20th Anniversary of Vangelis’ “Blade Runner”
June 1st, 2002 by Koldo Barroso
20 years ago now, in June 1982, Vangelis wrote the soundtrack for Riddley Scott’s sci-fi classic classic movie “Blade Runner”.
The music was recorded at the keyboardist Nemo studios in London and was composed, arranged, produced and performed by him, featuring Mary Hopkin (vocals), Don Percival (vocals), Dick Morrisey (sax), and his old friend Demis Roussos (vocals).
The soundtrack released in 1982 was missing a great part of the music that Vangelis originally wrote, and it has been pointed out, that it was due to a difference of view between Vangelis and Ridley Scott which lead to a dispute with Warner Bros over various artistic aspects of the movie related with the production of the sample voices. In the booklet of the original soundtrack released in 1994 the Greek artist explains his decision to release the music with additions of new pieces because they were “unable to be released at the time”.
Blade Runner is based on the novel by cult science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and is considered one of the top all-time classics in science fiction. Vangelis’ soundtrack is considered a masterpiece of electronic music and one of the most accomplished works of the musician.