From: Denník N (newspaper)
15 Apr 2024
Jarre: concert in Bratislava will be like a solar eclipse
Starmus science and Art Festival in Bratislava opens with a concert by Jean-Michel Jarre and Brian May
Visualization of the concert of Jean-Michel Jarr in Bratislava: the audience will stand in the side parking lot in Incheba, behind the stage will be the SNP Bridge with the UFO restaurant, which will be part of the show.
One of the most popular musicians in the world, a pioneer of electronic music and concerts in open spaces, will come to Slovakia. For the festival, Starmus is preparing a special audiovisual show called Bridge from the future. The concert will be 12. May near the SNP Bridge in Bratislava, admission is free. As a special guest of the evening will be co-founder of the Starmus Festival, guitarist Brian May.
Why today do you prefer new projects and do not play the best of a selection of songs from the past like many other famous musicians?
I am still more interested in the future than in repeating myself – in terms of new music and concerts. But at the same time, the possibilities of today's technology are such a challenge that at concerts I can also play my things from the distant past and give them new dimensions, for example, albums Oxygène or Equinox. When we talk about live acting, it's always interesting to make some type of connection with the audience, which is best when people already know something. This does not necessarily mean repeating yourself. When the context changes, there are other arrangements, you use a new immersive technique like virtual reality or artificial intelligence, it will necessarily be a different experience – for you and for the audience. Covid changed many things. The pandemic has reminded us that we should count on all digital tools for communication for good. It is necessary to try to look for hybrid combinations between live, exclusively live event, which we love, and at the same time add something from futuristic technical tools. This is exactly what we are planning in Bratislava. It will not be an ordinary concert, I would rather compare it to a solar eclipse, which can only be seen once in a while.
Nowadays, almost no music is created without some use of digital technology. How did this technique help creativity?
Now you can actually create anything. Completely new material, as well as you can rethink some existing music from a different point of view, with other instruments. Young artists today are very lucky, because although we always complain generation after generation or decades after decades about the present, it is only because we do not yet have a distance from the present. 50. years of the last century people were very frustrated, but then came the 60s. for years and years, many have been fascinated by the previous decade. Also 70. years, in turn, were considered by many after the Sixties era as a frustrating period, and the same retro loop appeared in subsequent decades. It is an endless story of rejection of the present. I hope that people will be able to respond to the present as they have responded to previous decades, but they will think that the present is great. Okay, the arrival of AI can also be seen as disruptive, on the one hand you can worry about it, but I still think it's an amazing opportunity for artists. Since the creation of any work of art is often based on mistakes and coincidences, it is based on rebellion, it is boring to still create within some existing canon.
What do you think of the new live music options such as the Sphere in Las Vegas? Would you like to see it as a concert challenge, would you accept the opportunity to do a series of consecutive nights there like U2 did?
I would be happy if it succeeded. We're in touch. It could be interesting. The only problem is that when something new becomes a well-defined kind of format, it ceases to interest me. The hall is great, but I think we can create immersive experiences in other spaces, in other ways. For example, with the help of artificial intelligence or augmented reality, which I have been very interested in lately. I have a joint project with a young French startup Lynx. They are developing a fantastic headset for virtual reality, which many experts consider better than the one from Apple. I'm also thinking about a traveling version of the audio-visual show. Today there are completely new possibilities. You can take advantage of the binaural technique, Dolby Atmos, all this offers a new musical language. Note, however, that at Sphere, almost everyone so far talks exclusively about visuals, almost no one about sound quality and music. With immersive shows, we should not forget that music and sound are even more important sensations for people. The basic visual field without turning the head we have only 140 degrees, while the sounds are panoramic, 360-degree.
The Sphere Hall has 150 thousand speakers, does this mean a separate challenge for the composer?
