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Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

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Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#61

Post by vidarh »

metricodus wrote: post #29

Jean Michel Jarre - Rendez-Vous Houston (VHS), 1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M Fantastic collection of TV sound bites begins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M&t=57 This love of some french artist in Houston felt odd when I last rewatched this, about ten years ago. Loved the enthusiasm and openness shown in this video.

The Houston concert received a lot of extra attention because Ron McNair was meant to play sax for the piece Last Rendez-Vous, which usually is presented dedicated to him as "Ron's Piece". Then Challenger blew up, and Jarre considered cancelling until people at NASA convinced him otherwise. So while I'm sure Houston would have welcomed Jarre without it, that concert got a special role as a celebration of the astronauts of Challenger.

Ron's Piece is one of my favourite pieces of music and haunting enough and sad enough on its own, but the history of it makes it even sadder.

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#62

Post by metricodus »

Lasher wrote: post #55
metricodus wrote: post #29

Jean Michel Jarre - Rendez-Vous Houston (VHS), 1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M Fantastic collection of TV sound bites begins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M&t=57 This love of some french artist in Houston felt odd when I last rewatched this, about ten years ago. Loved the enthusiasm and openness shown in this video.

This is fantastic, thanks for posting it. I'd forgotten about the Rendezvous Houston concert. The studio version of Rendezvous was also my first ever CD.

This exact video was my first (and only :) ) purchased pre-recorded VHS (in like 1991 or so, I think). I still have it.

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#63

Post by realo »

raverbashing wrote: post #16
wazoox wrote: post #6

For the electronic music geeks, JMJ presents the gear he used to make this album: https://youtu.be/ctOhwRGdVvo About the "matrisequencer" and "digisequencer": the matrisequencer was conceived and built by Michel Geiss, an engineer who worked with Jarre for more than 20 years, from discreet components. It was horribly complex and expensive. In the early 90s, Geiss rebuilt it anew as the "digisequencer", with a tactile…

And today all of this fits inside a computer. Amazing

Fits inside your phone, my friend. Phone... :)

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#64

Post by joeyspn »

secure wrote: post #22

Fans of Jean-Michel Jarre often also like: Tangerine Dream (DE): My favorite recordings are Logos and Poland (both live recordings), but there’s many other great ones, e.g. Force Majeure, Phaedra, Quinoa, … Redshift (UK): Love almost every single album they made. My all-time favorites are Redshift Wild 3, Redshift Wild 2, and Wild (all live recordings). Peter Baumann (DE): I particularly like the first few tracks of…

Add Kitaro (JP) to the list...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitar%C5%8D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONjMiLMw66g

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#66

Post by metricodus »

vidarh wrote: post #61
metricodus wrote: post #29

Jean Michel Jarre - Rendez-Vous Houston (VHS), 1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M Fantastic collection of TV sound bites begins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVQ2o-PI9M&t=57 This love of some french artist in Houston felt odd when I last rewatched this, about ten years ago. Loved the enthusiasm and openness shown in this video.

The Houston concert received a lot of extra attention because Ron McNair was meant to play sax for the piece Last Rendez-Vous, which usually is presented dedicated to him as "Ron's Piece". Then Challenger blew up, and Jarre considered cancelling until people at NASA convinced him otherwise. So while I'm sure Houston would have welcomed Jarre without it, that concert got a special role as a celebration of the astronau…

Ah.. I had assumed that meaning behind "Ron's piece" was that Ron hailed from Houston... and that JMJ dedicated the piece to Ron because of the recent tragedy.

:/

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#67

Post by vidarh »

eternalban wrote: post #52

I used to listen non-stop to this album in college, late 80s. Listening to it after all these years, it is still exciting but I don't think JMJ is going to age well. This album with its Chinese street sounds and all the mythology around the trip was heady and amplified the psychological impact. But it also sounds a bit plastic, too much mascara, if you will. I couldn't loop listen this again. Once in a while, sure. I…

I feel the opposite. Some of Jarre's individual tracks will certainly feel dated - e.g. Computer Weekend for example, and frankly a lot of the Images album. Interestingly it's largely the most playful ones, that toy with sounds that now sound overused and "too obvious", and because many of them come off of as childish.

While I love Kraftwerk, a lot of Kraftwerk's sound fall in the "Images" category for me - they are as iconic as Jarre for those who listen to electronic music, but many of the tracks are also much simpler, and fit a pop-music model much closer, to the extent that it's easier to hear their direct influence on a lot of synth-pop for example. As a result, on one hand they sound more familiar, but much of their music has also often been placed in an era by people influenced by it in a way Jarre's music hasn't.

Some of Jarre's newer music, ironically - to me at least -, seems more likely to be affected by the same effect. E.g. Metamorphoses, Geometry of Love and Teo and Tea all have tracks that on hand more timely for when they were released, and at the same time that to me already date them more.

Jarre was classically educated, and in a way I think you could say that his more classically inspired compositions date better than his more pop/dance inspired pieces, because the former follow a structure that - while the instruments were new and different - is a structure we recognise from music that is quite timeless. Sure, they don't sound like they're meant to be played in a club tonight, but I think kids who haven't heard them before would have far more problems placing them in the right decade than with Kraftwerk.

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#69

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

mojuba wrote: post #44

There is a documentary about JMJ's trip and his series of concerts in China in 1981, which for some stupid rights ownership reason is no longer available (afaict). One curious fact I learned from this film was that the concert in Shanghai required so much electric power that they had to actually switch off the power in the entire city during the concert. At least that's what JMJ tells his then wife Charlotte Rampling…

Can't upvote this enough. 'Arpeggiator' and 'Souvenir of China', both of which only appeared on the Concerts in China CD, are superb. Jarre at his absolute peak.

Re: Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe IV (1981) [video]

#70

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

tezza wrote: post #43
secure wrote: post #22

Fans of Jean-Michel Jarre often also like: Tangerine Dream (DE): My favorite recordings are Logos and Poland (both live recordings), but there’s many other great ones, e.g. Force Majeure, Phaedra, Quinoa, … Redshift (UK): Love almost every single album they made. My all-time favorites are Redshift Wild 3, Redshift Wild 2, and Wild (all live recordings). Peter Baumann (DE): I particularly like the first few tracks of…

William Orbit. Completely prolific and varied but the standard is just so high Try his entire catalogue. Here are just a couple of highlights: Who Owns the Octopus? - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AX8lmn1tk4c Water from a Vine Leaf - https://open.spotify.com/track/00z9Rax2KTHqKLKYnGHzNk Brand New Bong - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrdoimfed0 Montok Point - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XIPhxU0vZh0

As an Orbit fan, I remember sitting in a car in the late 90s hearing his very distinctive sound. That's weird, I thought, Radio 1 (UK pop station) doesn't usually play William Orbit.

It was a pre-release of Madonna's new album Ray of Light - produced by Orbit and very much his style. I think he's gone off the boil recently, but Strange Cargo 3 and Hinterland-era Orbit still holds up.

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