A new Blade Runner soundtrack release with two new Vangelis discs!!!! The release comes in a deluxe 3 CD digipack. The artwork looks contemporary, and the print quality of the artwork is attractive, sharp, and of high quality. The stills from the movie are carefully restored. Overall this packaging looks and feels impressive.

Disc 1:
I proceeded to play disc one. This is Vangelis' officially released "Blade Runner" album from 1994 that contained several memorable themes from the movie. Themes such as "Memories of Green", "Love Theme", "Blade Runner Blues", and "End Titles" are all included here, but the album also contained new material composed in 1994. Listening to disc one made me aware how I have adopted the 1994 compositions as part of Blade Runner's music saga, Rachel's Song could have been plucked straight from the movie. The music on this disc flows and pours from one theme to the next, and listening to it you lose sense of time, slowly re-emerging in another time another place into the movie's characters and storyline. This disc is engaging, the themes are seamlessly connected in an uninterrupted movie of its own, and it is done so to maximum effect. Very few so-called "soundtracks" have achieved this level of immersion, and this music is as timeless and enjoyable as it ever was.

Disc 2
The next disc contains music from the Blade Runner score that until now has remained unreleased. The music of the disc two conveys a different feel. If disc one could be described as a collection of memorable music from the movie, then disc two captures the ambiance of the film on a more personal level. The music unravels as an Sci-Fi opera and puts you right into the heart of Blade Runner's bleak and grand atmospheres, it makes you feel enchanted by the lush landscapes and grandeur of the surroundings, while at the same time you feel uneasy and tense by the somber and the discomforting underpinnings. With shape-shifting sequencers, curious sound effects, underlined by razor-blade synth sounds that drones the soundscape around you, by which sometimes gets ripped by thundering blasts, just the way we seem to remember of the futuristic world of Blade Runner, this music is simply magnificent. Again, the music here is presented in a seamless fashion, and you get uninterrupted music for the whole duration of the album. The experience is incredibly reflective, levitating, intimate, and magical. I think disc 2 will be recognized as a Vangelis masterpiece. If you would ignore for a moment its links to the Blade Runner world and listen to it as an album, it is a brilliant piece of work. It shows a side of Vangelis' we have not heard in any previous work. His use of machines to build an aural sound-scape while injecting emotions at the same time is breathtaking and refreshing. I can't recall being exposed to music like this before, well except maybe a bit on the long track (B-side) of Chariots of Fire. It is somewhat sad this great work has been dormant for 25 years, but I am glad to be here and enjoying it. The way this album is compiled is to be complemented for, the tracks segues into each other and I think it plays a big part of the magic. In retrospect, this album fits nicely the gap of Vangelis releases between Chariots of Fire (1981) and Soil Festivities (1983).


Disc 3:
The third disc contains new music composed for the 25-th anniversary of Blade Runner. The music does not pretend to go 25 years back to the past and do more music on period instruments, instead it sounds modern giving no doubt a certain amount of time difference between the two periods, not only in musical style but also to changes that might occured to the world. Its story is in the Blade Runner world, though not about the characters Dick, Roy, or Rachel, it could about someone you know or your own story for that matter. The music is more edgy, more ethnic, and sometimes more chaotic, but it can also be very sweet as well. Occasionally the music refers to musical motifs from the original score, by recycling melodies and audio samples. And just as on the first disc, there are dialogs or spoken words here too, some incidental and some part of the musical plot, though never getting in the way of the music, and actually sometimes enhancing the experience. The variety of music throughout this disc is colorful, the album is different than anything Vangelis has done in recent times. I must say the results are pleasantly refreshing and intriguing at times. This music has lots of surprises, and one that I am gladly embracing with the first two Blade Runner discs. The prevailing feeling here is how Vangelis is doing things a little out of ordinary or the unconventional. For example, I can't recall Vangelis ever creating a piece of music entirely on a grand piano, without the use of any added sounds, you just can't help imagining how intimate and special this piece is. Or for example on Up and Running, his use of samples from his first Blade Runner album and present them in a hypnotically-driven track, it brought back memories of the experimental side of him in Alpha Beta, and some more. I admit I like the spoken words of this album, for me they are completely integrated within the context of the music, I especially liked the one talking about solitude and loneliness. One track I feel so attracted to is Spotkanie Z Matka, I can't be sure why. The music does not allure you with a grand Vangelis theme that he is so famous for, instead the music might be described as simple. Yet it attracts you in a subtle way, there is a sense of reserved optimism and unobtrusive gentleness here, and one that Vangelis manages to pull so brilliantly and almost effortlessly. Listening to Spotkanie Z Matka I felt I was listening to a new Direct album for a moment . It also made me realize how much I miss Vangelis' tinkering with electronics and digital productions lately (since Oceanic really). The other track that is likely to be a favorite for any is of course Sweet Solitude, the moment this piece starts with the opening notes and you know this is going to be a great Vangelis(ian) piece, and marvelous and great it is.... It also shows another example of Vangelis that is not conventional, the use of other musicians in an explicit way to give the impression he is improvising or performing with a band, rather than using musicians to fulfill a role for his symphonic music. We could listen to a whole album like this. There are other favourite tracks of mine, such as Perfume Exotico and Mail form India, all in all, this album is surprise, a pleasant surprise!

Conclusion:
All in all, this 3 CD set is looking like an excellent collection for Vangelis fans. Initially when news break out of this 3-CD release, I had certain thoughts what discs two and three could be like, but both ended sounding quite different than what I anticipated. The surprise is they are far much better than what I could have imagined them to be. This is a great way to re-visit Blade Runner, and one that would not disappoint the fan of the music or the film.