''The Dragon'' is a studio album by the Greek electronic composer

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 ...

, unofficially released in 1978.

Background

After the break-up of

Aphrodite's Child Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards, flutes), Demis Roussos (bass, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals), Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals), and Silver Koulouris (guitar). They i ...

, Vangelis wanted to relocate to London. Producer

Giorgio Gomelsky Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Unit ...

introduced him to some other musicians and put together a collaborative project which was funded by French

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...

record label

BYG records BYG Records was a French record label known for the Actuel series specializing in free jazz. However, the label released a handful of non-jazz recordings by artists such as Musica Elettronica Viva, Freedom and Gong. History BYG Records was found ...

with the intention of releasing an album. Two albums' worth of material had resulted from these sessions, but were unfinished and never intended for release. Some years later,

Charly Records Charly Records is a British record label that specialises in reissued material. Among the labels whose original releases are reissued by Charly are Vee-Jay, Sun, Immediate, BYG, Tomato, and Fania. History Charly Records was founded in Franc ...

took over the catalogue of the bankrupt BYG records and released the recordings as album ''The Dragon'' and ''

Hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...

'' in 1978 without the approval of the performers. The sleeve was made by Terry Oakes. In Germany ''Hypothesis'' and ''The Dragon'' were issued together as a double album titled ''Portrait''. Vangelis subsequently took the label to court to have both albums taken off the market and won the case.

Recording and personnel

Apart from Vangelis (who played the keyboards), the line-up consisted of long-term musical collaborator Arghiris (Anargyros Koulouris) (guitar), and session musicians Michel Ripoche (violin), Brian Odgers (bass),

Micky Waller Michael Waller (6 September 1941 – 29 April 2008) was an English drummer, who played with many of the biggest names on the UK rock and blues scene, after he became a professional musician in 1960. In addition to being a member, albeit sometim ...

(drums). The sessions were recorded in London's Marquee Studios by

. According to Gomelsky, 'The idea was to find "grooves" that could lead into long, (Sufi)trance-like but evolving rhythmic patterns with a lot of improvisation on top'.ibid
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keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

*Anargyros Koulouris –

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

s *Brian Odger –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

s *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Michel Ripoche -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Reception

Steven McDonald at Allmusic notes that although the album was mainly released to cash in on Vangelis' popularity, it contains elements of both Aphrodite's Child and Vangelis' upcoming solo work. Vangelis himself noted that the sessions were bad and he doesn't agree with such music.

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon Vangelis albums 1978 albums Albums produced by Giorgio Gomelsky