote for the film “1492: Conquest of Paradise” starring Gerard Depardieux as Christopher Columbus. Interestingly enough, creating this cover gave a me a glimpse of what Vangelis must have went through when he composed it. It’s almost like an autopsy for a theme. Or how archeologists recreate conditions to understand the events passed and understand the process that the original creators must have gone through. It was fascinating.
As I usually do when I make a cover, I wanted to stay true to the original music as much as possible, while adding a few elements and twists that I think the piece could benefit from. In this case, as much as I absolutely LOVE this theme, I always regretted that it did not feature more orchestral and ethnic elements to it. So I proceeded to add just that.
Technology today allowed me to re-create the choral part of the song using the very words that are sung in the original piece. By using software that combines samples of choral and a powerful word-building engine. Using phonetics and timing syllables by the milliseconds, you can make that virtual choir sing just about anything you want! The result was quite astonishing.
An example of how to write the lyrics so that the virtual choir can sing the actual words!
Then I added a few native american flutes and chants as well as bigger orchestral elements to support the big synthesizer sweeps, faithfully recreated using my analog MOOG synthesizers.
If you’ve been following me for a while now, you know that I am a huge fan of immersive music, and the final twist to this production was to offer—for the first time ever—a 5.1 surround version. It is my hope that it will allow you to discover, or re-discover this masterpiece of a theme composed by one of the greats of the 20th century. Rest in Peace dear Maestro, you will be missed.
My cover is out today (and yes, the date is not a coincidence). I hope you will all enjoy it.