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.
― Siegbran, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 08:42 (five years ago) link
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.
― Siegbran, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 08:54 (five years ago) link
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.
― bamboohouses, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 10:04 (five years ago) link
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).
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 13:00 (five years ago) link
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
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 13:44 (five years ago) link
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.
― An Uphill Battle For Legumes (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 13:46 (five years ago) link
Having said that - here's a fave JMJ pop production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNuKs_N2c7w
― An Uphill Battle For Legumes (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 13:48 (five years ago) link
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
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 19:06 (five years ago) link
thanks for that interview link bamboohouses. didn't know about this 1975 track!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRzlF9ahlyY
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
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
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!
― michaellambert, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 22:35 (five years ago) link
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?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 5 December 2018 19:16 (five years ago) link
me loading all my Jarre stuff back on my iPod
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmQorVNU4AAl14q.jpg
― frogbs, Thursday, 6 December 2018 21:59 (five years ago) link
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.
― mark e, Friday, 7 December 2018 22:25 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIeAt5invw0
is this vaporwave?
― frogbs, Monday, 1 April 2019 14:54 (five years ago) link
wow
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 2 April 2019 07:26 (five years ago) link
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.
― mark e, Thursday, 12 December 2019 17:40 (four years ago) link
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?
― frogbs, Sunday, 17 May 2020 03:39 (three years ago) link
Hütter and Schneider never worked with anyone so Jarre probably realized any approach to them would be a waste of time.
― the grateful dead can dance (anagram), Sunday, 17 May 2020 12:05 (three years ago) link
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?
― Siegbran, Sunday, 17 May 2020 16:15 (three years ago) link
he legitimately loves Moby
― frogbs, Monday, 18 May 2020 03:03 (three years ago) link
and y'know, he probably could've gotten Karl Bartos to do a track, he seems like he would've been into it
― frogbs, Monday, 18 May 2020 03:04 (three years ago) link
still, not reaching out to Scooter was a missed opportunity
― Siegbran, Monday, 18 May 2020 09:12 (three years ago) link
they've got a lot in common really
― frogbs, Monday, 18 May 2020 13:56 (three years ago) link
Jean-Michel Jarre - Alone Together VR Concert
Scheduled for Jun 21, 2020, 21:15 UTC+2
― meisenfek, Sunday, 21 June 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
rocks
― meisenfek, Sunday, 21 June 2020 19:42 (three years ago) link
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.
― bamboohouses, Sunday, 21 June 2020 21:35 (three years ago) link
Aw shit I missed it
― frogbs, Sunday, 21 June 2020 21:40 (three years ago) link
alright watching the replay. pretty ridiculous but c'mon this is fun
― frogbs, Sunday, 21 June 2020 22:33 (three years ago) link
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
― frogbs, Monday, 22 June 2020 16:27 (three years ago) link
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.
― frogbs, Friday, 3 September 2021 03:20 (two years ago) link
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.
― bamboohouses, Friday, 3 September 2021 07:46 (two years ago) link
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.
― frogbs, Friday, 3 September 2021 15:09 (two years ago) link
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.
― frogbs, Monday, 24 October 2022 21:32 (one year ago) link
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).
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 24 October 2022 21:42 (one year ago) link