The short version
- Released on RCA in December 1977. Five tracks, about 39 minutes. The third album Vangelis made at Nemo Studios in London.
- The first of his records with the Yamaha CS-80 on it. He played that synthesizer for the rest of his life.
- The theme is the Tao Te Ching. The sleeve quotes it: "Going on means going far. Going far means returning."
- "To the Unknown Man" won the Midem International Instrumental award in 1978 and was used on the BBC's coverage of the 1979 World Snooker Championship.
In 1977 Yamaha brought out a synthesizer that weighed close to a hundred kilos. It could play eight notes at once, and its keyboard answered both how hard you struck a key and how hard you kept pressing afterwards. Vangelis later called it "the most important synthesizer in my career." He added: "It needs a lot of practice if you want to be able to play it properly, but that's because it's the only synthesizer I could describe as being a real instrument." This is the first of his records it appears on.
Where it sits in the history of music
The wider story is in Vangelis, where to start, and the record before this one is covered in the Albedo 0.39 review. This is the guide's second pick. After Heaven and Hell and Albedo 0.39, it was the third album to come out of Nemo Studios, and it is the least known of the three.
This time the idea came from ancient Taoist thought: a universe that moves in spirals. The sleeve quotes the Tao Te Ching, and a note describes the third track, "Dervish D," as "inspired by the Dervish dancer who by his whirling realises the spiralling of the universe." Vangelis designed the sleeve himself. The spiral floating in the sky is an instrument cable.
Once again he played everything: synthesizers, sequencers, electric piano, drums and percussion. There is a human voice on only one track. On "Ballad" it is his own, processed.
- Released
- December 1977, RCA PL 25116 (UK)
- Recorded
- 1977, Nemo Studios, London
- Played by
- Vangelis alone. Synthesizers, sequencers, electric piano, drums, percussion. Processed voice on "Ballad"
- New instrument
- Yamaha CS-80 (1977). Eight voices, a keyboard that responds to velocity and pressure, a ribbon controller
- Engineer
- Keith Spencer-Allen (assistant Marlis Duncklau)
- Cover
- design by Vangelis, photograph by Michael Plomer, a line of the Tao Te Ching
- Award
- "To the Unknown Man," Midem International Instrumental award, 1978
- Charts
- number 38 in the Netherlands (1978)
Tracklist
| 1 | Spiral | 6:55 |
| 2 | Ballad | 8:27 |
| 3 | Dervish D | 5:21 |
| 4 | To the Unknown Man | 9:01 |
| 5 | 3 + 3 | 9:43 |
Timings from the first CD, RCA ND 70568 from 1989. Timed from the original British LP, every track comes out a little shorter. Tracks 1 to 3 are side one, 4 and 5 side two.
Three tracks, closely
"To the Unknown Man" (9:01). The guide's pick from this record, which it describes as one melody growing for nine minutes. It came out as a single in 1977 and won the Midem International Instrumental award the following year. Compare the melody as it first appears with the melody near the end. What has gathered around it over nine minutes is the piece.
"Ballad" (8:27). The only track with a human voice on it. The English Wikipedia says the voice is Vangelis's own, processed. Go looking for it. Try to hear where the person stops and the machine begins.
"Dervish D" (5:21). A dervish is the dancer who spins in place, and by the sleeve's own account that spinning is where the piece came from. Listen for whether the music is going somewhere or turning on the spot. The record is called Spiral.
The rest of the record
The title track, "Spiral" (6:55), opens the album. The closing "3 + 3" (9:43) is the longest thing on it.
How to listen
- Loud. As the guide says, turn it up and let the CS-80 fill the room.
- A side at a time. Three tracks on side one, two on side two. The order carries the meaning.
- When it ends, go back to the start. The sleeve says going far means returning. After "3 + 3," play "Spiral" again.
- Then one track from Blade Runner. Same instrument. There the CS-80 takes the centre.
What happened next
It never had the reputation or the reviews of the two records before it. It got to number 38 on the Dutch album chart in 1978. One track travelled further. "To the Unknown Man" won the Midem award in 1978, and in 1979 the BBC used it on its coverage of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
The CS-80 story did not end here. Vangelis played it for the rest of his life. It was his main synthesizer through the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, and it stands out on China, Opéra sauvage, the scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, and the first three records he made with Jon Anderson. That is why the guide puts this record second and says the next twenty years of his sound were invented here.
The one track to send a friend
Send "To the Unknown Man". Tell them it runs nine minutes. Then add one line. This track, from a record with the Tao Te Ching on its sleeve, ended up as the music for the BBC's coverage of the 1979 World Snooker Championship. A piece about the spiral of the universe, rolling across green baize.
Where to get it
The 1977 British RCA LP, PL 25116, is the defining edition. In the United States it came out the same year as AFL1-2627. On CD it first appeared on RCA in 1989. Esoteric Recordings' 2013 remaster added "To the Unknown Man (II)," the B-side of the single, on CD for the first time.
A cable hangs coiled in the sky. The jack on the end has not been plugged into anything yet.