Blade Runner: the Vangelis soundtrack that took twelve years

Anyone who sat through the end credits of Blade Runner in the summer of 1982 read a promise: a soundtrack album on Polydor. Paul Sammon's book Future Noir, cited on Wikipedia, records it. The album did not come. Not the next year, not the year after. It took twelve years.

Where it sits in music history

The five records to start with are in Vangelis: where to start. The guide puts this one fifth and last, because the four before it all flow into it. The Yamaha CS-80 he first used on Spiral stands at the centre here, and Wikipedia names it as the most prominent synthesizer in the score.

It was recorded at Nemo Studios in London, the room where he made Heaven and Hell. According to Wikipedia, Vangelis improvised in sync with the pictures on the screen. The recording dates are given as December 1981 to April 1982.

The film opened in 1,290 American cinemas on 25 June 1982. The music was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. But there was no Vangelis recording in the record shops.

Why it took twelve years

Vangelis gave his own account to the magazine Replay in 1993. He did not really know why, he said, but there had apparently been contractual problems that stopped a soundtrack album. It certainly had nothing to do with him. Other sources tell it differently: Wikipedia's article on Vangelis says the opposite, that he withheld permission. We go with the man's own words.

A 1982 album filled the gap: Blade Runner by the New American Orchestra, on Full Moon, a Warner Bros. label, produced by Jack Elliott. It replayed the film's themes for orchestra with a jazz lean. In the same interview Vangelis pointed out that it was not the original recording.

The real sound travelled other ways. According to Wikipedia, a studio tape was already turning up at science fiction conventions in 1982, and in 1993 a bootleg CD called Off World Music appeared in a limited run of 2,000. The first official release of any of it was the 1989 compilation Themes, which carried "Love Theme" and "End Titles".

In the 1994 sleeve note Vangelis wrote that most of the music on the album came from recordings he made in London in 1982, that he had been unable to release them at the time, and that he was very glad to do so now. The note is signed Athens, April 1994.

Track list

Timings follow the 1994 release as listed on Discogs. According to Wikipedia, tracks 1 to 4 run together as one piece, tracks 5 to 7 have silence between them, and 8 to 12 form another continuous piece. "Main Titles", "Blush Response", "Wait for Me" and "Tears in Rain" carry dialogue from the film.

Through the twelve tracks

The guide says to play "Blade Runner Blues" and then go to "Tears in Rain". Here we start at the top.

The first block opens with "Main Titles". Dialogue passes through and the music runs on into the next track without a break. Even if you have never seen the film, by the end of the fourth track you are standing in a city at night. Let your breathing slow.

The middle three stand alone. In "Love Theme" Dick Morrissey's saxophone draws out the melody. "One More Kiss, Dear" is a song, sung by Don Percival to words by Peter Skellern. "Blade Runner Blues" is nearly 9 minutes of a single CS-80 breathing slowly, the track the guide describes as one CS-80 left alone in the rain.

The last block starts with "Memories of Green" and closes with "Tears in Rain". "Memories of Green" first appeared on the 1980 album See You Later. Demis Roussos sings on "Tales of the Future". The final track lasts 3 minutes, and the record comes down with the dialogue.

How to listen

• At night, on headphones. Where dialogue and music mix, you need them close to your ears.
• Play the first four tracks as one, without stopping.
• Do nothing else during "Blade Runner Blues". For almost 9 minutes, keep your ears on the CS-80.

What happened next

The album reached number 20 in the UK. According to Wikipedia it went gold there in 2000.

Not everyone was pleased. The film music review site Filmtracks complained that dialogue riddles the album. Wikipedia notes that it leaves out much of the music heard in the film and adds pieces that were not in it. The Vangelis fan site Elsewhere says some fans still prefer the bootlegs to an official release that was recompiled and mixed with dialogue.

In December 2007, for the film's 25th anniversary, came the three-disc Blade Runner Trilogy: the 1994 album plus a disc of unreleased music and a disc of new pieces inspired by the film. Even then, Wikipedia says, some music heard in the film is missing.

The one track to send a friend

Send "Blade Runner Blues". It runs 8:53. Add one line: this was recorded in London in 1982. The credits in the cinema promised a soundtrack album, but the record as Vangelis made it did not come out until 1994. For twelve years people heard it through an orchestral remake and bootlegs.

Where to get it

The 1994 East West European CD, 4509-96574-2, is the album as it first appeared. The US edition was on Atlantic. The 2007 three-disc set adds unreleased music. Turn off the light and start the first track. Once the dialogue has passed, it starts to rain in the room.

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