Jean Michel-Jarre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bhMgD_W9UY

if only the rest of zoolook was so great...

oh man that is hilariously 80's damaged, self-inflicted humor, it really is no wonder

you need a certain kind of hat on to enjoy the rest of zoolook maybe, but I love that whole record. even the slap-bass samples.

everything Jarre did 76 through 84 is fine by me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R04P4h2cwo&mode=related&search=

video for 'zoolook' actually pretty dr.-calgari-good! directed by Marc Caro years before 'delicatessen' / 'city of lost children'

So... I'm off to see him on Friday - bought the tickets in a rush of i-spy/tick off the artist nostalgia and now regretting it a bit. Especially as I've roped in a friend who really isnt into any electronic music, and I suspect my tastes have moved on from the late 80s (last time I really listened to JMJ). Plus what was promised as a "spectacular" just seems to be a load of lasers from the Youtube clips I seen

Feel free to rip the piss out of me now...

But - um - anyone else going?

So he's releasing (or re-releasing, who cares?) an Essentials/Rarities compilation soon... Time for a revival (or just a vival in many cases?)

I always think of him as the Gypsy Kings of electronic music.

That statement is as wacky as just about everything posted on this thread with the exception of Milton Parker's posts. That Essentials comp is great and I'm kinda stoked that the pre-Oxygene stuff is finally getting a proper release. I have heard those first two albums and they are cool if you are interested in odd-sounding electronic library music.

EYE from boredoms remixed 'equinoxe part 5' a few years back. i thought that might get jarre some love from the hipsters, but most people just thought it was a new and radical EYE thing

beautiful cover, though: http://www.oogaboogastore.com/shop/music/detail/LiftBoys12.html

I said it in the Zombi thread and I'll say it here: people getting really excited about this new generation of synth-heavy instrumental rock really need to check out some JMJ - that new Zombi is pretty much a tribute to Magnetic Fields with rockier drums.

imo Oxygene, Equinox, and Magnetic Fields are all classic, and Zoolook is some kind of uber-classic once in a lifetime achievement in unique sound. I should give another listen to the live one. Never heard of the EYE remix!

I have MP3s of that early stuff but have never really clicked with it, "library music" sounds accurate to me.

I have just now this minute realized that Zombi the band has entirely nothing to do with Zomby the grimey UK dude. I think I need to hear that album now.

The live one you're talking about is the Concerts In China? I used to cane that one continually when I was a youngster (in fact my one shoplifting incident was getting caught trying to steal a cassette of this from Woolworths) but the vibe is a bit weird in retrospect. It's kind of like when James Last does rock'n'noll numbers - easy listening trying to rock out. The track selection is good obviously, since it's from his golden period but it lacks the shiny pop ambience of the studio albums.

eg. Used to love this. Now :-S

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQo9niQEr4w

>people getting really excited about this new generation of synth-heavy instrumental rock really need to check out some JMJ

seriously true!

'Concerts in China' is fair, his cheesiest tendencies come to the fore when he takes extended solos over the studio versions. And yeah it's got 'Orient Express' which has always been bad roller-disco, but it's got Arpeggiator which is better than most of the ninth-rate obscurities getting reissued and heralded that are nowhere close to the same league as 'Magnetic Fields' and 'Zoolook' are.

I still pull out 'Zoolook' occasionally for road trips, if it was good enough for Arthur C. Clarke it's good enough for me

Interested in the 'Rarities' disc -- the early 71/73 home studio stuff I'd agree have very modest arrangements, but the 68/69 GRM Studios stuff is actually pretty zonked in much the same way as Henry's 'Psyche Rock' or those Perrey-Kingsley records - when he had the resources, he wasn't a slacker

the first track on Rarities is undeniably good

word to the wise: don't fall asleep while listening to 'Zoolook'. weirdest dreams ever.

kind of surprised that I'm finding Magnetic Fields and Zoolook better than his first two albums

Magnetic Fields is great...have been listening to this on Rdio and on vinyl recently! (Had mad love for Zoolook at the time but not sure it holds up for me all these years later...it seems to be much more of its time.)

It definitely is but besides some Harry Hosono records I don't know of anyone who abused the digital sampler of the 80's like that.

I bought the Live In Your Living Room DVD not too long ago -- which is Oxygene live with a couple of other guys on what must be about three-quarters of s millions dollars in vintage gear. It's actually kind of amazing and wonderful. This isn't an "update" the way Oxygene 7-13 was -- but absolutely spot on renditions of music recorded 35 years ago.

yeah i've watched that "live" dvd.
i even sat there with the 3d glasses on. old school blue/red glasses as opposed to the modern 3d visuals which does little other than make the weird lampshades stick out a little.
sounds the same as the original, only more upfront.
the live recording must have taken some setting up.
can well imagine its synth pr0n for people who like that kind of thing.

I like that kind of thing. It's a really good performance.

+1 on Zoolook, which Milton and I have expounded on over various threads (tho curiously not this one). Some really sophisticated sound design and even a catchy tune or two.

Does the rarities comp have the 12"s from that? 12" of Equinoxe Part 5 (I think) is also pretty great.

Laurie Anderson on "Diva"!

Does the rarities comp have the 12"s from that?

No, that only contains some of his pre-Oxygene stuff. Deliciously weird material, that.

I was actually able to track down those early albums. The soundtrack is crap (same theme, over and over again) but Deserted Palace is kinda neat, for 1972 electronica. Only one track really worked for me (Pogo Rock?) but it's a werid exercise and there aren't many albums like it.

Yeah, that new rarities comp also contains too many tracks of that soundtrack - which has been released separately on CD already. But it is nice to have Eros Machine, La Cage, and the like in good quality remaster.

"Fourth Rendez-Vous" is really good. Sooner or later I'm gonna have to make a disc with all of Jarre's great 3-5 minute pop tunes - this, Oxygene 4, Equinoxe 5, Magnetic Fields 2, Zoolook, Zoolookologie, and whatever else

oh dear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ebMlcxMoDUQ#!

let's try that again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebMlcxMoDUQ

1) The Time Machine (JMJ & Boys Noize)
2) Glory (JMJ & M83)
3) Close your eyes (JMJ & AIR)
4) Automatic (part 1) (JMJ & Vince Clarke)
5) Automatic (part 2) (JMJ & Vince Clarke)
6) If..! (JMJ & Little Boots)
7) Immortals (JMJ & Fuck Buttons)
8) Suns have gone (JMJ & Moby)
9) Conquistador (JMJ & Gesaffelstein)
10) Travelator (part 2) (JMJ & Pete Townshend)
11) Zero Gravity (JMJ & Tangerine Dream)
12) Rely on me (JMJ & Laurie Anderson)
13) Stardust (JMJ & Armin van Buuren)
14) Watching you (JMJ & 3D (Massive Attack))
15) A question of blood (JMJ & John Carpenter)
16) The train & the river (JMJ & Lang Lang)

Excellent new interview (in French). Gets really in depth about his past, working methods, the "industry". Very cool. http://www.liberation.fr/apps/2015/10/jmjarre/

I know Oxygene and Equinoxe are considered to be his classics, but I read more about the former than I ever do the latter. It's strange, even though Equinoxe is considered to be one of his best works, it still seldom seems to get talked about, especially in comparison to Oxygene. I see it as a far more upbeat work, too.

his first 4 records all deserve to be considered classics, if Oxygene is at least. there's a later album called Chronologie that's also very good.

He mentions in that interview that when he was mixing Equinoxe he had to lock the studio doors in order to prevent record company execs from barging in and taking his tapes. They were in such a frenzy to release the album they wouldn't let JMJ finish his work!

xpost He says good things about Chronologie here. Says he feels it didn't age poorly for a 90s album. He's not a fan of his last one - Teo & Tea

yeah I didn't read a single positive review of that one. I think the idea behind his newest release is cool, especially from such a veteran as Jarre, though I'm not expecting much honestly

'Electronic music has nothing to do with the United States. It’s not related to jazz, blues, rock, it comes from continental Europe.'

Jarre OTM.

*faaarrrrtttttt*

house nation has some words for you

Saw that interview on fb yesterday. It's pretty dope. JMJ def. calls it like he sees it.

New interview he did with Native Instruments promoting his new album-- really good stuff:

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/the-journey-of-jean-michel-jarre/?content=3169&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jean-Michel+Jarre+c%3DJean_Michel_Jarre_video+b%3DKomplete+t%3DVideo_PD&utm_source=newsletter

New album, Electronica, is a series of collaborations with folks like Air, John Carpenter(!), Tangerine Dream, Vince Clarke, Massive Attack, and Fuck Buttons (listening to JMJ say "Fuck Buttons" earnestly in his French accent in the interview is all kinds of amazing). As to be expected, some tracks are more interesting than others, but it's def. a pretty fascinating consolidation of his work over the years, from analog to digital and back again (and, as he said in the interview, back yet again with this album).

Worth noting that while the Pete Townshend track is kind of meh, the T. Dream collab is everything you'd hope it would be -- it sounds like something they might have initially done in 1981 and dusted off for this record, with early digital, PPG-like textures and noodley Minimoog horn solos. Hits me right in the sweet spot.

Ok, apologies for the live-blogging, but this record, as intended, does make a pretty credible case for JMJ's influence across a variety of genres. Even the most devoutly house and techno tracks here bear traces of Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields and Zoolook in the way the arpeggiators squiggle about or the string synths pad the walls.

the one i keep coming back to the most is actually the Aero release.
its a really good summation of the best bits, all mixed up together to form a nice 70 minute mixtape, with little in the way of radical reversioning (a little here and there).
that said, the dvd that came with it though was dreadful.
not overly sure re the new album as it has a lot of tracks indicating short pop song structures, whereas and i prefer my JMJ doing his drawn out instrumental epics.
oh, and the collab with little boots i heard was pretty dire.
still, may get it when its a fiver in fopp.

haven't heard Aero but I really want to. I don't rate any of his albums particularly high but there are very good bits on all of them.

What was dreadful about the DVD? 5.1 mix sounds kind of interesting -- and I enjoyed the 5.1 mix of the new Oxygene he did (which sounds 99% like the original).

xxp dunno abt a collab but that standard Little Boots record was the worst thing I've heard in years, I had to review it and oh god I can't even

re the DVD : i dont have a 5.1 set up, so only know the standard visual video album which is basically the album with a film of a moving pair of eyes for 70 mins.
i am sure on a good 5.1 system it will sound amazing, but i still live in the standard 2 channel world.

