''Blade Runner: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
for
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
's 1982
science-fiction noir film ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
'', composed by Greek electronic musician
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...
. It has received acclaim as an influential work in the history of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
and one of Vangelis's best works.
It was nominated in 1983 for a
BAFTA and
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
for best original score. The score evokes the film's bleak futurism with an emotive
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
-based sound,
drawing on the
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
scores of classic
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
as well as
Middle Eastern
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
texture and
neo-classical elements.
The official release of the soundtrack was delayed for over a decade. The first
1994 release
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
omitted much of the film's score and included compositions not used in the film.
A
25th anniversary edition released in 2007 included further unreleased material and a disc of new music inspired by the film. Various
bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...
s containing more comprehensive versions of the score, as well as superior sound quality to the original 1994 release, have widely circulated.
An orchestral rendition of the soundtrack was released in 1982 by the
New American Orchestra
Irwin Elliott Zucker (August 6, 1927 – August 18, 2001) was an American television and film composer, conductor, music arranger, television producer, and co-founder of the New American Orchestra, later renamed the American Jazz Philharmonic.
...
, but disowned by both Vangelis and director Scott.
Recording
Vangelis recorded, mixed and produced the score for ''Blade Runner'' in his London recording space
Nemo Studios
Nemo Studios was a recording studio in London, planned, built and used by Greek composer Vangelis between 1975 and 1987.Richard Clews. ''Inside the Synth Lab'', in ''Sound on Sound'', November 1997 issueAvailable online./ref> Numerous highlights ...
in 1982. He crafted the score on an ad-hoc basis by viewing videotapes of scenes from the film in the studio, and then improvising pieces in synchronisation with the images on the screen. He also applied the use of some
foley techniques, using synthesisers to produce
diegetic
Diegesis (; from the Greek from , "to narrate") is a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which:
# Details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narra ...
and non-diegetic sounds. The album features vocals from
Demis Roussos
Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos ( ; el, Αρτέμιος "Ντέμης" Βεντούρης-Ρούσσος, ; 15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member he is best remembered for his work in ...
and saxophone by
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin Morrissey (9 May 1940 – 8 November 2000) was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and flute.
Biography Background
He was born in Horley, Surrey, England. Dick Morrissey emerg ...
on "Love Theme". The track "Memories of Green" from Vangelis' 1980 album ''
See You Later
''See You Later'' is an album by the Greek electronic music, electronic composer Vangelis, released in 1980. It breaks quite violently with the style he had employed in the late 1970s and later, relying much more on vocals and being more experi ...
'' was also used.
The most prominent synthesiser used in the score was the
Yamaha CS-80
The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer released in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of hardwired preset voice set ...
, which can be prominently heard in the opening scenes. Other synthesisers employed by Vangelis included four
Roland
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
instruments: the
ProMars, the
Jupiter-4
The Roland Jupiter-4 (JP-4) was an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1978 and 1981. It was notable as the company's first self-contained polyphonic synthesizer, and for employing digital control of analog cir ...
, the CR-5000 drum machine, and the
VP-330 Vocoder Plus; a
Sequential Circuits
Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer; it became a market leader and industry standard, use ...
Prophet-10; a Yamaha GS1 FM synthesizer; and an
E-mu Emulator
The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary m ...
sampler. A
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
grand piano, a
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to:
* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below).
** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
CP-80
electric grand and a modified
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...
were also used. He also utilised a variety of traditional instruments, including,
gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
,
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone.
The glo ...
,
gong
A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...
,
snare drum
The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
,
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
and
tubular bells
Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...
.
Releases
Official Vangelis score
1994 release
In 1994, an official recording of Vangelis' score was released by East West (
Warner Music
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
) in the UK and by
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
in the US. The album reached the #20 position in the
UK album charts
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
. In 2013 it reached #14 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Vinyl Albums chart. It has been variously described as "influential and mythical", "incredible and pristine", "evocative", and "the pinnacle of synthesiser soundtracks".
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
labeled the score as
"bleak and electronically chilling as the film itself" and praised Vangelis for creating "haunting soundscapes with whispered subtexts and sweeping revelations".
This release omits much of the film's original music and cues, and features compositions which were not present in the film.
The accompanying booklet featured this explanation by Vangelis:
While most of the tracks on the album are from the film, a number were composed by Vangelis but were ultimately not used in the film itself. Other compositions that appear in the film were not included on this release.
