Vangelis quotes

Vangelis is a legendary Greek composer known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music. With a career spanning over five decades, he has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for his iconic score for "Chariots of Fire." Vangelis' unique blend of classical and electronic sounds has inspired generations of musicians and his influence can be heard in countless film scores and popular music tracks. Dive into his discography to experience the innovative soundscape created by this musical visionary.

My main language was music, and my teacher was nature.

- Vangelis

Music without lyrics travels more easily and may be biologically conceived and received.

- Vangelis

Music is the most multi-dimensional knowledge we have. It's as specific as nature can be. Any form nature takes contains a specific sound combination.

- Vangelis

Music is science more than art, and it is the main code of the universe.

- Vangelis

Music is a language. It's a memory of the cosmic system, a memory of past and future. Above all it's science not entertainment.

- Vangelis

Music for me is life, I stay in my studio until ten or eleven at night and I record every day. Not for money or for albums – I just compose music.

- Vangelis

It’s important not to become obsessed with technology. You’ve got to remember that however a sound is generated — acoustically, electronically digitally – it’s still just a sound, a part of nature.

- Vangelis

It's a game. What you read is not what's happening. The whole planet is in trouble for the same reason.

- Vangelis

If you look for truth, you have to be courageous.

- Vangelis

If I've made money from music, it was never my aim to do that. I didn't do it to become famous. I absolutely respect and I believe I serve music.

- Vangelis

I’d really like to do some concerts of completely improvised music, but one of the reasons for doing a concert is to experience the enjoyment of the people there, so you have to include excerpts of music from previous albums because they want to hear something they already know and like. There’s nothing wrong with limiting your spontaneous playing to just improvising around old themes, but what is wrong is playing a concert solely to promote a certain record. I’ve never done a concert tour just to promote Heaven and Hell or Chariots or anything like that. That sort of thing seems pointless to me.

- Vangelis

I've been composing and performing for as long as I can remember.

- Vangelis

I'm a composer. I know nothing about money and commercial stuff. I just write music.

- Vangelis

I was under the impression that in order to be alive and to be able to create what I had in mind I had to become successful. I realised that success and pure creativity are not very compatible.

- Vangelis

I understand the world through music and I believe that music shapes the universe.

- Vangelis

I think it was inevitable that I get into synthesizer music. I always wanted to deal with sound more than anything else. I couldn't get the sounds I wanted out of the piano.

- Vangelis

I started at the piano at the age of 4.

- Vangelis

I see the crisis like a theatrical play that concerns the world.

- Vangelis

I prefer to have the music as pure as possible.

- Vangelis

I function as a channel through which music emerges from the chaos of noise.

- Vangelis

I enjoy working alone. I know myself, and I know what I want and all this allows me to create my music before my thoughts can interrupt.

- Vangelis

I do not consider myself a musician, rather a radar ready to pick up the symphonies coming from the sky. It's been like that since I was four years old and I hope it will continue forever. When I compose, any ingredient can be good, the problem lies in the proportions that must be harmonized. It's like the work of architects, you never invent anything.

- Vangelis

I believe that our existence is first cosmic, then biological and then social.

- Vangelis

I am merely a conduit, a kind of big hairy tool. I am just a plastic funnel connected to a Moog.

- Vangelis

I absolutely respect and I believe I serve music.

- Vangelis

High volume levels cause less harm than the awkward arrangement of sounds. Assuming that the sound is a wave: if this wave is not balanced by itself, it causes great damage when it enters the ear. I have tested this on a few people in my studio. I made them listen to two tracks. The first track was considered too loud, whereas the second track was actually louder but more balanced.

- Vangelis

For every album I’ve ever made, I’ve written many times more music than has actually been released, and the way I choose which music appears is almost totally random, but one thing I have never done is to make music for the sake of commercialism.

- Vangelis

Every day I paint, and every day I compose music.

- Vangelis

Electronic music is perhaps the only genre – with the exception of 'pure' classical music – that can communicate universally.

- Vangelis

Concerts are nonsense. They create many problems: money, interests – it is hardly spontaneous. I want to feel the same pleasure that my audience experiences, otherwise it’s not honest.

- Vangelis