Jean-Michel Jarre moments


Post Posted Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:22 am
PhilHicks
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Hi! I've been diving into Jean-Michel Jarre's discography lately and I'm curious to know – what's your favorite album or track by him and why? Whether it's the groundbreaking 'Oxygene,' the cinematic 'Equinoxe,' or any other gems from his extensive career, I'd love to hear your recommendations and insights. Share your favorite Jean-Michel Jarre moments with me!
Post Posted Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:33 am
Dr_Jones
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Calypso 2 encapsulates everything JMJ makes: atmospheric tracks and exciting up-tempo stuff. I love that track. Strangely, it's not a track I play often. And for an album: Equinoxe, Zoolook and Chronologie are for me the Big Three. Oh, and Brick England is quite special for me because I'm a huge Pet Shop Boys fan too. In fact, it's because of them I listened to JMJ.

Favourite non-album moments: 12 december 2007 Marigny concert, 1993 Mont Saint Michel concert and meeting JMJ in Monaco 2011
Post Posted Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:39 am
Richard-Eastham
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My JMJ magic moments?

- Chronologie Pt 6
- Magnetic Fields Pt 4
- Epica ... a recent track, that is true, but proves he's still got it!
- The break in Magnetic Fields Pt 1 between 14'14" and 14'41" ... a perfect blend of the dreamy and the percussive that only JMJ can do
- The section between 8'38" and 9'21" in Ethnicolor ... something unexplained and magical happens in those 43 seconds
- Oxygne Pt 4 as played live at the Eiffel Tower on 14 July 1995 the Concert Pour La Tolerance ... poppy, dancey, upbeat and fun!
- Equinoxe Pt 7 live from Versailles ... a really snappy, urgent, high tempo version, a great reworking 45 years on from the original

These are my highlights :D
Last edited by Richard-Eastham on Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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01.09.93 Manchester / 07.06.97 Manchester / 30.03.08 London / 22.05.09 London / 10.10.10 London / 01.07.11 Monaco / 04.05.16 London / 23.07.16 Macclesfield / 06.10.16 Brighton / 07.10.16 London / 12.05.24 Bratislava / 14.07.24 La Rochelle / 01.07.25 Brussels / 21.10.26 Amsterdam.
Post Posted Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:02 am
Dr_Jones
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Richard-Eastham wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:39 am - The break in Magnetic Fields Pt 1 between 14'14" and 14'41" ... a perfect blend of the dreamy and the percussive that only JMJ can do

Oh, that's an excellent choice. A totally overlooked song too, that 3rd part. In fact, I overlooked it too, I think the "sax" solo at the end of the song is one of the best things he put on record too.
Post Posted Tue Mar 05, 2024 11:52 am
Richard-Eastham
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Dr_Jones wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:33 am Calypso 2 encapsulates everything JMJ makes: atmospheric tracks and exciting up-tempo stuff. I love that track. Strangely, it's not a track I play often. And for an album: Equinoxe, Zoolook and Chronologie are for me the Big Three. Oh, and Brick England is quite special for me because I'm a huge Pet Shop Boys fan too. In fact, it's because of them I listened to JMJ.

Favourite non-album moments: 12 december 2007 Marigny concert, 1993 Mont Saint Michel concert and meeting JMJ in Monaco 2011
Calypso Pt 2 - Yes, of course! A brilliant track

Brick England - I too am a huge PSB fan so this also has a special place for me. I even printed a copy of the lyrics and carefully added them as an insert to Neil Tenannts's book "One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem"

Live - Manchester 1993 is my performance highlight
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01.09.93 Manchester / 07.06.97 Manchester / 30.03.08 London / 22.05.09 London / 10.10.10 London / 01.07.11 Monaco / 04.05.16 London / 23.07.16 Macclesfield / 06.10.16 Brighton / 07.10.16 London / 12.05.24 Bratislava / 14.07.24 La Rochelle / 01.07.25 Brussels / 21.10.26 Amsterdam.
Post Posted Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:29 am
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PhilHicks wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:22 am Hi! I've been diving into Jean-Michel Jarre's discography lately and I'm curious to know – what's your favorite album or track by him and why? Whether it's the groundbreaking 'Oxygene,' the cinematic 'Equinoxe,' or any other gems from his extensive career, I'd love to hear your recommendations and insights. Share your favorite Jean-Michel Jarre moments with me!
Some of my favorite tracks (in no particular order):

Equinoxe 4: There is so much going on in this track! JMJ used completely different musical tricks in the verse, chorus and bridge (that ARP 2500 Formant/robotvoice-like stuff is so cool! :))

Arpegiator: 90% of the coolness of this track is the delay-effect.

Ethnicolor: Zoolook isn't just an album, it's a genre and the best track is the opening track. Normally, musical experiments sound a bit "low profile" , but in this case it's pretentious bombast all the way. And that works really well. To me, Ethinicolor sounds like a Salvador Dali painting

Oxygene 20: This track is just a chord progression played by a couple of layered organs/string synths and it gives me goose bumps.

Industrial Revolution: The sound is quite flat ( it 's basically just one synthesizer: roland D-50) and the melodies are simple, but the four pieces work really well together because they share a common theme. It's the way the variations are presented in the different parts that make this track good.