The Air track on this new one is solid as well. Spotify has a neat little interview with them all about the collaboration: https://open.spotify.com/album/5N53RqYNkM5HmskTRbfabV

I had such low expectations for this after that career-ending dud Teo & Tea, plus you know...collabs with Moby, Tangerine Dream, Vince Clarke, Air Laurie Anderson, John Carpenter etc in 2015 sounds like the dullest thing ever but this is...good! Really good!

list of collaborators on his next one is nuts:

Electronica Vol 2: The Heart Of Noise tracklist:

01. ‘The Heart of Noise Pt. 1 feat. Rone’
02. ‘The Heart of Noise Pt. 2’
03. ‘Brick England feat. Pet Shop Boys’
04. ‘As One feat. Primal Scream’
05. ‘Exit feat. E.S’
06. ‘These Creatures feat. Julia Holter’
07. ‘Here For You feat. Gary Numan’
08. ‘The Architect feat. Jeff Mills’
09. ‘What You Wan feat. Peaches’
10. ‘Circus feat. Siriusmo’
11. ‘Why This, Why That, Why feat. Yello’
12. ‘Switch On Leon feat. The Orb’
13. ‘Gisele feat. Sebastien Tellier’
14. ‘Electrees feat. Hans Zimmer’
15. ‘Swipe To The Right feat. Cyndi Lauper’
16. ‘Walking The Mile feat. Christophe’
17. ‘Falling Down’
18. ‘The Heart of Noise (The Origin)’

http://www.factmag.com/2016/02/19/jean-michel-jarre-electronica-2/

oh man, that Pet Shop Boys track could be very good

I gave the last one a go but his melodic sense is just so corny I couldn't get with it at all.

I kinda like his corny stuff...the long floaty bits are what usually do me in

The best tracks on the last one were with collaborators who do the long floaty bits well. ie, Air. On this one the Orb, Rone and Hans Zimmer tracks are my guess as the standouts.

The collaboration with Tangerine Dream on the last one was like prime Froese as well.

I don't get "corny." His melodies aren't exactly sophisticated but neither are they especially hokey. Which tracks are you referring to?

For me, Jarre's strength is as a sound designer – "Ethnocolour" from Zoolook is perhaps the best example but over most of his career the guy has always had a great feel for the interrelationship of different sounds and how to position them across the stereo spectrum.

huh

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/jean-michel-jarre/oxygene-3/

Yeah, I know :/ I thought that the second Oxygene record was a bad idea itself, as pleasant as it is, it doesn't (and was never going to) come close to the original. I'm curious to hear the new one, but dreading it at the same time. Still, it's nice in a way that all three volumes were released roughly 20 years apart from each other.

Might have to listen to the Oxygene II again b/c I remember it being quite decent. If nothing else it's cool that he brought all the old synths back. Maybe I'm wrong but I remember a lot of his 90's stuff being quite...good, actually?

either way Jarre is in the same phase of his career that Sylvester Stallone is in now, he can keep jamming out sequels and superstar collab albums till the end of time if he wants

Underrated moment on Oxygene: Part III, all of it. Wish it was longer!

Part 17 (!) is actually pretty good. I also like Electronica, Vol.2 a lot. He's having his best year in eons.

I'm just glad he's back - was afraid he'd end his career on the rather abysmal Téo & Téa

Electronica was extremely uneven though, 2 more so than 1. I guess that's inevitable with collabs, but I'm not holding my breath for another Oxygene. He's still able to be really good, but quality control is not his forte.

Listening to Heart of Noise/Vol. 2 now – I probably prefer the first volume but with both of these records I enjoy how Jarre's innate sense of style peeks through the various styles of the collaborators and genres.

This guy's music is only as strong as his everloving chord choices, more than anything it just sounds like he'd do better putting together This Melody and That Chord Progression with a little more attention than he often does

He always suddenly shifts gears into a diminished chord and holds it with a raised eyebrow like "you like that? do you like it when I do that?" and just holds it too long as if a sudden diminished chord is some magical key to building suspense, like an over-confident lover who insists on circling your left nipple with a single finger for far too long

But having listened to Oxygene thru Oxygene 7-13 today, for the first time in 20 years, I can confidently say that I think his oeuvre is better, to my ears, than Kraftwerk's

And to place a challop upon challop, here is my ranking of his "golden era" records, from best to worst-- live albums excluded-- because I find them confusing--

1. Les Chants Magnetiques (best track: the whole thing, but pt. 1 because it's large scale actually works)

2. Chronologie (digital soup, yes, but his best melody writing, best track is easily pt. 4, best track Vangelis never wrote, best track never in an early 90s Future Crew Demoscene nerd demo-- that said my favourite track will forever be pt. 1)

3. Oxygène (best track: pt. 4 obv)

4. Zoolook (best track: as wild and amazing Ethnicolor is, it's the title track; Medulla could never)

5. Rendez-Vous (pt. ?, this was a personal favourite as a kid but I need to re-listen to really decide)

6. Oxygène pt. 7-13 (gorgeously conceived and gorgeously mixed, rather undistinguished but superior to hundreds of present-day throwback analog-synth-noodle-bar projects)

7. Equinoxe (beautiful in tone and colour but insipid in composition, to my ears-- never understood why it was cited as a classic over Les Chants Magnetiques-- I do like the Kraut-y b-side though, pt. 6 is my favourite track here)

8. Revolutions (don't really fuck with this album much but I like London Kid)

9. En Attendant Cousteau (album is drab and sucky, I like Calypso pt. 1 a lot tho, because of its hilarious appearance in Olympic figure skating from time to time)

The fact that this man was married to Charlotte Rampling, dated Isabelle Adjani, and is currently dating Gong Li just makes me feel weird and good

Like this nerd did good for himself, good work sexy French man, you will always be to me what Serge Gainsbourg was to so many others

Kraftwerk never really allow themselves to break out of their deadpan shtick, Jarre otoh really embraces his goofiness, I do like that.

