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The Delectus box set contains approximately 30% of Vangelis’ original albums and major collaborations, from the first/mid part of his career. It has the majority of his Nemo-period recordings, which many consider his most creative and influential period. To me, the albums featured in this set have been “bread of life” for decades, so to say. If I reviewed Delectus just based on how good this music is, it would be five stars without any doubt.
This set however is probably more intended for the completists, as the remastered albums are not available separately. Thus, the question is how much extra value does this set provide for its pretty high cost. My judgement is: quite a lot. Opening the box, it becomes strikingly obvious that Universal aimed for delivering a worthy presentation of these now-classic discs. The engraved white box, the 100 (not 64!) page book inside, the placement of the disks in the gatefold sleeves all scream quality. The book itself marks the first opportunity to have so much Vangelis-related printed material in outstanding quality. Not only it provides many photos and some short background to each album, but replicates the original album sleeves (at least the front side) in LP size.
Most of the remastered albums sound warmer, fuller than the old CDs, just as if we were listening to our good old LPs again. It might be due to some extra reverb added (elsew.com describes sound quality album by album), but I must say that it works for me well in most cases. Also, the tracks have been equalized, so for example the second half of the great track Suffocation is more audible, the end of the Deliverance track is less shouting, I’ll Find My Way Home starts louder etc.
At the first glance it might seem annoying however that all albums are shorter than the previous CD versions. Sometimes the difference is just a few seconds, sometimes even a minute. The reason is that Delectus largely eliminates the gaps between the tracks, as well as the fade ins and outs are shortened. Vangelis must have followed a concept to make the music more flowing by removing the hardly/not audible parts. I took the track Multi-Track Suggestion for testing such differences, as it is 10 seconds shorter according to Windows Media Player than the original CD version I have. I found that it is because the 4-second gap between this track and Memories of Green is removed, fade-in is 2 seconds shorter, fade out is also 4 seconds faster. All in all, the remastered albums seem to stay closer to the original LP track time indications. Exceptionally however these edits remove real substance, which is the case for the tracks Song of White (the reprise of the Antarctica theme is shortened) and Soil Festivities Movement 1 (raining and thundering are cut from the end) – these truncations don’t meet my acceptance at all.
What was known already at the time of announcing Delectus: it contains only 4 tracks previously unreleased on CD (but well-known to fans), totalling about 18 minutes, which is very little for such a mammoth 13-disc set. One of them is the long-awaited “Song is” which is now available on CD 34 years after the vinyl single release. The other extra tracks were outtakes from the See You Later album, and now that they are appended, I must say they don’t make the album any more complete. A much better outtake, Fertilization, remains unreleased sadly. Vangelis’ fans are aware of lots of great music from the 1973-85 period that never actually surfaced on any of his official albums. Delectus could have been a good opportunity to do some justice with that music, but Vangelis or Universal must have thought differently. The Themes compilation from 1989 is the proof that it would have been possible, in fact that album contained more previously unreleased tracks from these years than the whole Delectus set. Not only additional music I miss, but curiously the album La Fete Sauvage is not found in the set, although it is a proper Polydor album from 1976 which really needed remastering. I hope that it will be also remastered over time, together with Ignacio and 666 (all are in Universal’s hands), completing the list of remastered Vangelis albums from the 70s and 80s.
All in all, I am pleased with Delectus. Vangelis and Universal, thank you and keep us happy with more great music.
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Customer reviews
Ok.Newly remastered.Would buy the set, for one thing, over time, I myself have collected ALL listed, on ORIGINAL released CD's, by means of the web, shops and pure chance.Only things that stand out are the bonus tracks.Even once owned the 'my love' 7" single...Looks lovely, and worth the price.But not necessary for myself.An avid VANGELIS listener since I purchased 'heaven and hell' on cassette in 1987.But first heard his music on the television series 'cosmos' and only just managed to obtain a copy on CD. (Original pressing of course).M.
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2017
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2017
Great collect, but terrible and disappointing accompanying book. Less info in it than in many CD booklets!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2017
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 February 2017
