TheCityIntroduction

“The City” is a studio album by Vangelis, his first to be released on the EastWest record label. Released on the 19th of November 1990, th album was mostly recorded in 1989 in a suite of the Hotel De La Ville in Rome, where Vangelis had set up his home studio while staying there for Liliana Cavani’s “Francesco”. Final work on the album was done in studios in Paris.

The music of The City is inspired by life in the city, as underlined by the quote of Homer printed on the album: ‘I saw the cities of many men, and learned their manners’. Possibly this is a reference to Vangelis’ own travels at the time, visiting London, New York, Los Angeles, Athens, Rome and Paris in only a couple of years. The City is the first album where Vangelis made use of the “Direct”-device, a custom-built machine based on his experience with the Zyklus-MPS.

The artwork of the album includes several photos of Vangelis at the Olympic concert ‘Song For Athens’, performed at the Panathinaic stadium of Athens in September 1990. EastWest did not do much to promote the album, only a now scarce cd-single of ‘Good To See You’ was released in the US.

 

Tracklist and credits

  1. Dawn (4:16)
  2. Morning Papers (3:55)
  3. Nerve Centre (5:30)
  4. Side Streets (4:12)
  5. Good To See You (6:51)1
  6. Twilight (4:57)2
  7. Red Lights (3:55)2
  8. Procession (9:33)

TheCityCD(1) voices in Japanese by Mikamo Yuko and Kimura Rieko.
(2) voice by Kathy Hill.

  • Music composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis.
  • Recorded at Hotel De La Ville (Rome) and Mega Studios (Paris).
  • Engineers: Frederick Rousseau and Philippe Colonna.
  • Assistant engineers: Baboo and Florian
  • Mastered at 44.1 Paris by Alain Marnat.
  • Footsteps and voices by Roman Polanski Emmanuelle Seigner.
  • Special thanks to John Martin, Paul Foster, Andrew Hoy, Ian Lane, Bill Marshall and Frederick Rousseau.

 

Discography

CD

  • 1990 EastWest, released worldwide.
  • 1990 Atlantic 7 82248-2 US
  • 1991 EastWest WMC5-270 Japan
  • 2015 EastWest WPCR-16316 Japan (Progressive Rock 1300 Collection) SHM-CD
  • EastWest 9031-73026-2 France (Album De Légende)

GoodToSeeYouLP

  • 1990 EastWest Europe, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
  • 1991 Elektra 23(4031)00152 Columbia

CD single

 

Recording studio

The music of The City was recorded in a suite of the Hotel De La Ville in Rome and Mega Studios in Paris.

 

Links