Mythodea is subtitled "Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey," and it's certainly an epic work.
If its aspirations were any higher, it wouldn't even need NASA to break earth's gravity.
In essence, it's the focus of Vangelis' symphonic ambitions, utilizing not only an orchestra, but two sopranos and a full choir to go alongside his banks of keyboards.
That itself isn't a problem.
Epic can certainly be a good thing, and its roccoco grandeur can have its appeal.
The problem, and it's certainly one here, comes when things are overblown, and the everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink attitude becomes wearying.
After synth space noises, "Movement 1" shows its Mars intentions by borrowing the 5/4 rhythm from Holst's "Mars" (without credit) and overlaying it with symphonic stabs of melody and voices galore.
But, and this is true of the entire disc, it goes nowhere.
There's no sense of journey, and certainly no sense of the mythic in the title.
It becomes bombastic, even in the quieter moments, which act as mere preludes to more pomp without circumstance.
The original concept might have been great, but along the way it became horribly overblown.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Movement 1Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 02:43 | 6 MB | 8 MB |
| 2 | Movement 2Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 05:41 | 13 MB | 31 MB |
| 3 | Movement 3Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 05:40 | 13 MB | 26 MB |
| 4 | Movement 4Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 05:51 | 13 MB | 25 MB |
| 5 | Movement 5Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 13:42 | 31 MB | 67 MB |
| 6 | Movement 6Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 06:35 | 15 MB | 31 MB |
| 7 | Movement 7Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 06:26 | 14 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | Movement 8Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 04:57 | 11 MB | 26 MB |
| 9 | Movement 9Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 03:07 | 7 MB | 15 MB |
| 10 | Movement 10Vangelis Saitis | Vangelis, The National Opera of Greece Choir, London Metropolitan Orchestra | Play | 05:00 | 11 MB | 25 MB |
| 11 | Movement 11 | Vangelis | Play | 03:02 | 7 MB | 16 MB |
| 12 | Movement 12 (Special Edit) | Vangelis | Play | 04:05 | 9 MB | 20 MB |
| 66 mins | 153 MB | |||||
| 66 mins | 326 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Bailey | Assistant |
| 2 | Kathleen Battle | Guest Artist, Soprano |
| 3 | Philippe Colonna | Engineer, Mixing |
| 4 | Nikos Espialidis | Engineer |
| 5 | London Metropolitan Orchestra | Primary Artist |
| 6 | Andreas Mandopoulos | Engineer |
| 7 | Grigoris Mathioudakis | Assistant |
| 8 | The National Opera of Greece Choir | Performer, Primary Artist |
| 9 | Blake Neely | Conductor, Orchestra Transcription |
| 10 | Jessye Norman | Guest Artist, Soprano |
| 11 | Fredrick Rousseau | Engineer, Mixing |
| 12 | Vangelis Saitis | Composer |
| 13 | Giulio Turturro | Art Direction, Cover Art |
| 14 | Vangelis | Arranger, Keyboards, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 15 | Stathis Zalidis | Photography |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |