BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Is this the first time the rehearsals have been publicly announced to have been held in another country than where the concerts themselves are? London isn't (or at least wasn't) on the list of venues on Instagram a while back

About London... well, maybe he needs to rehearse in a studio there due to logistical reasons, personnel, or technical equipment that he doesn’t want to bring to France or elsewhere.
About Adiescar and Claude... there seems to be an empty space on the stage that might belong to them and hasn’t been set up yet. I hope there will be more musicians on stage.
Adiescar has added more interesting live elements to the concerts (like backing vocals in Falling Down, bass in Herbalizer, Equinoxe 4, guitars in Time Machine, flute in Oxygène 2, etc.)

dzoolook wrote: Fri Jun 06, 2025 5:26 pm About London... well, maybe he needs to rehearse in a studio there due to logistical reasons, personnel, or technical equipment that he doesn’t want to bring to France or elsewhere.
About Adiescar and Claude... there seems to be an empty space on the stage that might belong to them and hasn’t been set up yet. I hope there will be more musicians on stage.
Adiescar has added more interesting live elements to the concerts (like backing vocals in Falling Down, bass in Herbalizer, Equinoxe 4, guitars in Time Machine, flute in Oxygène 2, etc.)

For O2, She added violin, not flute.

Robi83 wrote: Fri Jun 06, 2025 6:09 pm For O2, She added violin, not flute.

Exactly! violin

Jarrepeggiator wrote: Fri Jun 06, 2025 2:45 pm He never had an outdoor tour without other musicians playing with him, because most of his tracks can't be performed live alone witout addicitonal keyboard players anyway. That would be more like a DJ playing music from a CD.

I personally don't believe it, I think it's a trick or something or maybe the stage has not been built yet when the video was made. I think JMJ has to start rehearsing earlier than the others, because he has to understand everything.

The Versaille 400 show (just one person, JMJ) included many of the same tracks - Epica Oxygene, The Opening, Oxygene 2, Equinoxe 4 and 7, The Architect, Zero Gravity Remix, Stardust - that were played in Bratislava and La Rochelle (three people, JMJ, Claude and Adiescar). So they can be played "live" by one person but I agree the stage presence and impact of an ensemble of JMJ plus others is much more effective, from a visual and performance point of view.

Just realized the tour will start next week already!

So I was reading this thread to do some catching up on the tour, as I might be a late comer to it (after initially deciding to bail on it) and found this "
"gem":

Jarrepeggiator wrote: Sun Jun 01, 2025 12:49 am I'm glad he is playing an Oxymore track live at this tour, just to stick it to the haters of the album.

Yeah that sounds really healthy.

Why do you need to create these unnecessary artificial divides in the community? This place used to be safe haven free from toxic fanboys. We're FANS here, not FANBOYS or FANATICS, we are not "haters", we have opinions, we have criticisms and you know, people are allowed to like one thing and dislike another, even if it has a "my favorite artist" sticker on it, that doesn't make them "haters". JMJ is not a god, he has flaws, he makes mistakes, he mimes, he has ghost writers, like many people of this format and it has rarely been a problem to discuss this here.

Some of us have been following Jarre for literal decades, this forum alone turns 20 next year. Why did you have to bring this toxic BS here, got bored on the Facebook groups and Discord? Are you going to lecture musicians about the importance/unimportance of chord progressions here as well?

Just stop, please?

Any guesses about the tracklist?

So far it’s (not in particular order):

- Oxymore
- Magnetic Fields 1
- Zero Gravity
- Herbaliser (a transposed down version i think? According to his latest insta post)

Richard-Eastham wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 12:19 am The Versaille 400 show (just one person, JMJ) included many of the same tracks - Epica Oxygene

Speaking of - I wish he returned to a classic version of Oxygene 4. The last good and powerful version was at La Defense (EiC is almost the same, with different drums and bass guitar) It went downhill from there. The tour needs a powerful modern version that makes you want to turn up the volume to 11.

thesynthesist wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 2:45 pm - Herbaliser (a transposed down version i think? According to his latest insta post)

Good catch! It's pitched down one semitone and slower.

Kanta wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 1:00 pm

This is more Kraftwerk than Kraftwerk!

