Jean Michel Jarre
With Texas and NASA both in the news at the moment I am given an excuse to talk about Jean Michel Jarre some more.
In 1986, to celebrate 150 years of Houston and 25 years of NASA, Jarre was invited to perform in Houston. Well, I say in Houston, I mean he used Houston as his stage. Literally!
It was during the planning for this event that the Challenger shuttle disaster occurred. Instead of cancelling they went ahead with the event and it became a tribute to the lives lost as well as the intended celebration of NASA's work. There's a incredibly moving part of the concert when each of the skyscrapers is illuminated with video footage of the astronauts with taped voice-overs.
I've not been to America since before September 2001 but I can't help thinking that a series of spectacular celebrations on a similar scale might help lift the nation's mood a little.
You can say what you like about Jarre's music (trust me, I've heard it all before) but there's no denying the man's genius. Who else would dare attempt anything like it. Believe it or not there were 1.6 million people there to witness it! His Paris concert attracted 2.5 million and a place in the record books.
Not only Houston either. He's done the same in London (I was there), Paris, Lyon, Moscow and Egypt.
Wait, there's more. He's even invented his own instrument, called the laser-harp. Apparently you can see this on the moon when he's using it.
As if to lend him some credibility I found out this week that, as he was illuminating the pyramids on the eve of the Millenium, the world's #1 DJ, Sasha, was using Jarre's music to warm up party-goers in Sheffield.
Jarre and Sasha are two artists whose albums I can say I own all of. Not only this but I have met Sasha and stood next to Jarre. The fact that Sasha also appreciates Jarre means that my life is complete...
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Jake! Is the tube still not running? Do you need to get out more!?!
Seriously though, I can appreciate your Jarre fixation, I've also got something of and appreciation, but can only claim to own one CD, Oxygene. Oh look, I just pulled it up in Winamp to remind myself!
Can't say I've really spent anytime listening to Sasha, like I don't know the first thing about him, but maybe I would know some of the songs if I heard them. Maybe I'll go over to Amazon and see what I can find.
I like the moon thing, I didn't know that. If you after fond Jarre memories, here is mine:
I was about 17, and working as a clerk for a retail company, and my car broke down while at work. I couldn't get home, so I went to see the company secretary knowing that there might be a pool car knocking about to get me out of a fix. Indeed there was, a mini, but alas the windscreen wipers were stuck on, and it was a dry day. What else have you got I asked, and all that was left was a VW Golf. A 16 valve, mark two, VW Golf! Ah now that will do nicely! I went straight home, and noticing on the way that it had a CD player, ran inside for some decent driving music. Jarre. Had to be in this car with leather seats, CD and snazzy dash, compared to my battered and broken mark two escort this was going to be fun! And so I spent most of the evening driving around the M25 and all the back lanes I knew, loving every minute.
In the end I had the Golf for about 2-3 weeks, and Jarre was always at hand for the evening drive home!
Hi Dave. Back from your travels then?
I am getting a mild case of cabin-fever at the moment. Can you tell?
Cars had CD players when you were 17 ;o) Get away!
Yes, they had CD's then, although only just. We're talking 1987 or possibly 88, and only about a year before I'd bought my first CD player for home, and Jarre was one of the first CD's I bought, because in those days you needed some quality music to be able to hear the difference from a cassette tape. All part of the excitement of getting my hands on that car!
Yep, back from travels now, have you been keeping up on the site? Had a fabulous time we did, shame to come back really!
I enjoy electronic/dj music. Any suggestions for a cd from Jarre or Sasha?
Read it daily Dave and enjoyed it all. Tried to leave comments but it wasn't Phoenix friendly...
Peter. For Jarre, you can't go wrong with his first album, Oxygen. It's old but by no means dated. A classic. Otherwise, try "Images" - his "best of".
For Sasha, get either release 1 or 2 of the Northern Exposure series. Also try his own work and his latest album "Airdrawndagger".
Ah, an appreciator of the finer things in life - the Mk2 Golf GTI 16v, or "Valver" as they are known to the cogniscenti! I've had 3 of them, all total money pits, all ending up heavily modded, but loved every minute of them!
I got bored waiting for a VR6 transplant into one of them, and got a Corrado VR6 instead. Bad move. The Golf would run rings around it. Too front-heavy and didn't change direction fast enough. And didn't go through trees very well...
The last valver was the nuttiest. Would hit the rev limiter in 5th, and had full race suspension. The feeling of joining the M62 Westbound from the M1 North at J42, and never lifting... Just like Eau Rouge I imagine!
Had to get rid of it, I had taken all the locks out and welded in Audi 80 rear door handles in to replace the easy-to-screwdriver original ones. The Audi 80 ones are pretty minimal and fit flush. A complete sod to get working with the central locking/alarm though!
I had remote start, remote flush tailgate release, Corrado G60 alloys, Punto rear wiper (minimalist), indicators smoother over and put into the fog holes, nutty Clifford Concept 50x proximity alarm which kept getting blotted out by mobile phone masts and locking us out at the *worst* possible times. A Golf too far...
Bought it standard for 3K in 1999, spent around 9K on it(!), did 80K miles in it and sold it with 200K on the clock for 2K in 2001. That includes it being off the road for long stints getting modded... At this point I had become married and priorities had changed somewhat :)
Ah, to be single! Count yer blessings Jake ;). Although it seems you are getting some these days, so be careful!
I first heard of him in 1991 - too bad, since I would have made the drive from Austin to see him back in '96.
Say what I want about him? He's awesome!
16v? Tush. Until last year I was the proud owner of the turbo-charged 20v Golf GTI. Nice. Alas, there's no need for a car in London and it had to go back to VW... would love to get a V4Motion next time ;o)
(In my best soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend voice)For almost a week, there's no word from you. No blogs, no articles. Now, you're back as if nothing happened and we're supposed to just okay with this? I think you owe us all an explaination. I mean, I've had to find other blogs to read.
The 4-Motion is lardy too. It's the VR6 engine again. Nice in a straight line, but too front-heavy.
The 1.8T VAG unit in your Golf is a cracker, can be tweaked to ~300 bhp. Shame about the lock fault on all VAG kit which is keeping me away from them now...
JMJ is one of my favorites. Others are A-ha, Mike Oldfield, Depeche Mode.
All of them make somehow different genre music. But they have one thing common: synthesizer.
It most have been something about my relation with computers.
Back in C=64 days, there was a game Yi'er Kungfu or alike whatever it was its name. It has an intro. An intro from a cracking group which was actually a part of Magnetic Fields. I used to listen the intro music. I actually do not like the game much. But just the intro part. And I didn't know that actually it is JMJ. Later PC Age started, and I had a PC, and I met some modules (*.mod files) that named as JMJ - Magnetic Fields, JMJ - Oxygene etc. Later I bought a second hand CD, and this is how all started. If I wasn't in the army at the Millenium concert, I would most possibly go Egypt. I envy them all. And for Mike Oldfield, sorry but Berlin concert, I mean Millenium Bells sucks, however you are one of my favorites, I really did not eny Berliners.
Whenever I hear of JMJ it always reminds me of Bill Bailey's "homage" to him. Try:-
{Link}
and enjoy! ;-)
Chris 1: I errmmmm missed the last bus and stayed on a friend's sofa.
Chris 2: Hmm, never was a big Bill Bailey fan anyway.... still, it made me laugh.
I went to the Paris concert, and it was absolutely awesome.
I also went to the Docklands concert, and in a bizzare twist my parents have bought a flat in victoria dock exactly opposite where I stood to watch the concert! (small world)
Always wished I could have gone to Houston, what a skyline for his music.
Speaking about compter games with Jarre sound tracks anyone remember Captain Blood on the Amiga - had part of ZooLook on it?
Jake,
Your time, I mean server time is American Time, but you are at UK. And you have GMT. So why American time? It is really off-topic, but I have to say this.
I did download and listen to some Jarre. I think its good stuff but at the same time kind of understand why your friends make fun of you for listening to it.
Peter, Jarre's video clips, if you seen any, are a lot more to make fun of. 80's style, bizarre effects, Jarre lip-syncing some of synthesizers. It was actually Zoolook clip that I am speaking of, but others are just most alike.
Dispite of too much work and too little sleep I decided that tonight I finally had to listen to my JMJ records again.
Surprise No. 1: What I found to be my most recent album, was "Magnetic Fields". Recorded almost 22 years ago ... :-)
Surprise No. 2: I had to realize, that I own no less than 3 copies of Oxygene. One original US pressing from 1976 and 2 more french pressings. The copyright notice is dated as of 1979, but they are probably younger. There's some french (I don't understand) announcement of digital mastering on the back cover as well.
And yes, kids, grandpa is talking of real vinyl records, of course!
BTW.: You shall not donwload music from the internet. MP3 quality is too bad. :P
P.S. It makes me feel sick to see briton (or even more than one) discussing makes-me-wanna-vomit-cars like VW Golf, when every single one of them should be driving his own Caterham. {Link}
I would give my right leg for owning one. Or wouldn't I? ;-)
for those who wants to listen to some good music u should be trying these albums... {Link}
compositions from Ian Ritchie are very good esp Ecuador and Brazil
Not sure I should have mentioned the VW Golf experience now, seems to have brought out all the petrol heads and driving purests amongst us. Needless to say I was very impressed but was only 17 at the time and not used to such wonders (or so it seemed). Needless to say I grew out of the hot hatch thing and now appreciate finer things. The current wheels are a Porsche 911, circa 1982 and very much a drivers car. And its got a CD players. Oh, I might just have to go and find the JMJ again....
Peter - get Oxygene and Equinoxe. These CDs represent defining moments in electronica.
I think DJ Tiësto is the absolute #1 DJ in the world... you should know better (?)