Cosmos

a look at the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou

Introduction
If there ever was, is or ever will be a TV series that made extensive and appropriate use of Vangelis' music as a score, then it must be "Cosmos". When the Cosmos TV series, presented by American astronomer Carl Sagan premiered in 1980, it used part 3 of Vangelis' RCA debut album "Heaven and Hell" as its title theme. And throughout the 13 hours of the series it used many tracks from several seventies albums such as Albedo 0.39 (how appropriate), Spiral, Ignacio, Beaubourg and China. The world-wide success of the documentary series which was literally viewed by millions and millions of people put Vangelis' music in the homes and to the attention of a global audience...

What is less well-known about Cosmos and Vangelis is that in 1986 Carl Sagan re-edited and updated the series into a shorter 'Special Edition'. When asked, Vangelis agreed to compose a completely new score for this version. Unfortanely much of this music remains unreleased until this day.

To read more about the TV-series Cosmos, Carl Sagan and the music Vangelis made for 'Cosmos, a special edition', see

the Cosmos TV-series

the music of Cosmos

Cosmos gallery

 

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