Jote wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 2:51 pm

Richard-Eastham wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 12:19 am The Versaille 400 show (just one person, JMJ) included many of the same tracks - Epica Oxygene

Speaking of - I wish he returned to a classic version of Oxygene 4. The last good and powerful version was at La Defense (EiC is almost the same, with different drums and bass guitar) It went downhill from there. The tour needs a powerful modern version that makes you want to turn up the volume to 11.

Agree about Oxygene 4 and wanting a move away from the Epica version, back to something more authentic. Before Bratislava, one of my "wish list" requests here on the forum was a return to something more original. Didn't happen The La Defense version was good but (for my ears) the Concert Pour La Tolerance version was the best of the lot. Poppy, upbeat and def wants me to turn the volume up to 11. The addition of a proper live drummer with a full drum kit - not just Claude hitting electronic stuff - is what makes this track zing when played live. La Defense, EIC and CPLT all had live drummers.

I have just booked my Eurostar and accommodation for Brussels; it’s cost me a fortune!
Having seen the rehearsal reels and other behind the scenes stuff recently, esp. hints about the refreshed track list I am now starting to get excited

Richard-Eastham wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 4:47 pm The La Defense version was good but (for my ears) the Concert Pour La Tolerance version was the best of the lot. Poppy, upbeat and def wants me to turn the volume up to 11. The addition of a proper live drummer with a full drum kit - not just Claude hitting electronic stuff - is what makes this track zing when played live. La Defense, EIC and CPLT all had live drummers.

Really? CPLT? I had to check it, because I could've sworn I've never heard it. Well, the reason I forgot about it is that to it's - TO ME - an... uncharacteristic version. It's basically the Docklands arrangement with a live drummer, but there's no smacking snare drum in it on every 2 and 4! Which is what gives the PLD version its "bite" and energy and which is what I sorely miss from the post PLD versions.

I'm also not a *big* fan of live drummers on JMJ shows, it kind of takes me out of the "electronic"/"mechanic" experience. Same with Rondat's guitar. For me it's sufficient if the drums are electronic, but more hard-hitting. For me one of the qualities of "electronic music" is when it's all neatly synchronized together and when the sound is actually synthesized ("look mum, no "real" instruments!")

BTW Claude isn't really hitting any sound, and neither was Stephane, except maybe some additional drums in the Brick England intro AFAIR

Jote wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 7:00 pm

Richard-Eastham wrote: Sat Jun 07, 2025 4:47 pm The La Defense version was good but (for my ears) the Concert Pour La Tolerance version was the best of the lot. Poppy, upbeat and def wants me to turn the volume up to 11. The addition of a proper live drummer with a full drum kit - not just Claude hitting electronic stuff - is what makes this track zing when played live. La Defense, EIC and CPLT all had live drummers.

Really? CPLT? I had to check it, because I could've sworn I've never heard it. Well, the reason I forgot about it is that to it's - TO ME - an... uncharacteristic version. It's basically the Docklands arrangement with a live drummer, but there's no smacking snare drum in it on every 2 and 4! Which is what gives the PLD version its "bite" and energy and which is what I sorely miss from the post PLD versions.

I'm also not a *big* fan of live drummers on JMJ shows, it kind of takes me out of the "electronic"/"mechanic" experience. Same with Rondat's guitar. For me it's sufficient if the drums are electronic, but more hard-hitting. For me one of the qualities of "electronic music" is when it's all neatly synchronized together and when the sound is actually synthesized ("look mum, no "real" instruments!")

BTW Claude isn't really hitting any sound, and neither was Stephane, except maybe some additional drums in the Brick England intro AFAIR

"look mum, no "real" instruments!" - I love that attitude, and yes def part of the appeal of the electronic music scene as a whole.

What I think JMJ does that other electronic artists often avoid is the bringing together of traditional and electronic. He’s used this phrase a lot in interviews over the years – the high-tech and the baroque, the opera singer and the laser engineer – that attitudes of mixing eras. His Versailles 400 project was in that same lineage, placing electronic music into a classical setting, something that started way back at Place de la Concorde.

French horns, choirs and synths were part of his 1980s mega concerts. In that tradition, the live drummers that were on stage at PLD, EIC and CPLT are aligned with the JMJ live performance approach.

I really like Oxygene 4 CPLT version and nexxxus kindly provided an MP3 rip from the laser disc. I think it has a real pop music vibe, with an extended final chorus, and an abrupt finish. La Défense version was dramatic, even more so as it opened the whole show.