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Jean-Michel Jarre

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Jean-Michel André Jarre (born August 24, 1948 in Lyon, France), artistic name Jean-Michel Jarre, is a legendary French composer and music producer. He is the son of Maurice Jarre, a composer of film music. Jarre is highly regarded as one of the pioneers in new age and electronic music genre, as well as an innovator, for staging spectacular outdoor concerts of his music, which feature laser displays and fireworks, linking music with architecture and environment. Between the releases of Waiting for Cousteau (1990) and Images – The Best of Jean Michel Jarre (1991), he dropped the dash in his artistic name and now appears as Jean Michel Jarre.

Contents

Musical career

Jarre began studying piano at the age of five, but he abandoned his classical training later. During his youth he formed a band called Mystere IV. In late 1960s, he started experimenting with tape loops, radios and other electronic devices, until, in 1968, he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer, the "father" of musique concrète, where he was introduced to synthesizers.

Oxygene was Jarre's breakthrough album.
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Oxygene was Jarre's breakthrough album.

In the early 1970s, Jarre released his first solo single La Cage (1972), as well as his first two album projects; Deserted Palace (released on Sam Fox Productions/Dreyfus, 1973) and the soundtrack for the film Les Granges Brulées (Dreyfus, 1973). It wasn't until 1976, however, that Jarre secured a recording contract with Polydor (after the initial first release on Disques Motors) with his first major multi-million selling album, Oxygene (although it wasn't until 1977 when the album was released internationally after the initial release in France that Oxygene became world renowned). Oxygene is considered by many to be the most important and influential electronic music album ever, and therefore one of the most important albums in popular music history. Contrasted with his contemporaries, such as the rather clinical, hard, futuristic sound of Kraftwerk, or the more 'cosmic' and murky Tangerine Dream, Oxygene had a lush, spacey and strongly melodic sound reminiscent of the sound of Walter Carlos on the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange released a few years earlier, and was a big commercial success worldwide. The track Oxygene Part IV was released as a single and became one of the best-known pieces of electronic music ever. Key components of Jarre's sound included his use of the Electroharmonix Small Stone phaser on synthetic string pads, and liberal use of echo on various sound effects generated by the VCS3 synthesizer.

In 1978, his second album Equinoxe was released. Jarre developed his sound, employing more dynamic and rhythmic elements, particularly a greater use of sequencing on basslines. Much of this was achieved using custom equipment developed by his collaborator Michel Geiss. A concert on the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1979 followed the release. This concert attracted one million people, which was Jarre's first entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest crowd at an outdoor concert.

In October 1981, Jarre was the first Western pop-artist who was granted permission to give concerts in the People's Republic of China. Also during this year, Les Chants Magnétiques (Magnetic Fields) was released to much acclaim, and was followed by the release of Les Concerts En Chine (The Concerts in China) album in 1982 and is marked as his first ever live album release, comprising of recordings from his tour of China during 1981.

In 1983, he created the album Musique pour supermarchés (Music for supermarkets), which had a print run of only a single copy. The album was made expressly to voice Jarre's distaste and disregard for the music business. Jarre destroyed all the master records from his studio work, allowed a radio station (Radio Luxembourg) to broadcast the album once and auctioned it, raising £10,000 for French artists. People recorded the album using their tape recorders while it was broadcast on the radio, so they can listen to that album, at a very poor quality though (the radio station was an AM station). Songs from this album were later reworked into future albums.

In 1984, Zoolook was released, and was Jarre's first foray into the world of sampling, with the album comprising of many different words and speech, recorded in different languages, to create different sounds and effects, and also included the vocals of Laurie Anderson on the track 'Diva'.