Not necessarily, because sometimes less is more. When you have music produced in stereo with two speakers and suddenly you are embarking on its layout in a space with thousands of speakers, I am quite cautious, because the only solution is already to compose music knowing that it will be for a thousand speakers. It's like making a piece for mandolin but having a symphony orchestra play it. It may be interesting, but I think it's better to start with the orchestra. At the time I was studying in Paris, GRM, aka Groupe de Recherches Musicales, worked in a multi-mono format. It was only later that I discovered stereo in some professional recording studios. It was like a gift to have only two speakers. And that's where my idea of writing music in panoramic sound comes from. Until Dolby Atmos came along and Fraunhofer's research in Germany, it wasn't technically feasible. For example, I want a part of the arrangement, say strings, to sound first in one part of the sound spectrum, and then shift it to another place. It is very exciting that we have spent centuries to create the definitive layout of the orchestra. That is, violins on the left, violas in the center, cellos and double basses on the right. It's very well thought out, all classical music is about that. But with 360-degree sound now, you're no longer listening to music from the front, you're in the middle of it. It is for these reasons that I am interested in the Sphere Hall.
The album Oxymore, which will be released in 2022, you planned to do together with the pioneer of electroacoustic music Pierre Henry. Was he the one who gave you advice at the beginning of your music career to create a bridge between avant-garde classical music and pop?
I didn't have much contact with him as a student. The director of the studio Groupe de Recherches Musicales in French radio was the father of music concrète Pierre Schaeffer. I met him more intensely. We met in the late 60's. years ago, at a time when students revolted against everything, and electronic music was a great excuse to rebel against established classical music and jazz or even rock. It has been forgotten that at that time the interconnections of the musical worlds of The Beatles with Stockhausen were an exception. For me, it was more a reaction to the extreme approach that some works in the field of contemporary music were becoming more and more speculative and too intellectual.
Who exactly do you mean?
For example, Pierre Boulez or Xenakis. I remember that Xenakis gave a lecture at our school and said that everything in music connected with emotions is suspicious. It's come this far.
I am still more interested in the future than in repeating myself – in terms of new music and concerts.
You began to connect different worlds of music also because as a young composer in Paris you saw concerts of groups such as The Who or Pink Floyd, and when you were ten years old, you did you play the piano that jazz musician Chet Baker played?
Interesting that you mentioned The Who. I talked to Pete Townshend a few days ago. On my album Electronica 1: The Time Machine we have a song together. The music started at the same time. Chet Baker told me two important things. In music, it is important to escape from Melody and repetition as soon as possible. It's about your own way, your own attitude. And the second thing is that sound is important in music. Later, I found out that there is a very strong connection between jazz and electronic music. Sound is everything. Take, for example, that you have millions of people who play the trumpet. The latter is a very simple tool. But only after a few seconds you will immediately recognize that it is played by, for example, Chet Baker or Miles Davis. I told PEOPLE at school and at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales that it was a bit arrogant to call their research avant-garde because they are progressive musicians who do the same thing on the street. I mean, experimenting with tape recorders and stuff like that. We should listen to what's happening from the outside of the academic bunker. My work was also a kind of reaction, an attempt to create this kind of bridge between electronic instruments and melody. When I say melody, it doesn't necessarily mean writing a song, but for me melody is an integral part of music. Music that I love.
Which one, exactly?
The one that resembles abstract painting. Did you know that for a while I hesitated between becoming a visual artist or a musician? I was into Jackson Pollock, I also liked Pierre Soulages or Hans Hartung and lyrical abstractionists. In my opinion, abstract art should be called peinture concrète, specifically painting as the equivalent of the term music concrète, because it moves away from the figurative representation of reality. I take figurative painting as a song, where the melody is a description with lyrics, emotions and all that. On the other hand, abstract painting or non-figurative painting is actually a very organic work with the material, working on textures and colors and using mud, oil and various textures. It has this kind of direct, organic, almost sensual, sexual approach to expression, which is exactly what's true with electronic music. So it really intrigued me, and the melody is one component of my recipe.
Did your teachers have a problem with you wanting to do things your own way?
When I studied piano, my first teacher was quite sadistic. She was hitting my fingers, because every time I knew the melody of a song, I started improvising. I was seven years old and I absolutely hated that woman. I even wrote on the walls of my room that I hate the piano. Fortunately, I've been lucky enough to have more open teachers.
In your thirties, you were one of the most successful musicians in the world. Can you imagine playing a concert for a million people?
