See You Later


See You Later is an album by the Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in 1980. It breaks quite violently with the style he had employed in the late 1970s and later, relying much more on vocals and being more experimental and returning to his early 1970s work like Earth or 666. It was never released in the United States, until it was remastered in 2016.

Overview

See You Later is Vangelis' most wide-ranging work of the 1980s, with more radical musical and lyrical themes than are found in his other albums. The concept album is bleaker than most of his records, incorporating negative and satirical intonations of a dystopian future. Subjects touched on include funerals, masks, and ready-to-wear and ready-to-eat things.
The lyrics are written by Vangelis in English, French and Italian; they use electronic terminology and incorporate references to lost love, and the downfall of humanity due to the influence of technology. The title track lyrics say "See you later then... alive or dead". Track "Suffocation" was inspired by the Seveso disaster in Italy.
The album's sleeve shows an ice-covered ocean with a woman wearing sunglasses to protect her eyes; the image uses optical compression in the horizontal axis. The inner sleeve is also disturbing, displaying a character seated in a greenhouse wearing an eerie-looking gas mask.

Instruments and style

Vangelis plays all instruments: synthesizers, electric piano, grand piano and drums. The Roland CR-5000 drum machine is used extensively. Michel Ripoche plays the violin on #4. Vocals featured are by Jon Anderson, Peter Marsh, Christina and Maurizio Arcieri from the group Krisma and Cherry Vanilla.

Composition

"I Can't Take It Anymore" is sung by Peter Marsh through a vocoder over a deep synthesizer glissando bass, a synthesizer choir and CR-5000 hihats. "Multitrack Suggestion" is Kraftwerk-style and Eurodisco, which builds on a polysynth and upbeat CR-5000 pulse; the choir sings some terms associated with analog synthesizer technology. "Memories of Green" is a slow piano-based piece with a backdrop of synthesizer sounds and bleeps from the 1978 Bambino electronic game "UFO Master Blaster Station". The piano used on this piece was a Steinway Grand piano. Its distinctive "drunk" sound was achieved with the use of an Electroharmonix Electric Mistress flanger pedal. This song was used in Vangelis' subsequent soundtrack to the 1982 film Blade Runner.
"Not A Bit – All Of It" has vocals by Cherry Vanilla. "Suffocation" employs the CR-5000 and a saw wave synthesizer melody, followed by an eerie brass and megaphone emergency announcements in Italian. The second half of the piece features vocals by Jon Anderson and a narrative in Italian, by Krisma. "See You Later" has Vangelis on electric piano and staccato male atonal choir. About halfway through, there is a child narrative in French, with Anderson's vocals used in the finale.

Track listing

All songs composed and written by Vangelis.
A test 8-track test pressing has also surfaced without the title track, but includes the track "My Love" which was featured on a previous single "My Love/Domestic Logic 1", along with two additional tracks "Neighbours Above" and "Fertilization".
Side One:
  1. "My Love" - 4:02
  2. "Not A Bit - All Of It" - 2:55
  3. "Neighbours Above" - 4:48
  4. "I Can't Take It Anymore" - 5:38
  5. "Memories of Green" - 5:42
Side Two:
  1. "Fertilization" - 7:28
  2. "Suffocation" - 9:22
  3. "Multi-Track Suggestion" - 5:25

    Personnel