Aphrodite's child

This cult group of the late sixties, was created a little earlier, back in the homeland of musicians - in Greece . But the history of collaboration between the creators of the team began even earlier, in the early sixties. Having achieved some success at the regional level and decided to continue to build a musical career further, they were forced to leave their homeland (since the power in the country was seized by the Black Colonels junta, which set a goal at the state level, to cleanse Greek society from the manifestations of the West so hated by them, rock music in particular) and try to succeed by moving to England, because it was there that at that time had the most opportunities. Initially, there were four musicians ^{[1] [2]} . But the fourth member of the group - Silver Koulouris - was not lucky: he was not allowed to leave Greece, since he had to serve in the army. Despite this, the friends decided to start a professional career with the three of them, leaving a place in the group for their friend, and were poisoned to conquer London with the three. But along the way, the group faced bureaucratic difficulties associated with a visa and a work permit. Upon reaching Dover , the group was sent back to the other side of the English Channel . But the group’s problems were not limited to this: once they got back to Paris, they couldn’t physically leave it, because in those days in France there were strikes by employees of communications, and friends had to stay in France for a while. As a result, “Aphrodite’s Child” didn’t reach London, and friends, having received an offer to sign a contract with the Mercury record company, decided to stay in Paris. So they became a French group consisting of ethnic Greeks singing in English.

All three were so different and gravitated to opposite directions, that it seemed that such a team could neither exist nor achieve any success. In this difference of views and tastes, the unique sound of the group was born, which became the main trump card, and at the same time, the lack of the group. From the very beginning of the formation of the collective, it was obvious that the main singer should be Demis Roussos . Demis possessed a truly unique voice, he could take high notes without losing the strength of the timbre, possessed original technique, as well as remarkable endurance and a wide range of voices, which he developed when playing the trumpet as a child. Demis gravitated to folk, Greek folk music and wanted the collective to stage not only a musical performance, but also a costume one. Demis also believed that it is better to abandon electrical equipment, and play exclusively on acoustic, folk instruments, "pounding" their microphones. Thus, it would be possible to preserve the authenticity of timbres and expand the capabilities of the collective: to perform both on large venues and in the open air; without limiting yourself to the camera format. Besides the fact that this direction was close to Demis, he believed that since this niche was empty at that time, and if not great success and attention, then at least the favor of a certain part of the audience was undoubtedly guaranteed to them. Another member of the collective, Lucas Sideras, on the contrary, wanted to move in the direction in which the groups of the late sixties sounded and believed that the movement in that direction should bring the greatest success. He motivated this by the fact that they, in themselves, were no worse than their contemporaries, and even better (because they had a strong musician-composer and a great singer), and most importantly they had something to tell in their songs. Among other things, this format was in fashion, in the mainstream. A definite positive result was clearly guaranteed to them here. Finally, the third member of the collective - Vangelis Papatanasiou , was close to a completely different music. He was interested in what was then called "progressive" - ​​complex instrumental music, using a large number of advanced synthesizers and other electronic instruments of that era; later, Vangelis will be considered an actual pioneer in the field. Being a couple of years older than his friends, Vangelis became an informal creative leader of the team, though with whose opinion there was not always unanimity, but nevertheless, it was he who determined the direct course of the group, and even solved some everyday issues, so transportation , accommodation, and so on. In addition to this, Vangelis took upon himself the compilation and arrangement of music, and Boris Bergman became the poet of the collective.

At first, the collective experimented in sounding, and tried different formats, primarily because they were limited in the number of hands on the stage, because they did not want to take another member of the collective, since the place was “reserved” for their friend, Silver Kuluris, who could not leave Greece with friends; but he soon came to the final formula, where Vangelis sat down at the keyboard (mostly electro-faceted ) accompaniment, and the other two at the back, depending on the requirements of arranging the composition. But more often than not, the band performed in the following format: Demis sang and played bass , while Lucas played drums . However, in some compositions he played the guitar and sang Lucas, and Demis at the same time played the guitar , flute , or even folk Greek instruments such as bouzouki . The presence of the second singer in the band allowed the group to hold long performances, since the main singer, Demis Russos , could rest while Lucas sang. But the lack of a strong soloist - an instrumental musician (since Vangelis was busy accompanying, actually creating all the music of the ensemble during the game, he could not simultaneously play the leading parts fully) in the collective, affected the sound of the group, which was more like a good one, a high-quality, small orchestra, but not at all familiar to a rock band, where there was no prominent solo musician, and where the sound of the composition, in spite of all their complexity and beauty, was like ordinary pop songs, albeit in progressive and even jazz processing; which was extremely uncharacteristic at the time when the electric guitar began to dominate on the stage, and when there were only two common formats: either a prominent artist with an accompanying ensemble, or a Rock Band without an obvious leader, but with prominent instrumentalist soloists. The style of the collective’s sound itself was even more uncharacteristic - when everyone tried to pull the group in the direction that seemed right to him: Demis to Greek folklore, Lucas to rock and roll , and Vangelis to progressive (the example of Lebed, Cancer and Pike), which on the one hand resulted to the unique sound of a complex progressive rock roll (albeit without a solo electric guitar, then popular), with a touch of Greek folk music; on the other, in the desire of musicians to start secondary projects on the side, for the realization of their own ideas. However, most critics agreed that the group “Aphrodite’s Child”, although a distinctive phenomenon, has much in common with other similar bands playing psychedelic and progressive rock, such as Prokul Harum , Moody Blues , Jefferson Airplane .