Today I see it as a happy coincidence. When I first played my own electronic music, it was like a kind of free experimentation. And a million people came, it took me a whole year to get over it. More offers started coming in for big events, and some people thought it was my decision to become commercially successful, but you can't always expect something like this in advance. It's like predicting a hit. You don't know what's gonna happen. It's really a mystery. I wasn't interested in rewriting the Guinness Book of records or anything like that. Musicians are not supposed to break records.
Did you know that you are famous even in the countries behind the Iron Curtain? You couldn't normally get to Western records here, but a lot of people in eastern Europe had your Oxygène and Equinox albums at home.
It's funny that you say this, because years later I found out that in Russia my music was banned at one point because it became a symbol of escape and freedom. In doing so, it is without words. That really intrigued me.
80. over the years, your music has been particularly popular in Czechoslovakia. People copied it on tape, and although they are electronic instrumentals, many even hummed its melodies.
I heard this, some people even mentioned to me that in Bratislava they used to go to the hills to tune the best signal of the Viennese radio and record music.
Did you know that your music is illegal?
It was piracy, but very positive. I prefer this kind of piracy to Spotify. I'm not complaining about streaming services, because streaming itself is great. But it must have fair conditions for artists. In France, too, there is now a great deal of debate on this subject, and I am also talking to our minister of Culture about it. The theme is that we should create a kind of not a tax, but a contribution to streaming platforms for music. Many people already understand that, for example, during a pandemic, musicians can not give concerts, so they can not earn. But it is forgotten that there are many musicians who do not perform. You simply have composers and authors who do not want or can not give concerts, this is not their work. And step by step they are being erased from this sector of music. On many streaming platforms, you don't see the name of the composer or the author of the music or lyrics. So they could get at least a small contribution from these billion-generating platforms. However, it is shocking that for large companies this does not mean anything, and they are against it.
Why Are They against?
They fear it will have ripple effects in other countries. Topics of intellectual property and copyright opened at the end of 18. century in France Beaumarchais. Calls for new discussions about them always come from France and Europe, global players usually consider them a threat. Large companies and platforms may be shocked that we ask for a contribution of one percent, but the fact is that in 80. over the years, only 20% of musicians ' income came from touring. Only a fifth. Today it is 80 percent. It's not okay. Another thing is that when we compare Spotify with Netflix, the latter at least massively finances new movies and series. Spotify and other major streaming audio services give creators minimal rewards with the argument that they are doing them a promotion. They set their own rules. So here's something that needs to be adjusted. I am not against platforms. I'm just saying: Well, we have a new digital pie in 21. we as musicians have to be part of it. That's all.
At the end of 2022, You released a new studio album Oxymore and last year Oxymoreworks, on which various guests collaborated – producer Brian Eno, Martin Gore from Depeche Mode or DJ Armin van Buuren. How are the recordings related?
In a way, I wanted to further develop the concept of Electronica albums. They formed collaborations on songs with different guests, they were actually author's duets. When I released Oxymore, I thought it might be nice to ask a few people to rework some of my songs.
Why don't you call it remixes, but reworks?
Because here people drew only inspiration from one song and created something completely new. I have to say I really enjoyed the process and I love the fact that this album is something different. I would say that as if the cousins and nephews of the original compositions were formed. I didn't want classic remixes, but to conceptually involve different people. Musicians from different genres and generations, which I find interesting.
What was your reaction to these albums? Did fans and critics welcome the fact that Jarre is trying something new, or rather demanded a return to the old creation?
Many claimed that they still prefer Oxygène and Equinoxe albums, that there are too many drums and other new elements here. But if you repeat yourself, if you do something too similar to your previous work, others will say: Oh, nothing new again, he has no other ideas? And when you bring something else, another group of people criticize you for trying it at all costs. It would seem that the best way is to do nothing. If you do nothing, you will know that you are retired. Being a famous musician is almost hopeless.
If you do something too similar to your previous work, people will say: Oh, he doesn't have any other ideas. When you bring something new, others criticize you for trying at all costs. And when you do nothing, you learn that you are already retired. Being a famous musician is almost hopeless.
Seems, I didn't read your post to the end... 
