Heaven and Hell

"The studio was Hell," Vangelis said of this record, "because there was unmixed concrete everywhere, builders all over the place making a lot of noise, and next to all that, there I was, trying to finish my album." He had a theory about it: "the only way you can complete the construction of a studio quickly is to start working in it before it's actually finished." London, the autumn of 1975. A record about heaven and hell, made on a building site.

Where it sits in the history of music

The wider story is in Vangelis, where to start. The guide puts this record third, though it was the first of the three to come out. The two that followed have their own reviews: Albedo 0.39 and Spiral.

Vangelis had moved from Paris to London and set up a sixteen-track studio near Marble Arch, which he called Nemo. In August 1975 he signed a four-album deal with RCA, and this was the first of the four. According to the French Wikipedia it was also the first record he put out under the single name Vangelis, dropping Papathanassiou. It left behind the progressive rock of his previous album, Earth, for a synthesizer sound that leaned on classical music.

He worked the way he always did. "I don't like to prepare for a long, long, long time an album. It's more exciting for me to sit down and to play whatever comes. So this is the way that Heaven and Hell happens. I spent six weeks to make this album but I spent maybe two weeks to put down the first tracks." He played synthesizers, a Bösendorfer grand and the percussion. Only the choir and the two singers came from outside. The subject splits in two: heaven drawn in calmer sound, hell in something more avant-garde.

Tracklist

Timings from the first CD, RCA ND 71148 from 1989. The CD has two tracks, one for each side, and the song "So Long Ago, So Clear" (4:58) sits at the end of track 1. Early LP pressings named the sections inside each part. Part I: "Bacchanale" (4:40), "Symphony to the Powers B" movements 1 and 2 (8:18), and movement 3 (4:03). Part II: "Intestinal Bat" (3:18), "Needles & Bones" (3:22), "12 O'Clock" in two parts (8:48), "Aries" (2:05) and "A Way" (3:45).

Three sections, closely

"Movement 3" (4:03). The third movement of "Symphony to the Powers B," and the guide's pick from this record. It is the passage Carl Sagan's Cosmos used as its theme. Play side one from the start and it arrives just short of thirteen minutes in. Listen for the moment the suite reaches that melody. Even if you know it from television, you have never heard it where it belongs.

"So Long Ago, So Clear" (4:58). The song at the end of side one, and the first time Vangelis and Jon Anderson worked together. As Vangelis tells it, they "sat down one day and I start to play the melody and he felt so comfortable that immediately he started to write the words." The French Wikipedia says the song is not part of the suite at all and was put at the end of side one to even up the two sides. Listen for the first words on the record. After the suite, a person speaks.

"12 O'Clock" (8:48). The two-part section in the middle of side two, and the one Vana Veroutis sings. Apart from the choir, only two people add a voice to this record, and she is one of them. Wait for her to come in.

The rest of the record

Side one opens with "Bacchanale" (4:40), named for the revels of Bacchus. Side two starts with "Intestinal Bat" (3:18) and "Needles & Bones" (3:22), passes through "12 O'Clock," and closes with "Aries" (2:05) and "A Way" (3:45).

How to listen

• A side at a time. The CD has only two tracks, so you cannot skip to a section. Start at the beginning.
• Loud. As the guide says, Berlin is quiet and Vangelis is not.
• Stop between the sides. There are two titles. When side one ends, pause before you turn it over.
• If you know Cosmos, set it aside. Hear the four minutes again inside the suite.

What happened next

It entered the UK album chart on 10 January 1976 and climbed to number 31, the first time a Vangelis record had charted in Britain. That year he performed it at the Royal Albert Hall. Albedo 0.39 followed in 1976 and Spiral in 1977.

What took the record furthest was television. Carl Sagan's Cosmos, broadcast on PBS in the autumn of 1980, used "Movement 3" as its theme, and put Vangelis's music into homes around the world. In 1981 it came out as a single, "Heaven and Hell (Theme from 'The Cosmos')," and reached number 48 on the UK singles chart on 18 July. The partnership with Jon Anderson that began on this record later became Jon and Vangelis.

The one track to send a friend

Send "Heaven and Hell Part I". Tell them the Cosmos theme turns up about thirteen minutes in. Then add one line. When he recorded it, the studio was still a building site; Vangelis worked among the builders and the wet concrete, and called the place Hell. Heaven was recorded right in the middle of it.

Where to get it

The 1975 British RCA LP, RS 1025, is the defining edition. Early pressings list the sections inside each part. RCA also released it that year in the United States, Germany, France and elsewhere. On CD it first appeared on RCA in 1989, and Esoteric Recordings released a remaster in 2013.

AmazonVangelis Heaven and Hell on CD and vinyl.DiscogsEvery pressing of Heaven and Hell, from the 1975 British RCA RS 1025.

Two winged hands rise out of the flames. Underneath them is a keyboard.