In 1986, NASA and the city of Houston asked him to do a concert to celebrate NASA's 25th anniversary and the city of Houston's 150th anniversary. During that concert, astronaut Ronald McNair was to play the saxophone part of Jarre's piece Rendez-Vous VI while in orbit on board the Space Shuttle Challenger. It was to have been the first piece of music recorded in space, for the album Rendez-Vous. After the Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986 which killed McNair, the piece was recorded with a different saxophonist, retitled Ron's piece and the album dedicated to the seven Challenger astronauts. The Houston concert entered the Guinness Book of Records for the audience of over 1.5 million. The concert featured giant projections of photographic images and laser patterns onto the buildings of downtown Houston, including a gigantic white screen on the front face of the Texaco Heritage Plaza building, which was under construction at the time.

Later in 1986, Jarre performed in his home town of Lyon as part of the celebrations for Pope Jean Paul II's visit to the city, the concert of which the Pope attended and introduced with a good-night blessing (a recording of which forms part of the album Cities In Concert - Houston/Lyon).

In 1988 the album Revolutions was released. Jarre, along with guests such as Hank Marvin, the legendary guitarist from The Shadows, performed this album and selected highlights from his discography at an event entitled Destination Docklands in front of 200,000 people (not including the thousands of observers who witnessed the event from outside the offical concert gates) in two concerts on October 8 and October 9 1988. The event utilized the industrial backdrop of London's Royal Victoria Docks in the East End.

Waiting for Cousteau, released in 1990 and dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
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Waiting for Cousteau, released in 1990 and dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

On July 14, 1990 Jean-Michel broke his own record in Guinness Book of Records again with a concert in La Defense, Paris where 2.5 million people watched Jarre light up the Parisian business district. The album En Attendant Cousteau (Waiting for Cousteau) was also released in this year, and was dedicated to the French sea explorer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

In 1993, Jarre released his first work to be largely influenced by the techno-music scene that had been developing since about 1989. Entitled "Chronologie", the album was, from a technical standpoint, a revision to a concept employed by Jarre in his "Oxygene/Equinoxe" period, where a grandeoise overture provides the emotional feel and sonic timbre for the rest of the following, more rhythmic pieces. This time, however, the tracks would feature newer state-of-the-art synthesizers, swooshing sampled clocks (fitting the theme of the album) and contempory rave-rhythms driving the tempo - a style that became threaded throughout most of the work that followed. In inspiring a generation of electronic musicians with his work from the 70's and 80's, Jean Michel in turn found himself drawn to the trance genre which followed him in the 90's.

However, to fans reminiscing for the subtle tonal quality and phased sounds of Jarre's early work, 1997 would not be a disappointing year. "Oxygene 7-13" was released to reveal that a coherent sonic story over the course of an album was something that Jean Michel could still achieve in the sequel-of-sorts to his 1976 landmark release. This album brought back the VCS 3 synthesizer and Mellotron, among others. One can hear inspiration from "Oxygene (Part IV)" and "Equinoxe (Part II)" in the two-movement piece "Oxygene 7", while many of the other techno-based tracks on the album suggest a combination of Jarre's inspiration from both the "Oxygene" and "Chronologie" periods. "Oxygene 10" would also be the first piece composed by Jarre to feature him playing a theremin.

On September 6 1997, Jarre played in Moscow to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the city. The Moscow State University was used as the backdrop for a spectacular display of image projections, skytrackers and fireworks, with an audience of 3.5 million, Jarre's fourth record for the biggest concert audience ever.

In 1999 he created a spectacular music and light show in the Egyptian desert, near Giza. The show, called The 12 Dreams of the Sun, celebrated the new millennium and 5000 years of civilization in Egypt. It also offered a preview of his new album, Metamorphoses.

Jarre released "Metamorphoses," his first fully-vocal album, in 2000. The compositions and their arrangement on this techno-based album are extremely imaginative. Jarre began integrating sound effects from Apple computers, including an implementation of Apple-talk, a Macintosh program that allowed Jarre to have a computer generated voice speak his strange lyrics on the song "Love, Love, Love." Laurie Anderson made her second guest appearance in the JMJ discography on the opening track. The listener was also treated to collaborations with Natacha Atlas on vocals, and Sharon Corr of irish pop group The Corrs on violin. "Metamorphoses" was not released in the USA until a couple of years later.

