My interest in ambient music (or new age, as the genre was often referred to at the time) began in earnest during the early summer of 1990 when I was introduced to The City by Vangelis. It was the featured album on an episode of Echoes, the syndicated radio program produced and hosted by John Diliberto at the University of Pennsylvania and broadcast to public radio stations across the country. My accidental introduction to Echoes and The City has been documented here.
I recently visited Italy for the first time, and the first city we encountered was Rome. I managed to adjust quickly to the time difference, so the morning of our second day, I found myself up early exploring the Monti neighborhood around our boutique hotel (not nearly as bougie as it sounds) while my travelling family companions, Anne and G, slept in. In my ears was one of my go to ambient playlists called “Dawn”, named after the first song on the playlist, and first song on The City.
Playing in shuffle mode, “Dawn” eventually played in my AirPods. The track has been on my top five ambient list for over three decades and it felt particularly right in that moment as I took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the ancient streets.
As I walked slowly through the city it dawned on me that The City was produced by Vangelis in a hotel in an old European city, but I couldn’t remember which one. A quick search revealed it had in fact been Rome, where Vangelis was visiting to observe a film being produced by Roman Polanski; a film that Vangelis had been commissioned to score.
Of course, at that moment I had to play the whole album. After 34 years of enjoying the rich tapestry of electronic sounds and diverse arrangements of many genres that Vangelis layers on The City, the record had never sounded better that in that moment walking through the city of its birth.
Listening to it has always flooded me with memories of The Monkey House, the place in Pittsburgh where a curious 18 year old musician first heard the record late one summer night, and where he played the freshly acquired cassette over and over the for the entire summer of 1990. From this point forward, included in those memories will be the sights, sounds, and smells experienced by a curious 52 year old exploring the streets of Rome.