Mythodea: Music for the NASA Space Odyssey

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

It has been some while since we have heard anything from Evanghelos Papathanassiou, or briefly Vangelis. But now he is back with what we call sending us into space. NASA decided to put their Odyssey mission a bit in the spotlight and attracted Vangelis to write fitting music about their adventure. The Odyssey mission is known for its reconnaissance voyage on the Red Planet aka Mars and only that could drive a singular composer towards many thematic twists, since you can easily portray the beauty, the mystery or the power behind it in full notion. Vangelis all tried it in one mix and gives us a piece of each feeling into his music entitled Mythodea. Many people suddenly heard the call of Vangelis' name and snatched up the album, craving it like it was the best thing on earth and made it intriguing even after all this time for me to buy it. Easily, this is not the best music of the earth or even of Mars but great things mix it with a rather annoying fact that Mythodea can easily impress and disappoint you in many ways. However, good to know is that Vangelis still hasn't lost his touch towards the spectacular music that on occasion graces the speakers from left to right.

Easily the great ticket home for many fans is the combination of The London Metropolitan Orchestra and The National Opera of Greece Choir, giving the best of both their capabilities. And even Vangelis' occasional rollicking style isn't far away when he mixes the rhythmic tone of his orchestra and synthesizers with a full blooded choir. Yet it still doesn't click the way I wanted it to go. After the entrance of easily background noises for the vastness of space in track 1, 'Movement 1' starts pumping up speed. This is what I call 1492: Conquest of Paradise composed by Gustav Holst as it captures the rhythmic display with choir yet on the rhythm and of course influence of Mars: The Red Planet. It is however a very good piece (used in the trailer of X-Men 2) and gives easily the person listening the feeling that they have acquired here something of great value. And it follows in the good line with 'Movement 2', where the theme is not that interesting anymore as the first but a choir is still reaching its climax more than once with a major crescendo. Yet from there on, the sound becomes simply the same. The occasional moment that picks up your attention doesn't last for long before you are back to losing that focus before again it is picked up minutes later by something else. The operatic vocals that from now on grace the scope of the sound are good for a while but not that intriguing anymore after you've heard them time and again. The longest track of 13 minutes 'Movement 4' has some outstanding moments at offer but loses perhaps 70% of its value because I listened through it for about 6 minutes. Only the second part of it with its growing chorus is much better.

And this basically continues, 'Movement 6' is probably the best example of this all. A track that I listened through before for one moment my attention was picked up by the wonderful short choral moment before it again disappeared. And so there I was once again listening through it without me ever knowing why. The basic problem is that the music is simply the same and the themes are more or less not there. Only the first main theme performance a la 1492 is the only one I could remember or even pick up from all the others. An occasional playful tone in 'Movement 7' is fun for a while and the lucky thing is that the main theme also closes the album in good fashion with stating its presence again good in 'Movement 10'. The problem of this album are easily the downfalls of its experience. First of all, Vangelis never composed themes that stick in the mind while easily John Williams did it more then often during several moments in American Journey. The choral moments give something extra but can not follow a theme to make them as memorable as the next one. The track titles are ridiculous because not for one moment you know what you are listening at and making sure your attention can't spot the obvious influences toward its center point. Also the booklet is strange, giving us no information about any of the movements but only giving us some info about Mars. Nice but I love to know what the music presents instead of possible assumptions towards the Red Planet. Basically this is it, Mythodea offers good music but too much of the same, starts to bore because of this and one singular main theme that is as epic as they come is the only mark to pinpoint you into the ongoing mystery that the music delivers. For the fans and then you have to know where on earth the music guides you.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Introduction (2.43)

2. Movement 1 (5.41)

3. Movement 2 (5.39)

4. Movement 3 (5.51)

5. Movement 4 (13.42)

6. Movement 5 (6.35)

7. Movement 6 (6.26)

8. Movement 7 (4.57)

9. Movement 8 (3.07)

10. Movement 9 (5.00)

11. Movement 10 (3.03)

Total Length: 62.51

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Vangelis ===