AMORE | VINYL RECORD (LP)

2015 release. Monster Melodies present the original soundtrack of Amore (1973), a film by Henry Chapier, composed and performed by Vangelis Papathanassiou. An unreleased recording dating from July 1973. Vangelis Papathanassiou was the composer of the group Aphrodite's Child, he composed the band's music and the songs of Demis Roussos. Later Vangelis became famous for the soundtrack of the film Chariots of Fire (1981). In 1974, Henry Chapier after several atypical movie, An American Summer (1968), Sex-Power (1970) and Hi, Jerusalem (1972), directed the fiction film Amore. Here is an extract from the Divan d'Henry Chapier interview with Papathanassiou directed by Jean Claude Longin 2011: "This is happening in a city constantly threatened with death. At the time, I thought, there were a lot of documentaries and that I would do it differently. I imagined Venice in the guise of a heroine, a very beautiful woman, Sonia Petrovna, a girl of the Venetian aristocracy ailing, representing a page of history that has passed. But the fact remains that in the frame, in the subject, there was a little journalistic approach. Also because one of the actors, Daniel Quenaud, was presumed to be a reporter, sent to consider the merits of an architectural plan which would save Venice. So in the agreement, there is a slight journalist contamination. Otherwise there was also a love story... I think it's more of a fiction film than a documentary nonetheless." Chapier had this to say about going about the score: "The first time, it was at the Olympia, at the band's concert. I found the music to be trippy and wonderful, I, who above all, loved the Pink Floyd. I thought the Pink Floyd, I could never get them for my films. So I stormed in backstage at the Olympia, I said to Vangelis, 'Listen you are made to be an independent composer.' Things clicked between us instantly and so I asked if he wanted the script. He told me, 'no, we will see, me, I improvise from images.' This is a technique that is practiced today, but back then, it was unheard of. We did not have people like him, who recorded the sound on sixteen tracks, playing all the instruments themselves and who already had in mind how they would edit the soundtrack." Colored vinyl. Includes unpublished photos, the film poster and a postcard.