One boat captained by old sea hand experienced in the ways of the journey.
This boat somewhat rickety, whilst not cutting edge design offered that rarity ... a real journey.
Those whom wished to journey recognised merits of this boat, recognised merits of the experienced old sea hand.
Gladly they boarded .
Others decried the non cutting edge design of the boat whilst pointing out the old sea hand was just that : an old dog.
These folk gave themselves plenty reasons this that and the other to not partake on the journey.
These folk jumped on the other boat.
Wowing at the other boats design. Marveling at the other boats experimentalness.
Unaware the other boat wasnt going anywhere. Marooned merely for observation.
There were no journey on the other boat.
These folk were not even aware of there being a journey ...
Whereas he said he'll release albums in the future, I think he has done his last albums with the idea of retiring.
Electronica is JMJ showing the world what electronic music has been the last 40 years. Professor Jarre certainly...
Oxygène 3 is not closing the "Oxygene" cycle (if there is one). The name is just marketing. If you listen to it thinking of another title, then it is obvious that this album is JMJ showing a resume of the music of JMJ for the last 40 years. This album contains a lot of his sounds and "tricks" he's been using in all his albums and not only Oxygene. In fact except Eminent and Minipops and, well, wind, I can't hear a lot of Oxygene in this album. Far from that. I can hear Harp lazer, I can hear Chronology 4, I can hear Teo&Tea, I can hear Arpeggiator, etc.
A kind of musical autobiography.
SuperStarly wrote:
I wouldn't go basing the "current nature of humanity" on the fact that other people enjoy an album you view as rudimentary and lacking.
I often find things connected in such a way actually. And it is not an elitist statement, but one simply of quality. And quality from each level of perception is defined differently. For someone something very simple is of high quality. There is no condemnation in that. Simple observation.
One could become elitist about quality, but I simply define it as the amount of originality, innovation, inspiration, imagination and actual translation of those into a tangible reality.
Quality could simply mean, the expression of self to the best of one's ability, from that point of view, it becomes entirely subjective according to the circumstances and states of being. Even within a single individual. So while much effort might have been put into something earlier in one's life, perhaps one is satisfied with less effort but with more heart at a later stage in one's life.
Quality could also be defined as the ability to express something, and have that be understood by someone else in exactly the same way that the person expressing it, meant it to be understood and taken in. From that point of view, if one created a very minimalistic album and it was exactly what one intended, and it is understood exactly as that by another, then it has utterly succeeded.
But my point was that people used to enjoy and demand higher quality products in the past, in general. No matter if it was music, or something else. And if they have moved towards accepting less and less quality and still see that as acceptable. This gradual movement means that you would eventually be able to sell to them something that is worth nothing, and they would still accept it. Not recognizing how much they had lost, because they had become accustomed to so little. Now take that analogy and apply it to the whole of life. It is detrimental to the self and society.
Finaero wrote:Maybe he has a pamphlet that will change our minds?
It cannot be changed with pamphlets, and it does not only involve the mind.
Elf wrote:Or maybe it just says that we like it much better than you do (and that we are right and you are wrong)
Well, the problem with this statement is that it missed the entire point being made, hence its deduction into the simplicities of right and wrong. This is not a moral choice, to be deduced as such. This is a little more complex. There is no need to have emotional knee jerk reactions my friend.
Elf wrote:
Analog-Umph wrote:Or as Ming the Merciless said it: "Let's say, they'll be satisfied with less."And that is sad.
He also said he was bored and terrorized an entire planet because of it.
Now you know why I chose a villain, to express the analogy.
AnDrOiD wrote:Please enlighten me with an example of an artist, that do just that. I'd like to hear sounds I've never heard before, performed in a way I've never heard before. Is this/these artist/s from another planet?
No problem. Only at a better time when one is naturally curious, and not seeking to defend one's own opinion by subtly taking a dig at another's.
The thing is, that those of us who use synths on a daily basis, we've heard Oxygene 14-20 a million times, by playing it ourselves. When you have synths, it is easy to come up with the kind of sounds and simplistic chord progressions that this latest album offers. I can do it in a couple of minutes. In fact, synths themselves, nowadays come with much more beautiful and interesting sounds that what I find on this album. Not to mention that nowadays the world is a flood with synths of all kinds, both hardware and software. Which is why it is quite interesting that Jarre went in the complete opposite direction, and delivered something a little to minimalistic, both timbrally and melodically. Which puts it in the territory of not even being an album, or what people once used to define as being an album. As soon as you switch your synthesizer on, or launch it on the computer, you yourself, without much musical skill, can whip up this same album. That's how minimalistic it is.
The same however cannot be said of the first Oxygene album, which requires a lot of work, A LOT of work to get those sounds firstly, and then to play it right. And get it all to sound/feel right.
As someone commented elsewhere: "Oxygene 3 sounds like the sort of bland, generic electronic music that you might find on stock music sites or VST demo tracks."
That's kind of harsh, but to tell you the truth, some synth demo tracks out there are masterpieces in themselves and are better than most tracks on this album.
Once again, the same cannot be said when comparing those demo tracks to the tracks of the original Oxygene album.
AnDrOiD wrote:I'm listening to Oxygene 3 for the sixth time now, and it's an album that gets better every time I listen to it. And that's the best kind of albums, and music. Instant "hits" gets boring fast. This album is Oxygene with a modern twist, and I like it a lot. I wasn't sure to begin with, but now I am. Oxygene Pt. 20 is a beautiful piece of music, and almost feels/sounds like a requiem. I like that there's a little snippet of pt. 6 in there.
That's great. Glad you're enjoying it. As for instant hits getting boring real fast ---- jeez where would that have left Oxygene 1-6 in my heart, if things always worked like that. Yet it was both a hit with me and it also grew on me. I got to experience both "sides" with Jarre's earlier work.
Yes O20 is real nice, it also reminds me of this great 2011 track:
*
Without faith nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.
AnDrOiD wrote:Please enlighten me with an example of an artist, that do just that. I'd like to hear sounds I've never heard before, performed in a way I've never heard before. Is this/these artist/s from another planet?
No problem. Only at a better time when one is naturally curious, and not seeking to defend one's own opinion by subtly taking a dig at another's.
*
I have to wonder about that myself though. You are right that many sounds here can be had by fiddling with synths. Then again, I fiddled with synths for many years, but never produced anything like Oxy 3. However, that could just be my general ineptitude for wanting to be a Jarre, but something being missing in the DNA...that I readily grant you. It's been a very frustrating strand in my life.
On the other hand, I'm not so easily convinced that incredible new landscapes of sound that have never been heard before still exist to be discovered, as they were back in the relative infancy of synthesizers when Jarre began. This claim is often made, but I don't see much evidence for it. The problem is that most "experimental space" is filled with really, really weird stuff, which certainly is different, but it lacks the aesthetic power to redefine a whole emotional world and draw a generation along in its wake. Most examples people end up giving are desiccated outposts in experimental space. Exactly the kind of thing I don't care for and never have. Jarre's work brought emotional warmth to the synthesizer realm. Of course others were going to discover that and follow in his path. They would have discovered it anyway, even if he had not. But he was the world leader in bringing it.
Zoolook is my least favorite Jarre album, for exactly these reasons. He tried to push an emotional warmth too far into eccentric space, and the two just don't go together well. The thing about synthesizers was that they created a genuine new CONTINENT of sounds. Whether that can ever happen again is moot...though I don't rule it out completely. Jean-Michel was in one sense lucky to be a kind of early "Columbus" heading out into that terrain for the first time. Both factors were necessary: his artistic talent and being in the right place at the right time in history. It's also possible, however, that present technology is already capable of producing just about any sound capable of being heard by the human ear. In that case, small, dotted, undiscovered islands of heterodox sound don't amount to the second discovery of a new continent.
Jon wrote:However, lets not go down that road for the umpteenth time of getting personal of what people should or should not like. So what if Jarre created a album that one out of ten don't like. What do you expect Jarre to do next, go back in the studio and re-do the album while corresponding with you on how YOU want it to sound. Considering the lull of 8 years, in the space of a year (or so) we have had 3 brand new albums from Jean Michel Jarre. That has never happened before and most likely never again. Most of us, including me I will add, thought Jean Michel was or had decided to quit the music industry. Lets face it, he did say during the making of this new album he had seriously contemplated that. Thankfully for us fans he didn't. The outcome of persevering is a very worthy album to complete the Oxygene chapter.
Well put, Jon! We've got enough of these "human race is in decline!" types all over the Internet (and yes, the real world).
Oh well, at least this place isn't like a Tangerine Dream forum.
I still haven't received my package yet, but I hope I can get a hold of vinyl rips. I'm really curious how they hold up to the original releases. The Oxygene 7-13 vinyl from 19 years ago is really good.
27-11-10: Ahoy Rotterdam
22-11-16: Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam
I can't believe that after the storm of complaints that the Essentials and Rarities got they're still hiring the guy. Seriously just kick him out already...
27-11-10: Ahoy Rotterdam
22-11-16: Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam
2 questions concerning the vinyl:
1. Is side B of Oxygene 7-13 with the "different" Oxygene 10 intro?
2. Someone on superdeluxeedition.com posted that 3 of the 6 sides are off-centre (with side 2 of Oxygene 1 being the worst). Someone here has the same experience?
shadow wrote:There's a couple of extra notes before the actual music starts. It's nothing mind blowing, but it's enjoyable when I heard it for the first time.
Would love to hear it, was it on the 1997 vinyl only?