Soil Festivities

Introduction

“Soil Festivities” is Vangelis’ first studio album since “See You Later” (1980). The album released on the Polydor label in October 1984 is a concept album inspired by nature and the abundant microscopic life beneath the surface, in the soil. Sometimes the album is considered the first in a series of albums, together with the more abstract “Invisible Connections” (1985) and the choral album “Mask” (1985), all works in which Vangelis would break away from the style that had made him a popular and well-known composer for film, and which showcase Vangelis’ ability to venture into new musical worlds without limitations. The music is presented on the album in five tracks or ‘movements’, all instrumental pieces of electronic music combined with percussion and natural sound-effects. The long and thematic tracks did not make good material for a single release, hence none were released from this album.

When asked about Soil Festivities, Vangelis responded 'I’ve always been fascinated with the incredible life that you can find, even when you have just a handful of soil, earth. I mean this album is based on this incredible life that we don’t really see, we are not part of it everyday because we are so involved with society, and traffic and jobs and offices and all that. Mainly when I was a child I spent my childhood in a big, big garden with thousands of flowers and trees. I always had this love for what is going on around me in nature. And in this album there are a lot of natural sounds, like rain, thunder, and all that. Let’s say, for me these are the first recordings in my memory, to me it is like a festivity the whole thing, the whole cycle of events that happened, not only above the ground, what you see, flowers, insects, you know, every kind of creatures, but also underneath the ground as well, the soil, which has incredible life going on. Even if you look under a microscope, you can see creatures that appear as prehistoric animals and they are so minute that you can’t see them with the naked eye. It is like a dance of nature. Nature to me is not only what happened beneath and above the ground. But nature also is our bodies, nature is the stars, is the solar system, is the galaxies, everything, that is nature. I think that even if we leave the town, like London or Tokyo, I don’t know, it's up to us to be close to nature, because I mean we are nature, I feel nature all the time. Of course people are nature but they have the ability to do everything unnatural. Which is society actually. And this is the big problem, because to me the biggest problem of human being is that then to try to collaborate with nature and to accept nature and to be, and always through the centuries for millions of years to try always to change nature and not to accept nature, and to create something that is not natural. And I think that is a very schizofrenic attempt, but it is part of the human being.'

In 2017 Soil Festivities received a re-release which was personally remastered by Vangelis. This edition is decently remastered but is not recommended as the first track is cut short 1 minute at the end. Find the original CD release if in need of a copy of the album.

Tracklist and credits

Movement 1 (18:32)
Movement 2 (6:20)
Movement 3 (6:10)
Movement 4 (9:57)
Movement 5 (7:20)

Composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis.
Engineered by Jess Sutcliffe.
Sleeve by Vangelis and Alwyn Clayden.
Creative assistance: Green Ink and Projection.
Studio ambience: John Martin.

Discography

1984 Polydor 823 396-2, released in Europe, US, Canada and Brazil.
1984 Polydor P33P 50003 Japan
1992 Polydor POCP-2109 Japan (CD Nice Price)
2017 UMC 478 940-7 Europe (Remastered by Vangelis)
2021 Polydor UICY-79706 Japan (Golden Era Of Rock Continued (1976-1985))

1984 Polydor, released worldwide.

Recording studio

Soil Festivities was recorded at Vangelis’ Nemo Studios in London by engineer Jess Sutcliffe.

Links