Your description of Jarre switching to dim chord made me irl lol

I think I'd agree with a lot of this. I do really like the title track of Waiting For Cousteau - his only real foray into any kind of Roach/Eno-like drone ambience.

Revolutions is just a demo-reel for the Roland D50, but Tokyo Kid is wonderful.

I periodically think that Zoolook is going to get the widespread rediscovery is deserves, but I guess "Jean Michel Jarre's fourth album" is a tag it may never overcome.

Completely agree on how Oxy7-13 slays a lot of modern analogue synth revivalism.

I'd extend the golden age by a couple of years, because Metamorphoses (1999) is wonderful, and well up there with his best work.

Revolutions was the first Jarre album I bought, back when it came out. It sounds a bit muffled and that's mainly the fault of the D50 I think. Also a lot of the tracks on side one sound like he was writing them intentionally with an eye to performing them Houston/Docklands style. They just sound very 'far away' if that makes sense.

Yeah, I tend to find pseudo-orchestral stuff to be a very dull look for electronica in general. Side A of Revolutions is definitely meant to be a bit of pomp for the lasers'n'fireworks.

yea that's a really good write up. when I first heard Les Chants Magnetiques I had to keep checking the date. 1981? Crazy.

glad you recognize Chronologie as a top JMJ album - I think it's understandable to want to toss out stuff after Zoolook, but that one really is a return to form. I think it'll go down as one of his best.

I still have not heard the two Electronica albums (the concept of which I loved, but the bad reviews kind of broke my heart), nor the latest Oxygene. Maybe now is the time...

Zoolook was my first JMJ album, my never-met-until-age-10-much-older-brother-from-a-previous-marriage dubbed it onto tape for me and I listened to it constantly, and didn't realize until adulthood that this resulted in a very early exposure to Laurie Anderson's voice which I now associate with the jouissance and carelessness of childhood

I'm listening to Ethnicolor again now and like I remember all the silly vocalizations like nothing: "eye-suh! eye-suh!" "dye-yuh-yuh" "welp-me! welp-me!"

Oh shit there's that diminished chord again lol

I just remember one of the hilarious vocal samples is literally a guy saying "where are my liquorice allsorts"

yea for all his accomplishments making a legitimately great Fairlight album has got to be up there

The Electronica albums and Oxygene 3 are all better than the various odds and ends that limped out post-Metamorphoses and all have their moments, but suffer from a lack of focus. The Electronica albums quite often slip into a sort of neon 80s dance-pop that's a bit undistiguished, and O3 doesn't have any of the teeming, organic busyness of the previous two Oxygene albums. He's on the right track though; they're by and large better than a lot of the stuff his contemporaries have been making lately, and it would be nice to see him keep up this rate of productivity as I suspect he may still have another great record in him one day.

Having checked, I think Metamorphoses might be the only one of his albums that's not readily available on streaming / DL services. Such a pity, it's terrific.

What is interesting to me about Jean-Michel Jarre was that he essentially invented a genre of music, this kind of polished French pop sci-fi ridiculousness that seems completely unattached to other genres, the way that Vangelis was attached to New Age, or Giorgio to disco-- he reminds me of Richard James in this regard

I guess the closest reference point I can think of for his music is "composition exercises?" So many of his tracks are like "baby's first experiment with polyphony"

I'm listening to "Second Rendez-Vous" right now and it is so amazing and lol

I love the idea of JMJ stacking up the minor-thirds while raising an eyebrow and saying in a saucy frainche accent 'Oh you like that, do you? Of course you do, you minx...'

He truly is Franch Dressing

A+ revive, thank u fgti for that great writeup

Yeah, that list will be extremely helpful. When Oxygene 3 came out, there was a package with remasters of the first two albums, so I bought the whole thing, but I've never listened to anything else, so now I need to dig around. I doubt he'll ever fully replace Klaus Schulze as my go-to guy for long train rides, but you never know.

one advantage to Jean Michel Jarre is that he never released a 70-CD boxset

Yeah, I tend to find pseudo-orchestral stuff to be a very dull look for electronica in general.

― bamboohouses, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 9:41 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM as hell-- this is why the Vangelisaurus was extincted

JMJ honking on diminished chords is a feature, not a bug. Augmented chords too.

Xpost… I don’t think of Revolutions as a dull sounding record at all. What I like about it is how stupidly on the nose the whole Indutrial Revolutions suite is: grim slog of agrilabour -> building tempo of indutrialistaion -> white heat of techno capitalism –> post capitalism eco disaster/blues keytar solo. Like Koyannisqaatsi reduced to 16 minutes.

Has anyone heard Musique pour Supermarché? Is it true it's quite experimental and difficult?

there is a copy floating around the internet, I think. I heard it once - the sound quality is quite poor - I remember thinking it was like an early version of Zoolook

One of the tracks from Musique made it on to Zoolook, at least: Blah Blah Café

Music for Supermarkets is here and is great - very much a halfway house between Magnetic Fields and Zoolook. (It got a single radio broadcast before it was sold, hence the horrible FM sound quality).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvFK9-2Jmtw

About half of it turns up on later albums - mainly Zoolook, but also Rendezvous. The versions here are completely identical, which does rather cast doubt on Jarre's claims to have destroyed the masters. (Wouldn't be the only time something like this has happened to him either - see also the "30th anniversary re-recording" of Oxygene, which quite reasonably prompted a lawsuit from his former label because it's quite self-evidently from the original master tapes.)

