Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[plate of chips]

The audio recording I made is pretty distorted. It isn't an accurate representation of the sound I heard. It was from a small Sony pocket digital recorder designed for voice memos so I wouldn't read too much into that. The You Tube audio is much more accurate but from where I was standing, the sound was strong and clear. There was a decent bass and the drum sounds were loud but not in anyway a distraction from the music and the melodies.

Oxygene Pt 4 and Oxygene Pt 2 sounded crystal clear, with perfect balance. A really pure sound. The EDM tracks (e.g. Herbalizer, Exit, Azimuth, Web Spinner etc) had real power but other tracks didnt have the same mix. I think the sound mix across the whole set list was the right balance, to be fair.

Listening in the open air makes such a difference, the way the sound carries into the night sky. Headphones and phone speakers can never recreate that. It was very special being there in person.

So glad to read this.
To get the mix so well is really something : it's difficult JMJ and his audio team are some of the best in the world.

[plate of chips]

What I like about your recording is that the moment that fireworks go off (sometimes sligtly out of sync) are clearly audible. Esp. in the opening track. And you can clearly hear audience losing their minds after seeing the first explosion. Many people (myself included) assumed this will be a "drones instead of fireworks" show.

Fireworks and the building lit up with led lasers projections brought tear to my eye.
Never thought JMJ would be allowed to do these due to how the world is.
Just writing this now making my eyes moist 4 nights later and I wasn't even there.

[Jote]

Funny thing is I had no problem*) with bass/kick-heavy tracks, but when Brian May started his solo act, I had to put in earplugs. I couldn't stand the loudness.

*) or otherwise a minor one. I have this odd thing when there's too much bass I can't make out the key of the song properly (it feels a good semitone lower than it should. When I plug my ears and block the loudness the pitch is fine. Odd phenomenon)

[Richard-Eastham]

Using Audacity software for Windows, I have extracted a WAV format audio file from the YouTube live stream. The sound drops out slightly during the countdown on numbers 10 and 7, otherwise it all sounds great. Link below:

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/WqpKHo7q8j

Also, a detail about how I made this recording. I used the Realtek High Definition Audio SST setting on my Microsoft Surface and then "loopback" on Audacity through my office headphones. These are Sony MDR-7506 headphones.... JMJ's favourite brand/model

So, this is a recording of a JMJ concert made through JMJ's favourite headphones

[Richard-Eastham]

What I like about your recording is that the moment that fireworks go off (sometimes sligtly out of sync) are clearly audible. Esp. in the opening track. And you can clearly hear audience losing their minds after seeing the first explosion. Many people (myself included) assumed this will be a "drones instead of fireworks" show.

Yes, me too. I was expecting a "drones not fireworks" show too. I was at rehearsals on Saturday night and I saw the drones practice, and although I knew they would never burn a load of fireworks unless it’s actual show, I thought I’d seen what the final show would look like.

But arriving at the concert site on Sunday evening with my daughter, we walked over the UFO Bridge and past the back stage area and there were lots of black boxes on the ground with “Caution Pyrotechnics” labels and I was super excited that this was going back to the days of old.

I loved that only a few tracks got the firework touches – e.g. The Opening, Rendezvous Bratislava, Stardust – and when they were fired, it was about adding an extra visual flare to the track, not going crazy and drowning everything out.

Rendezvous Bratislava – a brass section, a choir, a conductor, fireworks, lasers, and the new AI images on the big screen, all reminiscent of the original Michel Granger Rendezvous cover art, with faces, eyes and red lips. That was a very special combination of sound and visuals. 10/10.

[Kanta]

[plate of chips]

I'd love if JMJ returned to docklands 40 years, on the exact date of his 80th birthday. Summer so no heavy october rain.
There's plenty buildings there now to light up.

[Jote]

Using Audacity software for Windows, I have extracted a WAV format audio file from the YouTube live stream. The sound drops out slightly during the countdown on numbers 10 and 7, otherwise it all sounds great. Link below:

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/WqpKHo7q8j

Also, a detail about how I made this recording. I used the Realtek High Definition Audio SST setting on my Microsoft Surface and then "loopback" on Audacity through my office headphones. These are Sony MDR-7506 headphones.... JMJ's favourite brand/model

So, this is a recording of a JMJ concert made through JMJ's favourite headphones

For future refetence - a much easier way would be to use yt-dlp and just rip the m4a or opus audio (the latter is better, as m4a has a frequency cut at 16kHz) directly from YouTube (takes seconds and it's the exact stream copy, without rerecording/loopback of any kind)

[Kanta]

[plate of chips]

A post from Adiescar's uncle:



Stuart Mark James

For those that don't know me well, I do a fair amount of traveling each year! (Over 75K last year) Taking great people all around the UK

So unusually last weekend I drove and flew over 1200 mile with my Sister, Brother-in-law and Nephew to see my childhood musical hero #JeanMichelJarre play live in Bratislava, Slovakia for the opening of the Starmus conference

This was made more special as I had been invited by my Niece #adiescar to the event as she had been asked by JMJ to accompany him on stage for this event

As you can imagine this was a super proud moment for us all as we were given AAA passes allowing back stage access during the event and were introduced to fellow performer #claudesamard and the wonderful Fiona

If you didn't get to see it live the link below is for the YouTube channel (only available this week)
https://www.youtube.com/live/GzjG95rB96 ... mMliVgD1vd

After the show we met and chatted with british legend #brianmay who was amazingly complimentary about the skills Adiescar had shown during the event.
https://www.queenonline.com/.../starmus-it-was-a-blast...

And just when I didn't think the weekend could get any better my Niece arrived at our accommodation on the morning of our departure home with a JMJ personally signed Oxygene album cover (thanks family Chase ).

I'll have to make sure my passport is always in date as I feel this could become a regular occurrence

Adiescar's family are so rightly over the moon.
Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined one day Adiescar on stage with JMJ and Brian.

[Jote]

Lol, they edited out the "Jean-Paul Jarre" on the official video



time index 1:52:55

[Richard-Eastham]

Lol, they edited out the "Jean-Paul Jarre" on the official video



time index 1:52:55

We were there! We all know it happened! They cannot edit our memories!

"Download a 2 month free subscription with ESET Digital Security to patch over any unwanted errors in your concert recordings"

[Kanta]

[plate of chips]

I think we're not right by comparing those big concerts with this one. I imagine it will be more in the style of Cantabria 2017.

It will definitely be bigger. Believe me.

A while back, I predicted the castle as the concert setting and I still think this is the most likely venue.

You are wrong, I'm afraid...

You'll have to bridge the time until the press conference...

From what I heard through the grapevine, I would say the officials are aware that much more people than the capacity of the concert area will show up. It seems to be part of the plan that the people will gather on the streets, bicycle lanes and walkways around the area, but one gets the impression it must not be announced officially. Anyway, one of my contacts told me: "It's a bit like Houston back then". I don't think anyone outside the area must be afraid that he or she can't stay there.

The ticket website of the festival says now that the concert will start at 20:40. Gates will be open from 6 pm. Again it is stated that festival ticket holders will have a special area reserved near the stage (until capacity of the special area is reached).

Oxygene was totally correct with these inside info.
Oxygene is now our go to for inside info.

[Dr_Jones]

High Quality Concert Artwork?

Does anybody have a decent digital image file of the concert artwork they could share? The best I have is from the Vivien website, but it's still only 608px by 700px and 177kb. I'm looking for a file with enough resolution to make a decent print copy. Portrait or landscape format, preferably in Slovakian not English.

https://www.vivien.sk/event/starmus.html

I just found this: