Mrs F works for a well-known supllier of Bluetooth gubbins.
Jean-Michel Jarre came to visit yesterday. He’s keeping well for 75.
The 5-note riff from Oxygène IV (released in 1976!) has served him well.
Oxygène, Équinoxe, Les Chants Magnétiques, Les Concerts en Chine, Zoolook. Zoolook, the most recent of his work I own, was 1984 – 40 years ago.
Not that you really need me to post this, as it is already playing in your head.
That’s Oxygene IV, which is good, the one that really hit the spot for me with its attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion from 100 secs in, is Oxygene II
Rigid is right – Oxygene and Equinoxe are a pair. Can’t have one without the other.
Did you really get a visit from J-MJ? I am impressed.
Mrs F’s office did. She and her colleagues got a photo with him. I don’t know why he was there (probably a trade secret).
Oxygene was the first album I bought on CD, the same day that I bought my first CD player. In my mind it was the perfect match – futuristic music for a futuristic machine!
When I listened to the CD for the first time, for some odd reason I got convinced that one of the tracks had been used as the theme tune for The Persuaders – but I can sort of understand why. The theme tune (by John Barry) has the same kind of haunting melancholy vibe, and snippets here and there of the melody are a bit similar to Jarre’s music, IMO (well: the other way around…)
(At that time I had no real sense of when either work had been made – both being classics that I came to late! – but I figured out my mistake eventually…)
I have a vague recollection of it being used as the theme for some medical program (??) in the early 80s (??)
@Chrisf I think the programme was called ‘where there’s life.’ We used to sing that along to the song when it came on the telly.
That’s the one @pawsforthought
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (or YouTube) you can now re live your singalongs….
Alas; this TV masterpiece strangely wasn’t shown in Sweden… 😉
The Persuaders theme is a classic! John Barry was a genius.
Not exactly strenuous music to play. Plenty of time for a cigarette and a ham sandwich.
You’re thinking of Rick Wakeman’s work.
Harsh…and apocryphal, I understand.
Conserving his energy for shrugging and chin-jutting.
I’ve got a copy of Rendez-Vous – that was later. It was 1986
(oh, that’s still 38 years ago)
I’ve gone to the Kallax and found a copy of Revolutions (1988) in there. I seem to recall it wasn’t very good.
I used to go halves on LPs with my neighbour. When he moved away (c. 1986), he took the first three, and I kept the rest. I definitely got the raw end of the deal.
Indeed, Oxygene and Equinox should be on every shelf.
I think of them as a double album – which probably has more to do with originally owning them on a Polydor 2for1 tape, than an artistic statement on JMJ’s part.
Rendez-vous is mostly an attempt to get back to the Oxygene/Equinoxe sound but is lacking in inspiration, though the final track is quite moving (read the backstory in the unlikely event that you’re interested)
I like or love all of Jarre’s stuff before that. The story of Music for Supermarkets is compellingly odd.
Zoolook is fantastic, especially the first side. Using sampling to make music out of vocal fragments was already becoming a cliché but it still sounds cool in his hands. At the end of 1984 I was digging the sounds of a frog chorus – the one halfway through Ethnicolor. The second track is where he decides that it’s all a bit too straight and brings in Laurie Anderson for some non-verbal vocalising. Hilarity ensues…
I really like the Amazon one. It has a spectacular multichannel mix. There’s a song where you can hear little pot bellied pigs or guinea pigs or some sort of pig rooting around while the music plays.
Bought the live album in 1982 and liked it then.
Not thought of him for 30 plus years.
This thread shows me why.
Charlotte Rampling was so smitten by his way with his instrument, she married him
Oh I say!
@fitterstoke
Or as the late, great Leslie Philips might have put it “Ding, dong!”
I’m not a fan of his more recent clubby, more dance-y material, but a lot of his earlier albums are great.
Also, his outdoor live performances are always something special. His Rendez-vous Houston show, where he basically used downtown skyscapers as his lighting rigs, blew me away back in the day, and still looks pretty good today.
Chapeau off to Monsieur J!