The Blade Runner soundtrack was composed by Vangelis for Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade
Runner.
It is mostly a dark, melodic combination of classical composition and synthesizers which
mirrors the futuristic film noir envisioned by Scott.
Since the premiere of the film, two official albums have been released containing music
omitted from the film and also new compositions featuring a similar style.
An orchestral rendition of part of the soundtrack was released in 1982 by the New American Orchestra.
However, the original soundtrack album features vocal contributions from Demis Roussos and
the sax solo by Dick Morrissey on "Love Theme".
The track "Memories of Green" from Vangelis' 1980 album See You Later was also included.
A new release made in 2007 includes a disc of new music inspired by the film.
The film also features "Ogi No Mato" by the Japanese group Ensemble Nipponia, and harpist
Gail Laughton's "Pompeii 76 A.D.".
Two songs used prominently in the workprint, "If I Didn't Care" by The Ink Spots and "Quran"
by Brian Eno & David Byrne, were omitted from the Theatrical release of Blade Runner.
The original soundtrack release was delayed for over a decade, until 1994, despite the
music being well-received by fans and critically acclaimed—nominated in 1983 for a BAFTA
and Golden Globe as best original score.
Also, there was the promise of a soundtrack album from Polydor Records in the film's end
titles.
The 1989 compilation Themes included some tracks from the film, but it was not until
two years after the 1992 Director's Cut of the film that the score saw an official release.
Releases Initial releases
The first official release was a reinterpretation by the New American Orchestra in 1982.
Billed as an "orchestral adaptation of music composed for the motion picture by Vangelis",
this release consisted of jazz-inspired, orchestrated renditions of the major tracks from the film,
but not the original score tracks.
In 1989, Vangelis released Themes, a compilation album featuring unreleased music from several
of his film scores, as well as material from non-film-related albums.
The album includes the "End Titles", "Memories of Green" and "Love Theme" from Blade Runner,
as the first appearance of the original versions of those tracks.
Official Vangelis score 1994 release
In 1994, an official recording of Vangelis' score was released by East West in the UK
and by Atlantic Records in the US.
The album reached the top 20 in the UK album charts.
This release contained a twelve-page booklet consisting mainly of stills from the film.
On page 3 there is a list of credits and the following by Vangelis:
Most of the music contained in this album originates from recordings I made in London
in 1982, whilst working on the score for the film BLADE RUNNER.
Finding myself unable to release these recordings at the time; it is with great pleasure that
I am able to do so now.
Some of the pieces contained will be known to you from the Original Soundtrack of the
film, whilst others are appearing here for the first time.
Looking back at RIDLEY SCOTT's powerful and evocative pictures left me as stimulated as
before, and made the recompiling of this music, today, an enjoyable experience.
While most of the tracks on the album are from the film, a number were composed by Vangelis
but were ultimately not used in the film itself.
Other compositions that appear in the film were not included on this release.
2007 release Blade Runner Trilogy, 25th Anniversary
A 3-CD set was released in 2007 to coincide with the 5-DVD release to mark the 25th anniversary
of the film.
It includes the 1994 official CD along with two bonus CDs, both compiled from original
material by Vangelis.
The second disc includes some previously officially unreleased material, but is still not complete,
omitting the Main Title track, for example.
The third disc contains new material inspired by Blade Runner.
Although this release claims to be the "complete" score, there is still some music heard in
the film that is missing: Longer-length track: "Main Titles", with prologue
Heard in scene: Leon's Voight-Kampff test Heard in scene: Deckard meets Rachael for
the first time Longer-length track: "Blade Runner Blues"
Heard in scene: Deckard's dream, before, during and after the unicorn appears
Heard in scene: Deckard's dream, actually an alternate recording of "Love Theme"
Heard in scene: Deckard meets the snake guy, at the Snakepit/Taffey Lewis club
Full track: before the "Love Theme" Full track: when Batty walks around JF Sebastian's
apartment Missing prelude: "The Prodigal Son Brings
Death" Heard in scene: Deckard enters the Bradbury
and walks up the stairs Longer-length track: "Deckard and Roy's Duel"
Longer-length track: "End Titles" The second disc, of previously unreleased
music, contains additional music not present in the film, including two bonus tracks, one
of which, "Desolation Path", is a slightly different version of "Alternate Love Theme/I
Dreamt Music".
This track was originally used in the workprint version of the film, during the Deckard/Rachel
love scene.
Bootlegs The delays and poor reproductions of the Blade
Runner score led to the production of many bootleg recordings over the years.
A bootleg tape surfaced in 1982 at science fiction conventions and became popular given
the delay of an official release of the original recordings, and in 1993 "Off World Music,
Ltd." created a bootleg CD that would prove more comprehensive than Vangelis' official
CD in 1994.
A disc from "Gongo Records" features most of the same material, but more of it.
The Deck Definitive Edition came about in 2001, with 27 tracks.
In 2003, two other bootlegs surfaced, the "Esper Edition", closely preceded by "Los
Angeles – November 2019".
The double-disc "Esper Edition" combined tracks from the official release, the Gongo boot
and the film itself.
Finally "2019" provided a single-disc compilation almost wholly consisting of ambient sound
from the film, padded out with some sounds from the Westwood game Blade Runner.
Studio tape The first release of the Blade Runner score
in any form was a tape suspected of coming from a sound engineer during the film's mixing.
It was popular, despite subpar audio quality, given there were no plans to release a Vangelis
score.
Off World Music A second bootleg Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:
Blade Runner appeared in 1993 by "Off World Music, Ltd." on CD, which was of high quality
and actually more comprehensive than the official release by Vangelis in 1994.
This release includes the 1939 recording by R&B group The Ink Spots.
"If I Didn't Care", that originally appeared in the workprint of Blade Runner, but was
replaced by the Don Percival cut "One More Kiss, Dear" in the final version.
Esper Edition In 2002 a bootleg – Blade Runner: Esper
Edition by "Esper Productions" – was created, providing a comprehensive Blade Runner soundtrack.
It contains some background music that has never been released.
Esper Edition notes: Original music composed and performed by Vangelis
"Harps of the Ancient Temples" written and performed by Gail Laughton
Performed on tracks 3, 9 and track 5 by Demis Roussos
Performed on "Rachael's Song" by Mary Hopkin Saxophone on tracks 2 and 9 by Dick Morrissey
Lyrics and vocals on "One More Kiss‚ Dear" by Don Percival
The Esper bootleg edition has since been updated in 2007 to be called the 'Retirement' Edition
consisting of 6 discs.
It has incorporated the missing tracks from the trilogy release.
References
External links Vangelis' Blade Runner film score at NemoStudios.co.uk
– synthesizer set-up, recording music, and studio's photographs.
Bladezone.com – Visions In Sound by Bentley Ousley
Blade Runner – Antas' Vangelis rarities website
The Esper Interview