Beaubourg

A great, if rather wet, weekend, to be followed by more nonsense at the workplace. My line manager asked me if I was 'happy' last week...

Mark Kermode's entertaining (if increasingly self-indulgent) film reviews this morning, followed by a re-appraisal of an album I haven't heard for years: Vangelis' 'Beaubourg'.

I bought this LP about 20 years from a second-hand record shop near my University, and it formed part of my 30-LP collection of Vangelis records, which now runs to about 50 LPs and CDs. I've only ever listened to it on my turntable, at home, alone, and found it hard work, to say the least. Electronic noise, no cohesion, about as far from the 'Chariots of Fire' stuff as you could get. It's been described as a 'contractual obligation' record by many reviewers, although Vangelis himself says it was a serious, composed piece of work intended as a sort of 'installation art' of the kind Brian Eno occasionally goes in for.

This morning, though, as I was listening to the MP3s on my iPod, it came across as a very intersting piece of ambient experimentation. The abrasiveness of some of the sounds seemed to have worn off and the effect was much more pleasant than I'd remembered. Perhaps it was the effect of the Tube's background noise, or maybe it was my anticipation at hearing it again, I don't know.

T - 4; M - 4; D - 3