There are only two things we know about this film. The one thing is that it was a French 1969 flim directed by Henry Chapier. The second is that the score was done by Vangelis at a ripe old age of 25. The rest are unknown because the original film was lost and Chapier thought that nobody could care less (at least that was the impression someone received when phoning to him about the film). This is the earliest Vangelis soundtrack and the earliest Vangelis solo album in print today. Currently, bids on obtaining the original LP are as high as 600 U.S. dollars. What compels people to buy such an album? Before, I would have asked the same question. After listening to it however, I found many of the Vangelis trademarks that we in the present find today... showing up in an 1969 album. After listening to this album, I may have found the origins of the Vangelis sound.

[1] SEX POWER PART ONE
It starts off with a kind of straching sound and a bass drum with an organ playing in the background. It lasts for about twenty-nine seconds.

[2] SEX POWER PART TWO
This piece begins with tom-toms and chimes playing with a piano and keyboard part. It feels like you are in a beach or some magical place with the ocean view (déja vu) and white sands galore. You can tell that the sound made and the recording was its time but it is somehow beyond this time. When you come to think of all the great albums he has done (including soundtracks), this could be the starting point of his journey.

[3] SEX POWER PART THREE
This is the acoustic guitar playing the main theme and a kind of motorcycle sound is playing sometimes. This gives me the picture of a drifter (or even a crazy musician) sitting on the gravel next a country road, playing an impromptu piece while relaxing to the blue, sunny sky and the sounds of people passing by.

[4] SEX POWER PART FOUR
Percussion instruments of all kind make up the song. I envision a ritualistic dance or some kind of indigenous tradition taking place in somewhere like the Americas or the Pacific. I can see where he could have received the drive to do an album like Mask or Earth.

[5] SEX POWER PART FIVE
This returns to the guitar with a synthesizer which sounds like a harpischord playing the main theme. This makes it sound more tranquil and more spring-like. It is almost like I'm walking with Vivaldi or da Vinci in the forests of Italy wih the sunlight upon us (and most of you know where I got this image ;-) ). By the way, this is the piece which could have been heard on Nathan Soice's Vangelis quiz.

[6] SEX POWER PART SIX
A solo piano plays a variation of the main theme. This is quite lovely for two reasons. The first one is that I can picture Vangelis or another pianist working in a sunlight studio near the forest, sitting and playing his heart away. The second one is that this might be the best Vangelis piano playing I've heard since the "Chariots of Fire" suite found on side B of the album. The weird thing is that it ends with street noises, sirens and footsteps (and can I say again... déja vu).

[7] SEX POWER PART SEVEN
It starts with clapping a rhythm which slows down and then returns to a nice percussion melody with a nice synthesizer sound and flutes. To me, this is a cross between "Sunny Earth" (from Earth), "The Little Fete" (from China) and "Movement Five" (from Soil Festivities).

[8] SEX POWER PART EIGHT
It starts with a chime and drums playing. They play almost spiratically which is similiar to "Atom Blaster - Thermo Vision" (from Invisible Connections) or "The Wakening Beast" (from the Aphrodite's Child album, ). Then a bass section of a chorus sings with a dreary and disturbing tone (like Vangelis has done innumerable times). Then, the drums playing become more intense and it feels like your heart is beating. Then it stops and we pretty much back to what we began with which was uncertainity and fear. Your heart beast regularly but it tenses up (remember, it is a muscle). Later on, a female voice starts to cry in a similiar way to Caballé's voice on "Movement Six" of Foros Timis Ston Greco. Then, it finally dies away. To make comment worse, it is the longest song on the album.

[9] SEX POWER PART NINE
The beginning is a hint from the previous song. Instead of before, you have the drums making sense (and they die away) and you have synthesizers and a piano playing the ever-familiar theme. You have a small chorus-like sound playing along also. It is a nice breakaway from the piece that almost gave me a heart attack! :) It ends with the percussion doing what they did during the previous song. A sample from this song can be obtained in Dennis Lodewjiks' Elsewhere site.

[10] SEX POWER PART TEN
This piece has a kind of grumbling sound with tape winds, birds screeching, birds yelping, that female voice crying and a bunch of other weird noises. Then, during the last minute, the female voice stands alone with keyboards fading in and out to give a creepy and crawling effect. The weird thing is that I hear the breathing noise similiar to "Suffocation" from See You Later towards the end.

[11] SEX POWER PART ELEVEN
It closes with the piano playing the theme all by itself, giving it a nice closure.