Circus (ft Siriusmo): I like the skipping in the beat during the whole track. This track is chaotic, short, and everything sounds off-beat. It's the signature sound of Siriusmo. The track ends at the moment you are just starting to realize that it's quite tiring to listen to. And then you want to listen to it from the beginning again (at least I do :-))

Helza: The B-side of the Cartolina-single is an underrated funky track. The track "OK, do it fast" (one of the 3(?) good tracks on the crappy album Teo & Tea) always reminds me of Helza.
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Post Posted Thu Mar 07, 2024 12:17 am
shadow
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La Belle et la Bête (Gérard Lenorman): You know what... Jarre made the perfect version of Second Rendez-Vous. Yes, Deuxième Rendez-Vous is a great track, the laser harp piece is absolutely freaking ICONIC, but this original version, the way it build up towards its climax without ever letting any energy hang and that choir just building and building the energy. It's so freaking good!

Ethnicolor: While the first half is this super experimental weirdness which, I have no particular feelings for one way or another, it's this really off feeling piece of atmospheric ambience that seemingly goes nowhere... Nowhere until the first samples of the second half begin, that's where the magic begins. The track goes from this almost horror like experience to an absolutely mind blowing explosion of sounds, energy and probably my favourite climax of any musical piece ever. The slaps on the bass, that voice sample that goes: 'hu- he- ha- ha- ha' at 9:11-9:13 as it pitches upwards, the synth that builds and fades away. It's genuinely the one track, of all the tracks that Jarre has composed, that I want to hear live one day, and it's only played at those mega concerts, which... Well the last one was 2017, so... Yeah... Special mention, the Sunrise Concert with the singer in the final section, shame that this concert (specifically the Sunrise Concert) to this day hasn't been released officially. I only have a low quality version, and this deserves so much more love.

Globe Trotter: A totally unique track in Jarre's Discography, released a mere total of just one time and has never acknowledged since and has officially been confirmed as to why it has been created, though with some deduction it's been concluded that it was most likely created for the cancelled 1991 Mexico concert, specifically for the actual solar eclipse. Would be wonderful if Jarre decided to make an album entirely in this unique style. The closest I can think of that has come near this one is 'Exit ft. Edward Snowden'.

Velvet Road: both the studio version and the Children of Space are absolutely wonderful pieces. The album version is this chill lounge track, has a nice slow build-up before the drum machine kicks and the synth pads are a nice addition over a number of wonderful piano notes. A good short slowdown follows before it continues again as it did until it reaches it's third section where the string assembly really picks up and it builds up towards the end. The Children of Space version has a wonderful drum in the back, this smooth (I think it's a) sax half way, some interesting voice samples and ends with an accordion at the end. I will never be able to prefer one version over the other because they genuinely do different things.

If the Wind Could Speak: The 'Band in the Rain' piece of Equinoxe Infinity, and much like that track, it seemingly tells a bit of environmental storytelling with the sound effects and a short bit of music. I love the voice sample used and the music is great, I do wish it was a bit more grounded like 'Band in the Rain' where the music is actually contextualized within the environment.

Equinoxe Part 3: Yes, yes I know, it's all supposed to be all about Part 4, Part 5 and Part 7 whenever people talk about this album and the best tracks on it, but you know what... Screw that! The atmosphere of this singular track, the melody, the almost melancholy mood of the track is just absolutely pure esthasy, if there is one track Jarre has made that genuinely transcends any of his other work, I stand by this one until the day I die. Also, shout out to the AERO version, which has this bizarre intro with that reversed like sound effect to it at the start and that insane reverb in the moments before the first actual note of the melody starts, which is just... Hmmm... It's soooooooo goooooooooooooooooood! ಥ_ಥ

Overall special mention: Hexagone 561: perhaps cheating since it's not really much of an actual track as much as a mere piece of a concept. But I love this very short piece which could have evolved into a great track, but as it stands, it's a super interesting 'What if' track.
Last edited by shadow on Fri Mar 08, 2024 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
27-11-10: Ahoy Rotterdam
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01-07-25: Palais royal de Bruxelles/Paleizen Plein Brussel
Post Posted Thu Mar 07, 2024 2:38 pm
Finaero
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My nr. 1 JMJ moment still has to be Paris La Defense, what with the whole "me getting into JMJ's music" via the Finnish TV broadcast version - namely from this part onwards because the tape our recording (which I must have watched for hundreds of times - now long gone) started from that point. ;)

Echoing a lot of the tracks/moments already brought up before, namely the whole Industrial Revolution suite, Equinoxe 3 & 4 and Ethnicolor, but for now I'll add in the (more or less) middle part of Oxygene pt. 1. Even in the horrible Loudness War-daddywatered official YT upload it's the best (and unsurprisingly, the most "viewed") part!

As for the JMJ concerts I attended personally, the 2009 In-Doors concert definitely had two of the most memorable moments for me (Oxygene I in 2008 was also quite good), first being just how perfect the Industrial Revolution pt. II opening was - and the second being in RV2 when the laser harp had no sound at first, so JMJ sort of went back to fiddle with the synths and then got back to the laser harp, now with sound playing properly. ;)







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