In 2001 Jarre performed a concert in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke and Tetsuya Komuro in the Okinawa beaches, to celebrate the "real" beginning of the new millennium. The concert was called Rendez-vous in Space and the group called itself The ViZitors. Later that year, he played at the Acropolis in Greece.

In 2002, he performed the AERO concert at Grammel Vrå Enge wind farm, just outside Aalborg in Denmark, to a rather wet audience of approximately 50,000. 2002 would also mark the release of "Sessions 2000," a set of experimental synth-jazz pieces that were stylistically distinct from anything Jarre had ever released prior. The work on this album is decidedly less rhythm-oriented than Jarre's previous work from "Equinoxe" on.

Geometry of Love, released 2003.
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Geometry of Love, released 2003.

In 2003, Jarre released the album Geometry of Love for VIP Lounge, Paris, taking the 'inspired by the club generation' all the way! While Jarre's contempory albums found themselves drawn to the pulsing rhythms of the dancefloor, Geometry of Love had its spiritual home in the chill-out room at the back, with lush, spawling, sublime works washing over the listener.

On October 10, 2004, he performed two consecutive concerts, first in the Forbidden City, followed immediately by a smaller concert in Tienanmen Square in China, to commemorate open China’s "Year of France" cultural exchange season. Choosing a picturesque location at Wumen Gate in the Forbidden City, Jarre performed with both modern and traditional Chinese Orchestras, choir, opera singers, and several guest musicians including Chen Lin, and guitarist Patrick Rondat. Jarre was prevented from performing with China’s Cui Jian whose songs were sung by student demonstrators in 1989. While it is the first section of the performance that is of historical significance (the Forbidden City being very much as its name suggests - the audience comprised about 15,000 spectators, most of them special guests), the second half had a more muted stage arrangement, providing the closest Jean Michel has ever had to an 'after-gig' show - with an audience of 9,000 expectant chinese! This concert was broadcast in HDTV with 5.1 sound by some satellite channels. 5.1 sound was also used on the stage. The DVD/CD of these concerts, Jarre In China was released in 2005 with THX mastered sound and picture.

On August 26, 2005, he performed a long concert "Space of Freedom" in Gdańsk, Poland, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity. There were circa 170,000 people at the concert. Lech Wałęsa was present on stage.

On September 10th, 2005 Jarre performed at the LinX Live Show for the Official Opening of the Eurocam Media Centre, containing Belgian HDTV Company Euro1080's NEW HDTV Studios, in Lint, Belgium.

On October 2nd, 2006 Jean Michel will release his first Solo Symphonic album, titled "The Symphonic Jean Michel Jarre" with 20 tracks from previous albums on 2 cds. There are plans to release a new studio album to the end of this year.

Personal life

Jarre was married to British actress and photographer Charlotte Rampling from October 7, 1978 until circa 1998. In 2002 he became engaged to French actress Isabelle Adjani, but later she [ended] this relationship. Jarre married French actress Anne Parillaud on May 12, 2005.

Jarre has three children: Emilie (from his first marriage to Flore Guillard, whom he married on January 20, 1975), Barnaby Southcombe (Charlotte Rampling's son from a previous marriage) and David (Charlotte and Jean-Michel's son).

Awards and recognitions

By 2005 he has sold an estimated 72 million albums and singles over his career.

An asteroid, 4422 Jarre, has been named in honor of him. [link]

Selected discography

Singles

Studio albums

Limited edition studio albums

Live albums

Original film soundtracks

Film soundtracks officially crediting Jarre

Remixes

Compilations

Video releases

Chart Positions

Chart positions taken from [link]

Concerts

Main concerts

Other performances

Notable Instruments

Throughout his concerts Jarre uses several unusual or custom instruments. Some of these are:

Trivia

See also

External links

Official web sites

Biographical information

General information

Fan sites

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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