The film score of 1983 Japanese film Nankyoku Monogatari (South Pole story). Vangelis made a lot of film music around this time, and I think this is one of the best. It conveys the coldness, but also the beauty and loneliness of this strange continent. It is combined with what I think is the best cover art for any Vangelis album.
The cover was designed by Alwyn Clayden, who designed a lot of Vangelis covers, mostly in the Eighties and start of the Nineties. Even though I like it, I have one question about it: what is that cross with circles doing there? Is this meant to convey that Antarctica is threatened by modern day people? Are we having the continent in our crosshairs, ready to shoot?
The album came out in 1983, right at the start of the compact disc. Both a record and a cd was published, but the cd only in Japan. In other parts of the world there was demand for the cd, because it was thought of as a prime example of the new medium. Unless you were able to get a Japanese copy, you had to wait until 1988 to get it.