IthacaFrontIntroduction

In the early 2000s Vangelis befriended Scottish actor Sean Connery and they discussed the idea of making a film together about the Greek philosopher Socrates. Although that film was never made, the two did work together on ‘Ithaca’, a composition by Vangelis where Sean Connery recites the famous poem of the Greek writer Konstantinos P. Kavafis (C.P. Cavafy).

In the summer of 2004 Sean Connery’s wife, Micheline Roquebrune Connery, was having her paintings on display at an exhibition in Athens at the Athinais Cultural Center. On occasion of the exhibition Athinais published the book "A Journey In Colour" on the 8th of June 2004, presenting a selection of Roquebrune Connery's paintings. The book was limited to 3000 copies only and exclusively sold for €104 at the Athinais Cultural Center and the Eleftheroudakis book store in Athens (now permanently closed). All proceeds of the sales went to the "Child's Friends" charity initiative.

To support the initiative Vangelis recorded ‘Ithaca’ with the recitation of Sean Connery and donated the recording for inclusion on CD with the book "A Journey In Colour" (also released as "Reflections" in 2005). The CD is unique to this rare publication.

The subject of Kavafis was not new to Vangelis, having earlier composed the score for Yannis Smaragdis' film “Kavafis” (1996) about the life of the Greek poet. In an interview Sean Connery remembered the recording of ‘Ithaca’: ’I’d honestly never heard of Cavafy before. I must say when I first read it I though, it’s a bit like a short story. It’s not... it doesn’t seem to be a poem. But when I started to work on it, read it and understand what it was really about, then it was okay, so I went to the studio and said I’m going to do two recordings. I’ll do one slower and one quicker, the normal. And he (Vangelis) said, ‘okay’, so, I recorded it twice, and they came back and said: ‘I like it slower’. And I said: ‘Because you’re gonna get all your music in’.

 

Tracklist and credits

  1. "Ithaca" (4:27)
  • Music composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis.
  • Poem by C.P. Cavafy (C.P. Kavafis).
  • Recitation by Sean Connery.
  • Sound Engineers: Vangelis Saitis, Philippe Colonna and Frederick Rousseau.
  • Coordination by Fouli Manolopoulou.

 

IthacaCDDiscography

CD single

  • 2004 Ithaca (housed in a white cardboard sleeve). Included with the book "A Journey In Colour" (also released as "Reflections" in 2005) by Micheline Roquebrune Connery.

 

Recording studio

There is no information on the release where the music was recorded, but it was likely recorded in one of Vangelis’ home studios in Athens.

 

Links

VangelisandSeanConnerySean Connery and Vangelis