Blade Runner (soundtrack)

The Blade Runner: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the music for Ridley Scott's 1982 science-fiction noir film Blade Runner, made by Greek electronic musician Vangelis. This music is very important in the history of electronic music and is considered one of Vangelis's best works. In 1983, it was even nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for the best original score.

The music matches the film's dark future world with emotional sounds made using synthesizers. It also uses ideas from old jazz music used in classic film noir, plus sounds from Middle Eastern music and neo-classical styles.

The official recording of the soundtrack took a long time to be released. The first version in 1994 left out much of the music from the film and had some pieces that were not used. A special version for the 25th anniversary came out in 2007 with more music that had not been released before and a disc of new music inspired by the film. There have also been many unofficial recordings with more complete versions of the music and better sound quality.

Recording

Vangelis made the music for Blade Runner in his London studio Nemo Studios in 1982. He watched clips from the movie and made music to match what he saw. He used machines called synthesisers to create sounds for the scenes.

The main synthesiser he used was the Yamaha CS-80, heard at the start of the movie. He also used other synthesisers like the Roland ProMars, Jupiter-4, and VP-330, plus a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 and an E-mu Emulator. He also played a Steinway piano, a Yamaha CP-80 electric grand, and a Fender Rhodes. He used traditional instruments such as gamelan, glockenspiel, gong, snare drum, timpani, and tubular bells. The album has singing by Demis Roussos and saxophone by Dick Morrissey on the song "Love Theme". The track "Memories of Green" from Vangelis' 1980 album See You Later was also used in the music.

Releases

Official Vangelis score

1994 release

In 1994, an official recording of the music for the movie Blade Runner was released. The music was made by a musician named Vangelis. The album became popular and reached a high position in music charts in the UK. People said the music was very special and powerful, matching the mood of the movie.

This version of the music does not include all the original pieces from the movie. Some pieces were made but not used in the film, and some music from the movie is missing from this release. A few tracks include voices from the movie mixed in with the music.

2007 release

In 2007, a special three-CD set was released to celebrate the movie’s 25th anniversary. This set included the 1994 CD plus two extra CDs with more music by Vangelis. One of these CDs had some music that had never been officially released before, but it still was not everything from the movie. The third CD had new music inspired by the movie.

Even with this special release, some music from the movie was still not included.

Orchestral release

The first official release of the music in 1982 was done by a group called the New American Orchestra. They played versions of the music that were arranged for an orchestra, giving it a jazz-like feel, but it was not the original music composed by Vangelis.

Bootlegs

Because the official music from Blade Runner took a long time to release, many unofficial recordings became popular. In 1982, a tape appeared at science fiction events. In 1993, a company called "Off World Music, Ltd." made a high-quality CD with more music than the official version released in 1994. Another CD from "Gongo Music" included almost the same music but added a few more tracks. In 2001, the "Deck Definitive Edition" came out with 27 tracks. In 2002, the "Esper Edition" appeared, and in 2003, another version called "Los Angeles, November 2019" was released. The "Esper Edition" combined music from official releases, unofficial CDs, and the movie itself. Finally, a version called "2019" focused mostly on background sounds from the film and added some music from a video game.

Studio tape

The very first version of the Blade Runner music was a tape that may have come from someone working on the movie. Even though the sound wasn’t great, it was popular because there were no plans to release an official version.

Off World Music

In 1993, "Off World Music, Ltd." released a CD called Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Blade Runner. It was a limited edition of 2000 copies and had higher quality and more music than the official 1994 release. It included a 1939 song called "If I Didn't Care" by The Ink Spots, which was in an early version of the movie but replaced later.

Gongo Music

In 1995, a Romanian company called "Gongo Music, Ltd." released a CD with mostly the same music as the Off World Music version but added one new track called "Blimpvert." This track included a piece called "Ogi no Mato" by Ensemble Nipponia.

Deck Definitive Edition

In 2001, a Japanese company called "Deck Art" released a CD with 27 tracks. It was a limited edition of 500 copies and had very high-quality sound. The CD included music from earlier unofficial releases and some new music that hadn’t been released before.

Esper Edition

In 2002, "Esper Productions" created a special version called Blade Runner: Esper Edition, limited to 10 copies. It included a complete Blade Runner soundtrack and some background music that had never been released before.

Esper Edition notes:

• Original music composed and performed by Vangelis
• "Harps of the Ancient Temples" (Bicycle Riders) written and performed by Gail Laughton
• Vocals performed on tracks 3, 9 (disc I) and track 5 (disc II) by Demis Roussos
• Vocals performed on "Rachael's Song" by Mary Hopkin
• Saxophone on tracks 2 and 9 (disc II) by Dick Morrissey
• Lyrics and vocals on "One More Kiss‚ Dear" by Don Percival
• "Salome's Dance" includes a snippet that the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark expanded into the single "Junk Culture" from the album of the same name, released in 1984.

The Esper bootleg edition was expanded in 2017 and renamed the Esper 'Retirement' Edition, consisting of six discs (five CD-DA and one DVD-ROM). It incorporated the missing tracks from the trilogy release.

Other authors, and iTunes, state the Gail Laughton piece is called "Pompeii 76 A.D." from his album Harps Of The Ancient Temples.

Legacy

The music from the movie Blade Runner is thought to be one of the best movie scores ever made. In 2019, a website called Pitchfork said it was the best movie score of all time. In 2020, The Guardian put it on a list of the top 10 movie soundtracks. In 2021, a magazine called Computer Music chose the opening music as the greatest synth sound ever. In 2022, another magazine named Future Music ranked it first among the best synth soundtracks in Hollywood history.

When the sequel movie Blade Runner 2049 came out in 2017, the composers Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch used the original Blade Runner music as inspiration. They used the same type of synthesizer to keep the sound similar. They made a new version of the famous “Tears in Rain” piece and used many ideas from the original score in their music.

Charts

Certifications and sales