Four of the tracks ("Main Titles", "Blush Response", "Wait For Me", "Tears in Rain") feature samples of dialogue from the film. Tracks 1 through 4 are mixed together as a seamless piece; tracks 5 through 7 have silence between them, and the final tracks, 8 through 12, are mixed into another seamless piece.
2007 release
''Blade Runner Trilogy: 25th Anniversary'', a 3-CD set, was released in 2007 to coincide with the 5-DVD release to mark the 25th anniversary of the film. It includes the 1994 official CD along with two bonus CDs, both compiled from original material by
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...
. The second disc includes some previously officially unreleased material, but is still not complete, omitting the "Main Title" track, for example. The third disc contains new material inspired by ''Blade Runner''. Each track is a separate piece, separated by silence, rather than any of them being mixed together seamlessly as was the case with all but three tracks in the 1994 version.
Although this release claims to be the "complete" score, there is still some music heard in the film that is missing.
The second disc, of previously unreleased music, contains additional music not present in the film, including two bonus tracks. One of these, "Desolation Path", is a slightly different version of "Alternate Love Theme/I Dreamt Music". This track was originally used in the workprint version of the film, during the Deckard/Rachael love scene.
Orchestral release
The first official release (on LP, tape and CD) was a reinterpretation by the
New American Orchestra
Irwin Elliott Zucker (August 6, 1927 – August 18, 2001) was an American television and film composer, conductor, music arranger, television producer, and co-founder of the New American Orchestra, later renamed the American Jazz Philharmonic.
...
in 1982. Billed as an "orchestral adaptation of music composed for the motion picture by Vangelis", this release consisted of jazz-inspired, orchestrated renditions of the major tracks from the film, but not the original score tracks.
Bootlegs
The delays and poor reproductions of the ''Blade Runner'' score led to the production of many
bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...
s over the years. A bootleg tape surfaced in 1982 at science fiction conventions and became popular, given the delay of an official release of the original recordings. In 1993 "Off World Music, Ltd." created a bootleg
CD that would prove more comprehensive than Vangelis' official CD in 1994. A disc from "Gongo Music" features most of the same material, but more of it. The Deck Definitive Edition came about in 2001, with 27 tracks. In 2002, the "Esper Edition" bootleg surfaced, followed by "Los Angeles, November 2019" in 2003. The double-disc "Esper Edition" combined tracks from the official release, the Gongo boot and the film itself. Finally, "2019" provided a single-disc compilation almost wholly consisting of ambient sound from the film, padded out with some sounds from the Westwood game ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
''.
Studio tape
The first release of the ''Blade Runner'' score in any form was a tape suspected of coming from a
sound engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...
during the film's mixing. It was popular, despite subpar audio quality, given there were no plans to release a Vangelis score.
Off World Music
A second bootleg ''Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Blade Runner'' appeared in 1993 by "Off World Music, Ltd." on CD. Issued as a limited edition of 2000 numbered copies, it was of high quality and actually more comprehensive than the official release by Vangelis in 1994. This release includes the 1939 recording "
If I Didn't Care
"If I Didn't Care" is a song written by Jack Lawrence that was sung and recorded by the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny in 1939.
Background
The Ink Spots recording became the 10th best selling single of all time with over 19 million copies ...
" by
R&B group
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely a ...
that originally appeared in the workprint of ''Blade Runner'', but was replaced by the Don Percival cut "One More Kiss, Dear" in the final version.
Gongo Music
In 1995, a disc from Romanian label "Gongo Music, Ltd" was issued as a limited edition of 3000 copies. It contained mostly the same music as the Off World Music release, but included one track, "Blimpvert", which had not featured on any previous releases. This track contains an excerpt from "Ogi no Mato" by Ensemble Nipponia.
Deck Definitive Edition
In 2001, a 27-track CD from Japanese label "Deck Art" was released as a limited edition of 500 copies with high-quality sound. No tracklist was provided, but the disc contained material found on earlier bootlegs, as well as music that had not appeared on any previous releases.
Esper Edition
In 2002 a bootleg ''Blade Runner: Esper Edition'' by "Esper Productions" was created as a limited edition of 10 copies, providing a comprehensive ''Blade Runner'' soundtrack. It contains some background music that has never been released.