How big a celebrity is Jarre in France? Is he say John Tesh famous or maybe Bob Seger famous or perhaps national treasure famous?

National treasure famous, but he toured 15-20,000-seaters last year in both France and the UK, if that's any indication.

there are now 2 'classic albums' boxsets for JMJ, second set just released.
however, they have properly messed things around.
box 1 starts at Magnetic Fields,
box 2 has Oxygene.
neither box has Equinox.
surely they should have just done them in chrono order!?

hats off fgti, that is one of the most dedicated and forgiving rankings of jarre I have seen! putting Chronologie at #2 is definitely an alternate-wormhole act of love I can only admire

moving 'moon machine' back onto main shuffle playlist now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3XRbYLTOWI

Thanks Milton!

Interestingly enough, my stanning for "Chronologie", like my stanning for "Outside", was largely borne out of being in a position of ignorance-of-canon when I got into both Jarre and Bowie. I was 14 and 15 when I got into both artists, respectively, and bought all their stuff all at once. I was, much later, amazed to read that BowieNet ranked, say, "Aladdin Sane" so highly, but didn't give a fuck about "Outside"-- "are Bowie fans deaf?" I thought, "his vocals on Ziggy Stardust sound so nasal and whiny..."-- and I'd blast "I'm Deranged" with my middle finger raised

But yeah same goes for Jarre. I get that the synths got chintzier, the mood became closer to "Les Miserables", but I just had so much more of a teenage emotional response to "Chronologie" (and "Les Chants Magnetiques") than the widely-beloved "Oxygene". We watched Gallipoli in Grade 10 English class, and being the only Jarre fan in town (probably), I told friends "yeah that's not even close to his best song though" and lent them my "Chronologie" cassette

Judging from the comments on RYM, you're not the only one.

Chronologie has always been a favourite with the hardcore Jarre fans (I used to be on the discussion lists back in the day).

Interesting that Metamorphoses is in that new Classics box (with new art, oddly). I wonder if that means it'll finally get a digital release.

i still think AERO is the best way to experience JMJ.
all the best bits in massive wall shaking stereo.

(the "30th anniversary re-recording" of Oxygene, which quite reasonably prompted a lawsuit from his former label because it's quite self-evidently from the original master tapes.)

I just told this anecdote and Kathryn said “putting the G back in Gallic”

this LP is my favorite Oxygene pastiche:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBAk6NnFOL8

Do hardcore Jarre fans call themselves JarreHeads? (don't look at me, I'm a Philip K. Dick fan)

I am not the first to mention it but Oxygene Pt. 17 should not be overlooked in the trilogy. It very much belongs with it’s forbears.

As noted upthread, the Electronica albums have their moments – I rep for the T. Dream collaboration as it is the last thing Froese released (or first posthumous release I can’t remember). The Air collaboration is also very much everything you would hope it would be given their ancestry.

Also, while it’s amusing that Jarre was sued about the Oxygene re-recording—it does sound awfully close—was that actually proven? Jarre did an extensive interview with Sound on Sound to discuss how he (re-)made that record – and the live DVD (“Live In Your Living Room”) also sounds very, very close (and is quite good). Interview is here: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/jean-michel-jarre

The new Planet Jarre comp looks like it's shaping up to be a bit more interesting than these things usually are. Some unreleased rarities (including one of the tracks from Music For Supermarkets that didn't later turn up on Zoolook or Rendez-Vous), some new bits (Herbalizer is a fun/silly breaks/EDM workout thing), and some new versions of old bits (a studio recording of Magnetic Fields 2 based on the Concerts in China live version, nice new remix of Oxygene 8).

Also, Oxygene 7-13, Metamorphoses and Geometry of Love all popped up on Spotify (and presumably other streaming services) today, so now when I bang the drum for Metamorphoses people can actually go and listen to it.

There's going to be an Equinoxe sequel - Equinoxe Infinity - in November. There's a preview track up on Spotify, it's an OTT bit of sci-fi bombast that doesn't really give much away about the rest of the record. Two different sleeves, which both continue his recent losing streak on the design front, but are magnificently proggy.

Also, Planet Jarre's out today. Track choice and sequencing are excellent - I love the divisions into Soundscapes, Themes, Sequences, Explorations & Early Works which seem designed to add weight to the idea of Jarre as someone with an interesting and varied body of work. But most of the tracks are just faded excerpts - seems a shame that they weren't properly blended or mixed, especially given that there's a bunch of new reworks/remixes on here.

The revised Chronologie 4 has an absolutely dire new MIDI electric guitar solo at the end, btw.

Equinoxe Infinity came out yesterday. My expectations were incredibly low, but actually I was very pleasantly surprised. It's a denser and more substantial piece of work than Oxygene 3, and more understandably more cohesive than the Electronic albums.

A few tracks (mainly Movement 3) are essentially chord changes with aimless soloing on top (a recent habit that really blights some of the remixes on Planet Jarre - Zoolookologie and Chrono 4 spring to mind) but there's some surprises. Movement 6 is full italo disco, and Movement 9 has a surprisingly minimal approach that caught my attention.

