Oscar-Winning Composer Vangelis Records Epic Choral Symphony, Commemorating NASA’S Mars Odyssey Mission
A few short weeks ago, NASA’s Odyssey
spacecraft arrived at Mars and began orbit.
Odyssey will circle the planet
approximately once every 11 hours for 917 days, a full Mars year, and will
send back images and data. To commemorate NASA’s ongoing Odyssey mission to
Mars, Oscar-winning composer Vangelis recorded the new album, “Mythodea —
Music For The NASA Mission:
2001 Mars Odyssey.” The music was performed this
past summer at a spectacular concert at the Temple of Zeus in Athens, Greece
featuring world-renowned sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman.
The
album is in stores now.
In addition to the album, the Mythodea web site
vangelismythodea.com will feature an exclusive music video containing
never-before-seen images of Mars from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
An Oscar winner for his score for the film Chariots of Fire, Vangelis has
been a unique creative influence in international music as composer, performer
and producer for almost 30 years.
For his first Sony Classical recording, he
adapted Mythodea from an earlier work and expanded the score.
Vangelis coined
his own title for Mythodea, fusing the words “myth” and “ode” to describe a
vital connection between the past and the future. The June 28 Athens concert
dramatized that connection, in a highly theatrical production using projected
images of space from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as mythological
icons.
Following the concert, Vangelis was awarded the French Academy’s
Legion of Honor by France’s Minister of Culture, Jack Lang.