Esper Edition notes:
* Original music composed and performed by Vangelis
* "Harps of the Ancient Temples" (Bicycle Riders) written and performed by Gail Laughton
* Vocals performed on tracks 3, 9 (disc I) and track 5 (disc II) by Demis Roussos
* Vocals performed on "Rachael's Song" by
Mary Hopkin
Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer-songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists ...
* Saxophone on tracks 2 and 9 (disc II) by
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin Morrissey (9 May 1940 – 8 November 2000) was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and flute.
Biography Background
He was born in Horley, Surrey, England. Dick Morrissey emerg ...
* Lyrics and vocals on "One More Kiss‚ Dear" by Don Percival (Note: the official 1994 release credits the vocals to Don Percival but the lyrics to English singer/composer
Peter Skellern
Peter Skellern (14 March 1947 – 17 February 2017) was an English singer-songwriter and pianist who rose to fame in the 1970s. He had two Hit song, top twenty hits on the UK Singles Chart - "You're a Lady" (1972), which typifies his signature u ...
)
* "Salome's Dance" includes a snippet that the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark expanded into the single "Junk Culture" from the album of the same name, released in 1984.
The Esper bootleg edition was expanded in 2017 and renamed the ''Esper 'Retirement' Edition'', consisting of six discs (five CD-DA and one DVD-ROM). It incorporated the missing tracks from the trilogy release.
Other authors and iTunes, state the Gail Laughton piece is called "Pompeii 76 A.D." from his album ''Harps Of The Ancient Temples''.
Legacy
The film score & soundtrack are widely considered as "genius", "classic" and one of the best of all time.
In 2019, ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' rated it as the best film score of all time out of 50, stating "it's shocking to consider that ''Blade Runner'' did not get nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, or any other major Oscars. Equally bewildering is the fact that Vangelis won Best Original Score for 1981's conventionally pretty ''Chariots of Fire'', but wasn't even honorably mentioned for his far richer contributions to ''Blade Runner''". In 2020, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' included it among 10 best film soundtracks. In 2021, the "Main Titles" was rated as the greatest synth sound of all time out of 40 by ''
Computer Music
Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ap ...
''. In 2022, the ''Future Music'' magazine placed the soundtrack as 1st among "10 of the most incredible synth film soundtracks from Hollywood history".
In 2017, a sequel to ''Blade Runner'' was released, ''
Blade Runner 2049
''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. A sequel to the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'', the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, w ...
''.
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...
and
Benjamin Wallfisch
Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch (born 7 August 1979) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and producer of film scores. Since the mid-2000s, he has worked on over 75 feature films, including composing original scores for '' Blade Ru ...
collaborated on the
''Blade Runner 2049'' score, and the original ''Blade Runner'' soundtrack served as inspiration for their work. The composers included a Yamaha CS-80 analog synthesizer among the instruments in an effort to maintain stylistic continuity with Vangelis's original 1982 film score. Zimmer said of the soundtrack: "Ridley
cott
Primo Water Corporation (formerly Cott Corporation) is an American-Canadian water company offering multi-gallon bottled water, water dispensers, self-service refill water machines, and water filtration appliances. The company is headquartered in ...
is a hard act to follow – as is Vangelis. While Ben
allfischwas four years old, I had actually experienced all of this. We watched and literally, as we stopped watching, we decided on the palette. We decided this wasn't going to be an orchestral thing. The story spoke to us."
The sequel score includes a fairly faithful remake of the original "Tears in Rain" (retitled "Tears in the Rain") and borrows many musical cues from the original Vangelis score throughout, including its frequent use of pitch bending.
Charts
Certifications and sales
References
External links
Vangelis' ''Blade Runner'' film scoreat NemoStudios.co.uk – synthesizer set-up, recording music, and studio's photographs.
Bladezone.com– Visions In Sound by Bentley Ousley
''Blade Runner'' (Bootleg Editions)– Antas' Vangelis rarities website
The Esper InterviewVangelis – ''Blade Runner'' (29th Anniversary Limited Edition)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blade Runner (Soundtrack)
Soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
Science fiction film soundtracks
Science fiction soundtracks
Cyberpunk music
1994 soundtrack albums
Vangelis soundtracks
Atlantic Records soundtracks
East West Records soundtracks
Space music albums