Jarre's settled into an interesting groove in the last few years - he's comfortable making essentially retro synthwave with splashes of the classic Oxygene sound palette. None of it will ever be as startling as the original Oxygene-Zoolook run (and I still wish he'd pursued Metamorphoses' train of thought a bit further) but his current stuff is fun and vital (way more so than many of his contemporaries) and sits pretty well alongside modern synthwavers. I hope he maintains this level of output for a bit.

BTW, the Planet Jarre podcast - six episodes of Matt Berry interviewing Jarre - is well worth a listen.

Listening to this now ... thanks for the heads up.

Had a chance to listen to this a few times ... I don't like it as much as Oxygene 3, which was a worthy entry in the trilogy (and had at least 1 classic track) whereas some of this feels like Jarre trying on styles for size. That worked okay for the Electronica albums given the format, but feels a little superficial here.

That said, I agree with most of what you said about this record--would add that in addition to Movement 6, Movement 8 feels pretty italo too--and his career -- a 70 year-old guy has no business doing something like this even half-decently, much less pretty well.

Now on to Metamorphoses ...

A friend and I saw JMJ at the Hydro in Glasgow a couple of years ago and came away feeling he’d possibly spent at least a little bit of the ‘90s at the odd rave and checking out then contemporary dance music.

are there any 70s synth artists still releasing albums yet to avail themselves of the animoog 'descent' preset

Bumped into JMJ on his own at a Carl Cox DJ night at Rex Club in Paris in late 90s. He was wearing an electric blue suit

Bumped into JMJ on his own at a Carl Cox DJ night at Rex Club in Paris in late 90s. He was wearing an electric blue suit

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 20:32 (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks, all the corroboration I needed.

A friend and I saw JMJ at the Hydro in Glasgow a couple of years ago and came away feeling he’d possibly spent at least a little bit of the ‘90s at the odd rave and checking out then contemporary dance music.

I feel that's corroborated by the music isn't it? Chronologie is hardly a dance record but it definitely dips into that palette. And he was pretty quick off the bat with remixes around that time too, Slam, Laurent Garnier etc all doing stuff around that time.

I think 'relevance' is an enduring concern for him. I've got this theory that he's on a 20 year cycle where his stuff dovetails with what's going on in popular (electronic) music - late 70s obvs, late 90s (where he's doing techno-ish analog stuff with hundreds of remixes at the point where analog festishism is really kicking in), and now (synthwave, EDM spectacle). I think whereas a lot of his contemporaries are happy to stick in their bubble, he wants to be where the trends are at, albeit with extremely variable results.

Favourite bit of the Berry-Jarre podcasts is where JMJ is describing how only the first-generation Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phaser pedal had the "silky" sound he likes, and only really when the battery was beginning to die. "Brand new it is too harsh, around 8V it is good, after that it's too weak. You have about an hour where it's good." It's great him re-create the Oxygene sound from just the Eminent 310, plus pedal(s).

I really enjoyed the podcasts. The gear chat is super-nerdy (in a good way) but I enjoyed hearing some of the bonkers live stories as well, like the chaos of the Docklands gig. Apparently he's got an autobiography on the way next year.

I feel that's corroborated by the music isn't it?

― bamboohouses, Friday, 23 November 2018 12:47 (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, definitely, I was being a wee bit glib with my corroboration post. I think it was pretty clear from what he played that night that he'd kept up with developments in electronic music and brought in elements to his own work - I thought it was pretty successful.

Will need to check out the podcasts.

Oh, definitely, I was being a wee bit glib with my corroboration post.

Sorry, I re-read your post and realised I completely misunderstood the point you're making, and came off incredibly sharp there. Apologies!

Wish I'd caught the recent tour. The only time I've seen him was the completely live version of Oxygene at the Royal Albert Hall, which was fantastic.

Really enjoyed those pods with Matt Berry.

Jarre and François De Roubaix must surely have known or been aware of each other, no? You'd imagine even possibly a bit of rivalry.

FDR also had a home studio in Paris (I think) in the early 70s (8 track, apparently). I guess it was the gear around at the time but he's also using a VCS 3, Mini Pops and even running string organs through phasers.

Not to give JMJ a hard time but FDR remains perpetually underacknowledged.

https://youtu.be/DaklmU9HzjQ

(The percussion in that sounds like tapping the side of a cheap condensor mic.)

I have a soft spot for Jean-Michel Jarre. frogbs up the page mentions Sylvester Stallone, which is the kind of genius observation that brings me back to Ilxor every decade or so. Jean Michael Jarre is the Sylvester Stallone of electronic music. You know how some people like to synchronise Pink Floyd's "Echoes" with the last twenty minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey? You can do that with the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Jean Michel Jarre, and they line up almost perfectly. Slightly atypical initial hit; competent sequels; return to triumph in the mid-80s followed by rapid commercial decline; occasional attempts at artistic credibility; all ending with surprisingly competent rehashes of earlier ideas.

Think about it. Rendezvous is basically Rocky IV but as a piece of music - it's so bombastic and upbeat! It makes me wish I could go back in time and vote for Ronald Reagan. Revolutions is Rambo: First Blood Part II, slightly grimmer and not very well made although popular. They even begin with the letter R. R. It's not a coincidence.

I've always loved the way Jarre had this obvious burning desire to be taken seriously - along the same lines as Peter Gabriel or David Byrne - so his early albums have these little ambient vignettes and are like gateway drugs to hardcore ambient and systems music. At the same time he was never willing to abandon the mass market and go all the way. In my opinion the title track from Waiting for Cousteau is way up there with Global Communication's 76:14 as the best ambient music from the early 1990s but the album as a whole is dragged down by the television game show themes on side one.

