The film is also notable for its memorable theme by Greek composer Vangelis, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Vangelis also contributed as a producer and keyboard player to the album Phos, by the Greek rock band Socrates Drank the Conium ( later known simply as Socrates ).

The Italian language Nana Mouskouri album also featured her singing Vangelis composition " Ti Amerò ".

Though uncredited, Vangelis also wrote the theme music for the 1992 French motion picture, " La Peste " ( The Plague ) from director Luis Puenzo.

" Vangelis ' music and compositions have also been described as "... a distinctive sound with simple, repetitive yet memorable tunes against evocative rhythms and chord progressions.

In addition to working with synthesizers and other electronically based instruments, Vangelis also works with and is a conductor to orchestras.

Meanwhile, Jon Anderson had released two solo albums since leaving Yes and had also achieved success with the Jon and Vangelis project.

He is also an accomplished solo artist and has collaborated with artists such as the Greek musician Vangelis, among others.

He also released an album with Vangelis in July 1981 called The Friends of Mr. Cairo.

He and Vangelis also started writing and demo ' ing new songs for another album.

Maria Callas, Nikos Skalkottas, Mikis Theodorakis, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Manos Hadjidakis and Vangelis also lead twentieth-century Greek contributions, alongside Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, Yanni, Georges Moustaki, Eleni Karaindrou and others.

* Mare Tranquillitatis is also the name of a composition of music by composer Vangelis on his 1976 album, Albedo 0. 39 and is in reference to the selenographical term.

In 1979, Polydor released her solo album entitled Odes, with music performed ( and partly composed ) by Vangelis Papathanassiou ( also previously a member of Aphrodite's Child ).

The opening song for the NES version is the Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis ( which was also used in the arcade version's high score screen ).

This album also marked the first collaboration between Vangelis and Jon Anderson, on " So Long Ago, So Clear ", which would continue more fully a few years later.

This process was largely facilitated by the use of custom midi performance systems designed for Vangelis by technicians Bill Marshall and Pete Kellock, as well as the commercially available Zyklus MPS which was also developed by Marshall and Kellock.

She also sang on Vangelis ' Song " Ask the Mountains ", she did " To the Sea " with Yello and a collaboration with Anton Fier.

: Not to be confused with El Greco Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a 2007 album also by Vangelis

666 also made Vangelis an underground name to watch, and in 1974 earned him an offer from Jon Anderson to join Yes following the departure of Rick Wakeman.

* The song " La Petite Fille de la mer " by Vangelis also appears in the film.

Ho's film making also included uncredited and apparently unauthorized use of music from Miami Vice, Iczer One, Kamen Rider Super-1, Star Trek and Star Wars, and by Wendy Carlos, Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Clan of Xymox and Steve Hillage, among others, as background score in his movies.

The stranger proposed Andromaha ( Andromache ), but this was rejected as " too Greek ", so the second stranger's proposal, Vangelia ( Vangelis,, short for, " herald of the good news ", from the components ευ-meaning " true " and άγγελος which means " messenger "), was accepted – also a Greek name, but popular in the region.

Lowe has also worked as a music arranger / producer, and was commissioned to create a global themed remix of " Chariots Of Fire " by Vangelis for the London Olympics 2012 Medal Presentations.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the term " space music " was applied to some of the output of such artists as Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, due to the transcendent cosmic feelings of space evoked by the sound of the music and enhanced by the use of the emerging new instrument, the synthesizer, and also in part to the " outer space " themes that are apparent in some of their works.

In 1982, Vangelis collaborated with director Ridley Scott, to write the score for the science fiction film Blade Runner.

In 1978, Papas collaborated with composer Vangelis in an electronic rendition of eight Greek folk songs, issued as a record called " Odes ".

In 1981, Vangelis wrote the score for the film Chariots of Fire, set at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

In 2012, Vangelis re-tooled and added new pieces to his iconic Chariots of Fire soundtrack, for use in Chariots of Fire, the 2012 stage adaptation of the 1981 film of the same title.

* " Jerusalem ", 1981 track on Chariots of Fire ( album ) by Ambrosian Singers and Vangelis

* 1981 Backing vocals on the Jon & Vangelis album The Friends of Mr. Cairo

In 1985 and 1986, Vangelis wrote music for two more ballets: " Frankenstein – Modern Prometheus " and " The Beauty and the Beast ".

In 1986 Papas released a further album in collaboration with Vangelis, entitled Rhapsodies ( Polydor CD 829 413-2 ).

In 1986, Jon & Vangelis made a few attempts at writing a new album, but much of this work was never officially released under the Jon and Vangelis name.

" Let's Pretend " was co-composed by Vangelis in 1986, and was a previously unreleased piece by the group Jon & Vangelis.

*" Children of Light " was originally written by Jon and Vangelis in 1986 as " Distant Thunder ".

Vangelis began his professional musical career working with several popular bands of the 1960s such as The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child, with the latter's album 666 going on to be recognized as a psychedelic " classic ".

In the early 1980s, Vangelis formed a musical partnership with Jon Anderson, the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes, and the duo went on to release several albums together as Jon & Vangelis.

Vangelis said in an interview with Life, when asked about his lack of ability to read music:

Based in Athens, the five-piece band played a mixture of cover versions and their own material, the latter written mostly by Vangelis ( with lyrics by DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis ) but still sung in English.

Around the time of the student riots in 1968, Vangelis founded progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child together with Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Anargyros " Silver " Koulouris.

In 1971, some jam sessions with a group of musicians at Marquee Studios in London had resulted in two albums ' worth of material, unofficially released without Vangelis ' permission in 1978, titled Hypothesis ( aka Visions of the Future ), and The Dragon.

This line-up, later briefly going out under the name " Odyssey ", released a single in 1974 titled " Who ", but that was Vangelis ' last involvement with them.

Vangelis did, however, become friends with Yes ' lead vocalist Jon Anderson, and later worked with him on several occasions, including as the duo Jon & Vangelis.

After moving to London, Vangelis signed with RCA Records, set up his own studio, Nemo Studios, and began recording a string of electronic albums, such as Heaven and Hell ( 1975 ), Albedo 0. 39 ( 1976 ), Spiral ( 1977 ), Beaubourg ( 1978 ), and China ( 1979 ).

In 2004, Vangelis released the score for Oliver Stone's Alexander, continuing his involvement with projects related to Greece.

However, in a 2005 interview with The Telegraph, Vangelis talked openly about various parts of his life.

In a 1976 interview with Dutch music magazine Oor, the author wrote that Vangelis had a wife named Veronique Skawinska who was a photographer who had done some album art work for Vangelis.

An interview in 1982 with Backstage music magazine suggests that Vangelis had previously been married to a singer named Vana Verouti, who had performed vocals on some of his records, performing for the first time with him on La Fête sauvage and later on Heaven and Hell.

In an interview with Soundtrack, a music and film website, Vangelis talked about his compositional processes.