This week, Esprit des Lieux offers you a program on Ircam in Paris, the Institute for Research and Acoustic/Music Coordination, created by musician Pierre Boulez in the early 1970s.
With Jean-Michel Jarre French composer of electronic music (Lyon, 1948 - )
This is great! thanks for sharing. My take on this:
1) Prelude is fab! I love the setup, that mix of high-tech and found-sound objects. The sculptural "objet d'art" that gets a close up at 6 mins is amazing, a sort of mix of glass and mechanicals that would not look out of place in an art gallery. I'd love to know more about who made it and why JMJ came to use it. The overhead shot that first gets a look in at around 4' 25" shows a good view of the kit, with only one production synth which is a Teenage Engineering device (I think) the rest of the set up being made of controllers.
2) I love Epica, one his best tracks in years. I love listening to it in the car and on headphones at home. However, played live like this it just feels, well, a bit flat and a bit fake. What I hear on this You Tube clip is note-perfect from the Oxymore release. There doesn't appear to be anything live or even improvised. Looking at the overhead shots, I cannot see what influence JMJ is having on what we hear. In a sense, so what, this has always been the JMJ way. But when the main focus of an intimate show like this is the music and not the spectacle (he even credits a beautiful less is more lighting design in his thanks at the end) then the music really should have a strong live element to it, I believe.
I don't know if he's going to tour or not, but he is going to be 75 years old this year. These Oxymore concerts/showcases are small enough to pull off. I do think JMJ is not one to just stop and retire like Mike Oldfield has. I guess that when he stops, he'll go out with a bang.
Look at the line up of Glastonbury this year: Blondie (78 years old), Elton John (80), Yusuf Cat Stevens (74), Pretenders - Chrissie Hunde (71), last year had Paul McCartney, Diana Ross. It would be fun to see a performance at the "Legends" slot one day.
Music and innovation (1): the music sector, a dynamic sector of cultural entrepreneurship
As the 9th edition of the Entreprendre dans la culture forum will be held between 4 and 6 July, at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Belleville in Paris, we are looking at the place of innovation in the music sector.
From Jean-Michel Jarre, pioneer in electronic music, who gave a series of concerts accessible in the metaverse on the occasion of the release of his album «Oxymore», to the fake duo Drake and The Weeknd generated by artificial intelligence, Not a week goes by without music innovations making headlines.