I think Zoolook is his most successful go at crossing over into the high end of the mainstream. It's like liquid dayglo 1980s postmoderism. Memphis furniture design in audio form. But from what I remember it didn't chart very well, and by that time he was competing with e.g. Art of Noise. In my opinion his use of samples was more inventive than Art of Noise but he didn't have Paul Morley phoning up the NME every few minutes so Zoolook tends to be forgotten nowadays. I wonder if the critics disliked the fact he was the good-looking son of a successful composer who had access to masses of equipment; they never felt the need to give him any help.

I'm still impressed with the way that the bassline from Equinoxe V becomes the rhythm of Equinox VI, which turns into an awesome wobbly bass solo at the end, and then becomes the basic track for Equinoxe VII. That must have been very difficult in 1977 with eight-track tape and no MIDI sync. Almost as if he was a classically-trained musician who knew how to plan things out on paper. I think the composed aspect of his music appealed to me as a kid because I grew up with computer game soundtracks. His music was obviously written, not improvised; if you fiddle with the stereo balance control on his early records you can unpick the tracks and see how he built up the music because he used hard left-right panning.

He updated his sound effectively with Magnetic Fields, which sounds a bit like Depeche Mode albeit lusher. He then bought a Fairlight, which means that his 1980s albums sound very dated nowadays. Rendezvous mostly works. Revolutions has its moments, but that was the point when old-wave synth stars of his generation were left behind by acid house and drum'n'bass - the likes of Squarepusher and Autechre and Aphex Twin took up the torch, but they owed nothing to Jan Hammer and Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre etc, they came from a completely different tradition.

I saw him live at Wembley for the Chronologie tour but I barely remember that album; Oxygene 7-13 was okay; Metamorphses felt like a misguided attempt to copy Air; I haven't heard a single note of his music after that. I remember reading that Cousteau was largely generated with software running on an Atari ST; the original recording was hours long, it would be great if it was released at some point.

Maurice Jarre, his dad, also used electronics in some of his 1980s film scores, but they sound nothing alike. Also, Jean Michel Jarre's videos from the 1970s and 1980s are incredibly naff, and his large-scale concerts were shot by Mike Mansfield, who had no visual sense whatsoever. Also I'm drunk and earlier today Shane McGowan got married; he's in his sixties but looks as if he's about to regenerate into the starchild and yet he's a pussy magnet and he outlived Mark E Smith, so who's laughing now?

<< really good post, and I'd co-sign most of it (but I look more fondly on O7-13 and Metamorphoses. One thing I discovered recently though:

I remember reading that Cousteau was largely generated with software running on an Atari ST; the original recording was hours long, it would be great if it was released at some point.

Over the weekend, I read quite an interesting album-by-album interview with Jarre, where he explains that Cousteau was all done by hand in a marathon 24-hour session. Apparently the original is 75 mins (which, as you say, I'd love to hear).

http://domino.elfworld.org/the-journey-to-equinoxe-infinity-part-3-paying-the-piano-player-to-stop-playing/

(Apparently the 22 min version on the LP is a different section to the 45 min version on the CD, but I've never listened to the LP close enough to verify myself.)

the likes of Squarepusher and Autechre and Aphex Twin took up the torch, but they owed nothing to Jan Hammer and Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre etc, they came from a completely different tradition.

Autechre in 2010:

DD: Having been so influential in electronic music, who do you think has influenced yourselves?
Autechre: Well, probably everything we ever heard, but there's some stuff that sticks out. there's not really room to put everything and we probably forgot a ton of stuff, but this would be a pretty good list of stuff we like (roughly in the order we heard them): Jjean Michel Jarre, Giorgio Moroder, Human League, Vangelis, Ultravox, John Carpenter, Kraftwerk, Grace Jones, Juan Atkins, Depeche Mode, Public Enemy, EPMD, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Baby Ford, 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald, LFO, Joey Beltram, Mark Broom, RZA, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares... etc, plus some of the stuff below.

I see the ambient/IDM of the early 90s (Biosphere, Autechre, FSOL, Aphex Twin, Namlook et al) musically as a direct descendent of Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Hassell, Roach etc but made by young people for a new generation, those old boomers were never going to be trendy in the 90s electronic music climate.

Revolutions was also v popular sample fodder for a lot of the early Warp crowd. Can't remember which track off the top of my head, but the beat from September is used very prominently in a track on the first Artificial Intelligence comp.

Re his dad. Some of Maurice Jarre’s synth + orchestra scores are wonderful - particularly recommend Solar Crisis. Enemy Mine as well. And Year of Living Dangerously. He had this thing of having like five synthesists playing live together which engendered a cool electronic chamber music feeling. Some of the purely electronic scores are of-their-time nightmares though (eg Dreamscape).

Ashley your post is so interesting!

I myself have had a sweet-tooth for Jarre-as-melodicist, but your assessment of (for example) "En Attendant Cousteau"'s A-side as being "TV-show theme song music" is very real. Chronologie is an album I've always ranked as highly as Oxygène and Zoolook just because... the melodies are insufferably nice. I think I appreciated him more as a pop-writer than as an electronic musician maybe

Love JMJ but, quite honestly, I think De Roubaix, in the short time he made electronic music and with his considerably limited setup, beats Jarre to the punch in terms of the sheer beauty and inventiveness of his work. If only he hadn't loved scuba diving so much.

