The City

Artist: Vangelis
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette

UPC: 075678224843
EAN: 0075678224843
ASIN: B00000EBVJ

Release Date: 1991-05-14

Related Categories:

General

| Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation

| New Age | Styles | Music

Electronic

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Dawn
Morning Papers
Nerve Centre
Side Streets
Good to See You
Twilight
Red Lights
Procession

Similar Items:

Voices
Oceanic
China
Spiral
Opera Sauvage

Customer Reviews:

A musical journey from dawn to dusk.......2006-03-11

A beautiful work of musical art by Vangelis that proves that not all new age music has to be sleepinducing strolls through a forest.Beginning with Dawn and then Roman Polanski trying to buy a paper too early in the day to a motorcycle ride through the city to a relaxed onesided phone conversation Vangelis takes everyday moments and encloses them with gorgous music that ranges from soothing to exhilerating.Evoking the variety of life in the city each song has a different mood be it peaceful or grand(the epic Procession).With an interesting use of Asian flavor a very few spoken words and sound effects The City is a toatally orginal New Age creation from one of the finest composers of our time.

A Tour Of The City or the Future..........2003-11-08

While there have been many comparisons and similarities to Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, one essential ingredient to The City is it's dream-like musical realm. The first track Dawn can be an alternate take of the opening city sequence of the film BladeRunner. However, on careful listening it takes on a soothing dreamscape ambiance. The track Morning Papers is a repetitive yet smooth background jazz laden number that echoes both a casual stroll throughout the city and yet propels the listener into a futuristic night club or jazz lounge. This work by Vangelis is both moody and tame with underlying tones of melancholy machinations. With a song like Twilight you can almost feel the chill in the air and the different odors or scents associated with a city that is winding down for the night. The best track is Good To See You with its hypnotic sound and female dialogue...This is one mellow Vangelis title of the touring mind not to be missed !

Masterpiece.......2003-09-13

Vangelis is special, not for all those pioneering elentronic works he created over the years but because he expressed his character by rejecting the modern computerized way of composing, declining the soft-synths and putting his faith on his old Yamaha synth. He even, gave up electronic music and turned into classical - a pathetic way of expressing his emotions againist Cut&Paste%Timestrecthing on CD samples.
He likes to touch the keys, enjoys the moment of true hardware creation experiment..and 'The City', underrated by the time it was released, is I think the major album by which you can understand Vangelis' mood of patience and elite choice of ambient soundscapes.
I listened all of his work (except a few collector albums that's hard to find like 'Sex Power') through my childhood to help me in tutoring how to compose digitally, and I can easily say 'The City' is one of the best amongst them.
So how does 'The City' sound like? As a concept, 'The City' is like a short story narrating several instances of an ordinary city from morning to night time including simple conversations of a man (Roman Polanski) buying a sandwitch from a buffet, or a woman (about 30 years old) talking with his boyfriend on telephone..step voices, small motorcycle samples, coins etc.
Those samples provide a very imaginative atmosphere of an (alien) city, I use the word alien because the album was recorded in an hotel room in Rome, and I think Vangelis felt the charm of being in an unfamiliar surrounding, and even I dare to think that this album was recorded mainly in nighttime.
On the other hand, the music without samples is extraordinary too, we are here presented the sounds of digital synthesizers with some detailed midi aoutomation. For instance there are distortion guitar sounds coming from a digital synth but used like percussion for backing the melody. Also the song named 'Nerve Center' includes again the distortion guitar sound but more interestingly it uses a digital choir sound for leading and again digital emulation of an OBX like solo synth -- This kind of sound combination is very hard to find. Also in the begining tracks we are faced with solo cello and pipe sounds (I think a Shakuachi sample) which I've never seen used in such a way before.
Overall, the album is patient, and to fully understand the idea behind this record, you must also listen it, in a patient mood. Very extraordinary use of drums and electric basses (of course coming from digital synths) also gives the flavor of 'maturity' atmosphere flowing above.
I think Vangelis should go in this 'The City' direction of composing but he made the mistake of 'Conquest of Paradise' a commercial and the most invaluable record he has ever made..and lose his way..
I hope, he will one day, return making electronic music and should I wait for this day to come..

what a weird coincidence!.......2003-01-01

The City is an interesting and ambient album from one of my favorite "weird" artists- Vangelis. I guarantee you, after three minutes, it will become the weirdest fun you'll have listening to new age since enya's cd Watermark! It is also,at times, an extremely emotional and mystical piece of artwork. More than once I wondered how Vangelis read all our minds with tracks like Morning Papers or Good To See You. VANGELIS one of a treasured few artists who creates music that seems to create not only a state of mind, but a striking mental image! Many people misinterpret this album as tour of a city of the future. I can see where they are coming from, but I will always The City as a mystical journey through a city of the present. But alas, this cd does have some lemon juice in it. The cool-as-ice song called Nerve Centre is over and done with too fast, and right when it's becoming more wildly exciting and dazzling than before! Also, Good To See You and Dawn are a little lengthy; they spend too much time gathering up speed and don't shimmer enough to deliver Vangelis' best work. Also, even though Roman Polanski has a great voice, sometimes I feel Vangelis romantisized the tracks too much by adding sound effects along with his music. The effects are not really necessary in many of the songs. Overall, I highly reccommend this album, even though I'll always treasure Antarctica as Vangelis' best comfort food, Direct as his best far fetched rock opera, and Opera Sauvage and China as his best tone poems. Yee-ha!

Grossly under-rated.......2002-06-28

I have read a great number of reviews contributed towards the music of Vangelis, varying in depth and understanding of what Vangelis creates. I am not just a fan of Vangelis, I am a fanatic one might say. I listen to at least one Vangelis album per day. I love L'Apocalypse ..., Oceanic, Bladerunner, Soil Festivities, Mythodea, El Greco (which I often use to study), 1492, Opera SAuvage, China, Voices, etc to name only some of his works at my disposal. As my financial possibilities grow I hope to extend my 13 album Vangelis collection.

Upon reading the reviews for this particular album I was astonished at how poorly they compare to other albums, particularly since this album ranks first (tied with L'Apocalypse and Bladerunner) in my opinion, possibly even surpassing Bladerunner.

I think that the music of Vangelis cannot be sampled to extract one hit because it flows in a continuum. So far in my experience, no album of Vangelis can be appreciated unless listened to, from its beginning to its completion. And in this regard THE CITY is phenomenal. Listening to this album with surround sound literally takes the listener for a joyride through a city. But this joyride is classic Vangelis in nature. It is deep, mysterious, with class, flowing with human passion and exhuberance.

I believe that no artist has come to express the human thirst for the unknown, for the mystical, for the universe as well as this pioneer of keyboarding music. He is simply genial, beyond words .... in fact, I already wrote too much ... useless .... listen to the album (from the beginning to the end) and you will convince yourself of all I have said!

I hope you will enjoy it at least half as much as I have for the last 3 years.

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Lo Mejor del Mariachi, Vol. 5 ~ Various Artists

Millonario de Pobreza ~ Cornelio Reyna

Piano Tribute to Neil Young ~ David Ari Leon

The City ~ Vangelis

How I Think of You

What is This? ~ Rich Perry Quartet

Late Night Jazz ~ Various Artists

15 Exitos Caballos ~ Antonio Aguilar

Norteno Sin Limite ~ Mucio Olivarez

Del Norte Al Sur ~ Los Palominos