“Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer with us,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted on Thursday.
“The world of music has lost (artist) international Vangelis”.
The pioneer of electronic music, died at 79 years old “late in the night of Tuesday May 17”, specified his lawyer.
This self-taught Greek had found his inspiration in space exploration, nature, futuristic architecture, the New Testament and the student movement of May 1968. His soundtrack for "Chariots of Fire" won an Oscar against the music of John Williams directed for the first Indiana Jones movie in 1982.
Death of the coronavirus in France?
According to several Greek media, Vangelis died of the coronavirus in France where he shared his time with London and Athens.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis also pointed out that Vangelis' middle name was Ulysses.
“For us Greeks, this means that he began his great journey on the chariots of Fire.
From there he will always send us his notes,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted again.
Among the dozen soundtracks he has composed are those for the Costa-Gavras film "Missing", Roman Polanski's "Bile Moons", "Blade Runner" and Oliver Stone's "Alexander".
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