Having said that - here's a fave JMJ pop production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNuKs_N2c7w

He always suddenly shifts gears into a diminished chord and holds it with a raised eyebrow like "you like that? do you like it when I do that?"

https://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/jarreconcertgravity2_zpsm07xvyod.png

thanks for that interview link bamboohouses. didn't know about this 1975 track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRzlF9ahlyY

Sorry, I re-read your post and realised I completely misunderstood the point you're making, and came off incredibly sharp there. Apologies!

Wish I'd caught the recent tour. The only time I've seen him was the completely live version of Oxygene at the Royal Albert Hall, which was fantastic.

― bamboohouses, Saturday, 24 November 2018 09:48 (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Picked up a cheap copy of 'Magnetic Fields' today, just finished listening to it but not sure what I make of it. Sounds quite 8-bit game music in places!

JMJ's probably the artist who's been on and off my iPod the most, so I decided to grab Planet Jarre to see if it would spark some newfound appreciation of the man's work. It's a really cool compilation, broken up into themes with roughly a single LP's worth of music each, which I guess are like the "continents" on JMJ's planet. Clearly a lot of this was remixed or re-recorded - "Zoolookologie" is such a crazy banger on here - and I think the bigger intention is to show "50 Years of Jean-Michel Jarre" as one continuous body of work, where a track from 1979 can stand up next to something from 2016 or 1985 or 2000 without any overwhelming difference in sound or technique. Very neat but as mentioned by Mr. Houses they really should've put some effort into segueing it all together. I mean half the work's done already. Anyway, turns out Jarre does have a lot of music I really like, what do you know?

me loading all my Jarre stuff back on my iPod

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmQorVNU4AAl14q.jpg

Very neat but as mentioned by Mr. Houses they really should've put some effort into segueing it all together.

as I mentioned earlier : AERO.

a brilliant 70+ minute mixtape of all the best bits in massive widescreen stereo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIeAt5invw0

is this vaporwave?

wow

Today I found Metamorphoses and China on cd for 50p each.
Used to have China on vinyl, but lost it years ago so will be fun to hear that again.
Metamorphoses is indeed a lot better than i expected, the vocals fit well in the music.
in fact, i think i prefer it to Electronica 1 actually.

the track with Fuck Buttons is really great

the Electronica albums are better than they've been given credit for but I really wish they were edited down to 45 minutes apiece. I guess he couldn't go through the trouble of asking someone for a collaboration and not use the final result if it didn't turn out well.

one thing I've always wondered about these albums - Jarre has stated in interviews that he reached out to everyone he considered "important" in the development of electronic music and that they all said yes to working with him, which is why it would up being two separate albums. but if that's the case, then does that mean he never reached out to Ralf Hutter or Florian Schneider, or any of the YMO guys? is there some kind of rivalry there?

Hütter and Schneider never worked with anyone so Jarre probably realized any approach to them would be a waste of time.

Still his guestlist has some odd choices, you can work with nearly everyone and the first people you call are Boyz Noise, Moby and Peaches?

he legitimately loves Moby

and y'know, he probably could've gotten Karl Bartos to do a track, he seems like he would've been into it

still, not reaching out to Scooter was a missed opportunity

they've got a lot in common really

Jean-Michel Jarre - Alone Together VR Concert

Scheduled for Jun 21, 2020, 21:15 UTC+2

rocks

This was a bit of a mess but good fun (stream glitching out, leaving the Ableton click track on - which ironically shows there’s probably a bit more live performance going on here than the miming-to-tale of old).

Lots of new stuff I think? All of it EDM bangers. Not entirely my thing but felt a lot more convincing than some of his earlier attempts at engaging with contemporary dance music.

Aw shit I missed it

alright watching the replay. pretty ridiculous but c'mon this is fun

okay I could only make it so far, not because of the music but rather because it was all glitched out

definitely sounds like something clubby is on its way. hopefully these tracks are still gonna be worked on but I kinda liked what I heard

BTW, the Planet Jarre podcast - six episodes of Matt Berry interviewing Jarre - is well worth a listen.

lol I just looked this up and indeed it is *that* Matt Berry. guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow

a shop I was at had a copy of Equinoxe Infinity, so I had to pick it up. only listened to pieces before, it's pretty cool as a whole. it references the original in neat ways - the second half begins with 3 tracks that all have the same bass line just like the original album did. I think it's funny that he's still making music as anthemic and dumb as "The Opening", I kinda love it. downside is the album is so fucking loud. it's got almost no dynamic range which is a disaster for a Jarre album.

If you visit any of the larger Jarre forums (I did it so you don't have to) pretty much all discussion of new/recent releases surrounds the mastering and there's virtually no discussion of the music at all. I hate going all Steve Hoffman, but the latest batch of Sony remasters are truly terrible - weird spatial effects all over Concerts in China, an audible glitch on Chronologie, and a truly abysmal reissue of Rendez Vous where the tape slowed down and sped up. Really grim.

yeah its a shame - I think Oxygene 3 is the worst of the three for that reason alone, he's pushing the right buttons but the pretty/brooding moments shouldn't sound blown out like that.

new album called Oxymore just came out. it's a bit low on melody but the overall sound is cool. the only album of his it kind of compares to is Zoolook.

Yeah, I was drawn in by the idea that it's a tribute to Pierre Henry; it's pretty cool, and available in various different mixes (stereo, surround, and a "binaural headphone mix," which is the one I've...obtained).