Heaven and Hell (Vangelis album)

Heaven and Hell
File:Vangelis Heaven and Hell.jpg
Studio album by Vangelis
Released	December 1975
Recorded	September 1975 at Nemo Studios, London
Genre	Progressive rock, new-age, classical
Length	43:14
Label	RCA (original)/Windham Hill (reissue)
Producer	Vangelis
Vangelis chronology
L'Apocalypse des animaux (1973)L'Apocalypse des animaux1973 Heaven and Hell (1975) Entends-tu les chiens aboyer? (1975)

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Heaven and Hell, released in 1975, is the fifth solo album by Greek electronic composer Vangelis. It got worldwide recognition through the use of "Movement 3" as the theme for the television documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Heaven and Hell was the first album Vangelis composed and recorded in his new Nemo Studios in London, the studio he used between 1975 and 1987.

The album has classical overtones, in contrast with the progressive rock on both the previous and the following albums, Earth (1973) and Albedo 0.39 (1976) respectively. Vangelis would return to classical style work ten years later, on Mask (1985).Vangelis dabbles with choral sections joined with his now typical electronic washes of sound, a concept he would return to in the nineties with his Conquest of Paradise and Mythodea. By now, Vangelis had left behind his electronic-progressive-rock forays. In fact, this album constitutes the first album where Vangelis establishes himself as one of the main figures in the growing musical genre of electronic instrumental and new age, creating a web of sound linking several simultaneous beats and melodic lines of different timbres on his synthesizers.

This album also marked the first collaboration between Vangelis and Jon Anderson, on "So Long Ago, So Clear", which would continue more fully a few years later.

Heaven and Hell reached number 31 in the UK album charts in January 1976.

Track listing

The audio CD has two tracks:

1. "Heaven and Hell Part I" – 21:58
   • includes "So Long Ago, So Clear" – 4:58
2. "Heaven and Hell Part II" – 21:16

Older pressings of the LP had a more elaborate track listing (in parentheses, even more details):

Part One:

• "Bacchanale" – 4:40
• "Symphony to the Powers B" (Movements 1 and 2) – 8:18
• "Movement 3" (from "Symphony to the Powers B") – 4:03
• "So Long Ago, So Clear" – 5:00

Part Two:

• "Intestinal Bat" – 3:18
• "Needles and Bones" – 3:22
• "12 O'Clock" (in two parts) – 8:48
• "Aries" – 2:05
• "A Way" – 3:45

"Movement 3" was used as the theme for the popular Carl Sagan television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

"So Long Ago, So Clear" is listed separately on the album sleeve in all editions, as opposed to the other tracks.

Personnel

• Vangelis - synthesizers, Bösendorfer grand piano, percussion, arrangements
• Jon Anderson - vocals on "So Long Ago, So Clear"
• Vana Veroutis - vocals on "12 O'Clock"
• English Chamber Choir, conducted by Guy Protheroe

External links

• Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
• Ground & Sky review