El Greco is a soundtrack album featuring the music score for the 2007 film El Greco, by Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in Greece and Cyprus by Universal Music Greece. The film, directed by Yannis Smaragdis, follows the life of Greek painter, Doménicos Theotokópoulos, as he travels to Italy and Spain where he becomes known as El Greco (The Greek). Vangelis previously worked with Yannis Smaragdis on his 1996 movie about the Greek poet Kavafis (a.k.a. Cavafy). It won the award for best music score at the 48th Greek State Film Awards in 2007.
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Overview
This is not the first project regarding El Greco with which Vangelis has been involved. In 1995, the album Foros Timis Ston Greco had a limited release (3,000 signed copies) as part of a fund raising campaign for Greek art. Three years later, in 1998, Vangelis recompiled the album, including 3 additional tracks, and retitled it El Greco.
On this soundtrack for the film El Greco, Vangelis' method is to watch the images and let them inspire his creative process. Typical of his film work, each track paints a different picture while fitting into the whole, even the three tracks not composed by Vangelis himself. Tracks 1 and 18 are different compositions of the same melody. Track 1 is a choral piece composed for the movie's climax and track 18 is a piano version that serves as the end titles. Track 2 is the actual opening titles.