Their first album “End Of The World” (also known as “Rain And Tears”), which appeared in October 1968, mainly consisted of melodic ballads, harsh, nervous compositions, as well as songs performed in the spirit of avant-garde jazz. The second disc, “It's Five O'clock,” was recorded at Trent Studios in London - where the band finally got to. It was in the studios of London that one could find the most advanced equipment and the latest synthesizers.

But the real fame and recognition among music critics came to the group after the release of the concept album, the third album in a row, work on which began back in 1970 - “ 666 (The Apocalypse of John, 13/18) ” . The main author of the music was Vangelis. The disc was created under the impression of the Revelation of John the Evangelist and was released in 1972, two years later. Many third-party musicians were invited for studio sessions, including Irene Papas . Considering that this particular disc will become a breakthrough in the career of the ensemble, Vangelis devoted all his time to it. But making sure in practice that it was impossible to combine touring activities and studio sessions, and that in his spare time from concerts it was not enough to write music for the album, Vangelis, to the surprise of his bandmates, easily made a seemingly difficult decision: to stop taking part in the concert the activities of the team, and completely devote himself to the new disc, for he was convinced of the significance of this disc. But realizing that you can’t hide from the public for a long time in the studio, and realizing how important it is that the collective does not stop its concert activity, he decided to find a replacement for himself. So a third-party session keyboardist was hired to replace Vangelis at concerts. At about the same time, Silver Kuluris came to friends from Greece, who, after serving in the army, as agreed, joined the team. Silver successfully brings to the team, the sound of an electric guitar so lacking before. But the “Child of Aphrodite”, with the advent of Silver Kuluris, is no longer perceived as a kind of distinctive phenomenon in music, but is beginning to be put on a par with such bands as Led Zeppelin , a group of Jimi Hendrix , Genesis .

Perhaps due to a slight decline in the interest of the collective in the public, due to the boom in this direction and the emergence of a large number of new bands performing progressive music ; or due to the absence of Vangelis at concerts; or mistakenly believing that Vangelis himself had lost interest in the group; or simply because he was already tired of waiting for the realization of his own ideas, Demis Roussos leaves the group. Initially, his decision was even supported by his ensemble friends Lucas and Silver, who themselves were tired of the endless studio sessions of recording 666 . But in the end, Demis put together a new band (since Lucas and Silver wanted to continue to play about the same music as Child of Aphrodite, but with less progressive and more - simple rock and roll), released his first solo album, and He began his own career in a completely different direction. Therefore, by the time the long-awaited album was released, the group, in its original form, had already virtually ceased to exist.

However, the album, as Vangelis believed, was not just a breakthrough, moreover, a cult. He was praised by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali .

After that, the musicians went in different ways, only occasionally collaborating on joint projects. Demis Roussos subsequently realized his initial plans, and began to perform pop music, with Greek folklore flavor. The author of some songs, and the keyboard player on a number of his recordings, was Vangelis . Lucas Sideras for some time left music, took up science and taught antique literature at the Sorbonne for some time, later was spotted on drums in two other ensembles, but he could not achieve much success. And Vangelis Papatanasiou , having reduced the first and last name to the pseudonym " Vangelis " ( Vangelis ), began to work in the genre of electronic music . For the soundtrack to the British film " Chariots of Fire " he was awarded the Oscar in the nomination "Best Original Soundtrack." And in the recording of another soundtrack for the film “ Blade Runner ”, Demis took part.

• End of the World (February 1968 )
• It's Five O'Clock (January 1970 )
• 666 (June 1972 ) ^[1]

• Band History, Complete Discography
• Article about the group (Russian)
• The official website of Demis Russos
• Band History, Discography
• Aphrodite's Child on MySpace