TheDragonFrontIntroduction

“The Dragon” is an album by Vangelis, and at the same time not an album by Vangelis. Confusing? This is what happened...

Early in 1971 Vangelis finished recording sessions of what would later become “666”, the controversial progressive rock album by “Aphrodite’s Child”. During those sessions music producer Giorgio Gomelsky had been visiting the studio and occasionally helped out with the production. The two first met in 1968 while Vangelis was on tour with Aphrodite’s Child and playing at Club de Valbonne in the south of France, where Gomelsky happened to tour as the manager of Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger. As Vangelis was working in the studio to finalise the album, it became clear that Aphrodite’s Child was breaking up, and Demis and Lucas went on to tour without Vangelis.

It was Giorgio Gomelsky that proposed to organise recording sessions in London, an idea that must have appealed to Vangelis as back in 1968 he was destined for London with Demis and Lucas, before they got stuck in Paris. Gomelsky was commissioned by Jean Georgakarakos of BYG Records to produce the project, and BYG records booked the Marquee Studios in Soho during May/June 1971.

After moving several of his instruments to London, Vangelis teamed up with Michel Ripoche (violin), Brian Odger (bass guitar) and Tony Oxley (drums) to play mostly improvisational and experimental jazz music. In this interview Gomelsky recalled: “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.“

After returning to Paris, the tapes of the recording sessions remained in the archives of the Marquee Studios. When BYG Records went bankrupt in 1972, former co-founder Jean-Luc Young managed to obtain the studio tapes, and in 1978 he released the sessions on his new label ‘Charly Records’ as what we now know as “Hypothesis” and “The Dragon”, without Vangelis’ approval . Even though Vangelis successfully went to court to dispute the release, both records were already on the market and are still widely available.

 

TheDragonCreditsTracklist and credits

  • The Dragon
  • Stuffed Aubergine
  • Stuffed Tomato

Vangelis: keyboards/percussion
Argyris Koulouris: guitar
Michel Ripoche: violin
Brian Odger: bass guitar
Mick Waller: drums

Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky.
Engineer: Phil Dunne
Cover illustration (Charly Records) by Terry Oakes.

 

TheDragonBackDiscography

LP

  • 1978 Charly Records 651.030 Holland
  • 1978 Charly Records CRL 5013 UK
  • 1978 Charly Records/Bellaphon CR 3040 West-Germany
  • 1980 Charly Records CRL 5013 Greece
  • 1980 Charly Records L7-CH26 Spain
  • 1981 Charly Records/Oxford OX3196 Italy
  • 1981 Legends Of Music RPL-3004 Japan
  • Charly Records/Bellaphon CR 3053 West-Germany (2LP titled "Portrait") includes both “Hypothesis” and “The Dragon”
  • 2009 “The BYG Deal” Finders Keepers FKR025LP UK (includes ‘Stuffed Tomato’)

CD

  • West Line Coop WL111 Hungary
  • Platinum Music VPSP-803933 (bootleg) includes both “Hypothesis” and “The Dragon”. This bootleg has excellent audio quality.
  • 2009 “The BYG Deal” Finders Keepers FKR025CD UK (includes ‘Stuffed Tomato’)

12” maxi single

  • 2009 Who Killed The Dragon? (The BYG Sessions) Finders Keepers FKRMAXI01 UK includes both 'The Dragon’ and ‘Stuffed Tomato'.

 

TheDragonCDFrontRecording studio

The music for this album was recorded at Marquee Studios, London, in June 1971.

 

More

  • “The Dragon” is one of the songs that Vangelis performed in the French TV show “Melody” in April 1974.
  • Argyris Koulouris is mostly known as the 'fourth' member of Aphrodite's Child, who re-grouped in France with the band just in time to work on their final album "666". After that he als contributed to Vangelis' albums "The Dragon" (1971), "Earth" (1973) and "See You Later" (1980), as well as Demis Roussos' album "Reflection" in 1984.
  • Michel Ripoche is the violinist who also worked with Vangelis on the Aphrodite’s Child “666” and Vangelis' “Fais Que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit” (1972) concept albums.
  • Giorgio Gomelsky produced the recordings for both “Hypothesis” and “The Dragon” but was not involved in their release. Vangelis and Giorgio worked together on several occasions, first on Aphrodite’s Child “666” (1972) and later also on the songs released as “Alpha Beta” (1971).
  • Read more about Giorgio Gomelsky and his experiences while working with Vangelis in this interview at the Elsewhere website.

Links

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