Jean Michel-Jarre

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

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).