Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Jarrepeggiator]

Yes, it's a good album, but looking at where music was in the late 90's and early 00's and what Metamorphoses ended up becoming, yeah it's not odd if you ask me.

But is that surprising? We are talking about Jean-Michel Jarre. Basically every single album he did is literally about his. He reinvents himself according to the cultural and technological norms of the times. He kept doing it from day 1. Oxygene was the JMJ take on what Tangerine Dream and others tried to do with space music, Zoolook was a unique version of sampling based music, Rendez-Vous, Revolutions, Chronologie, come on, almost every Jarre album is clearly influenced by the latest styles and technologies, that's who Jarre is. There are only a few exceptions, like Sessions 2000 maybe, which is jazz in 2002. But otherwise, that's what he is doing. Anyone who is looking for an artist who is able totally disregard that, to make music that doesn't use anything from the latest years won't like Jean-Michel Jarre.

Also to answer the V400 question... *scrape throat - ahem*: HAvE YoU MIsSed ThiS AMaZinG aI TecHnoLOgY THaT iS THe FUtUre!
Yes, there is the slight chance that I absolutely loath this technology.

"Have you missed this amazing technology that is the future" - That is Jean-Michel Jarre. He is Mr. Latest Technology. Have you heard him saying even once something like "I don't think technology is so important, I care about art and real music, I just want to make music with any instrument" or "I don't really like these new tools, nothing will be as good as the old school methods", anything like these? No matter what you think of AI, you should not be surprised by Jarre embracing it. He is still faithful to the 70s futurism.

This is who he is. He has always been like this. Many of his albums were done because of the new technologies he suddenly had. Oxygene was created because he finally had advenced new equipment. The most obvious ones: Fairlight CMI - Zoolook, Roland D-50 - Revolutions, Pro Tools - Metamorphoses, Ableton Live - Electronica, L-ISA Studio - Oxymore.

Now, when it comes to AI, I think everyone should watch that debate/conversation type of discussion that he uploaded. He is not just trying to appear young, that video shows you that he really believes in this, he really cares for newer technologies, he takes the time, the energy to read about them and he has many arguments to support his position. He had many interesting points in that video. For example, he mentioned how new techonolgies did not replace older ones, for example we still write despite of having a printer, we still go to the theatre despite of having films, we still go to the cinema despite of having TV, etc.

And I'm not saying JMJ is right about everyhing he says about AI or VR. What I don't like is that he uses arguments to back his opinion, but the people who criticise him often doesn't go futher than some cynical one liners without substance.

[shadow]

All right, I'll give you my reasoning for being cynical about AI and why I genuinely think Jarre supporting it is problematic in more than one way.
AI, as it currently stands is all kinds of dangerous (deep fake tech in general), borderline illegal and extremely wasteful of a number of resources. The machine has to be trained on data, it can't generate anything on its own because machines, to this very day, require input by the user because they're very much still incredibly stupid. We know of OpenAI, Google, Apple, Anthropic and many others have scrubbed the internet for this data, illegally I might add since not a single user has given permission/concent for their: post, photos, artwork, videos and what not to be used. In the case of OpenAI, they outright have stated they require to do so, otherwise the AI simply can not work.
So that raises the question in Jarre his case, which AI does he use and where did the data come from for these pieces of art? There is, as far as I'm aware (though I'd gladly be proven wrong), zero credit given anywhere about where this data was collected from. Were a number of people contacted and given the information so that the AI could be trained to generate these pieces and were they compensated for their trouble? Or was the internet scrubbed for this AI as well? If it's the former, that's great, but why the lack of transparency? If it's the later, than he literally replaced artists with AI, disproving his own point.
And than you the matter for the amount of resources required to get this working. Databases filled to the brim, requiring a ton of energy to work, producing tons of heat requiring tons of water to cool. Long story short, it's an ecological disaster. Microsoft has dedicated itself to be Carbon Negative by 2030, something they admit might not happen because of their AI program. Google their emissions have doubled since the introduction of their Gemini AI. In the case of Microsoft, per kWh, they require anywhere from 1.8 liters to a whopping 12 liters of water.
If he wants me to stand behind his usage of AI, I need that full transparency on how it is being used and where all the data came from that it is using to produce it. AI as it currently stands has proven to be too problematic for its own good.
Don't get me wrong here, the tech behind generative AI is not my issue, I don't want to be cynical about it. However, the way it has been used to this day, the way the data has been pulled together, the way it already has been used to replace people in numerous branches in various industries, that's my issue combined with a complete lack of transparency in this case specifically.


VR, I will admit, I find that pretty cool stuff. Though you have niche products and you have niche products. And VR, as it currently stands, falls under neither since it's even more niche than that.

[Finaero]

Haven't been convinced by generative AI, but as far as AI enhancements go a lot has been improved even in the past few years - as far as graphics are concerned, that is. Namely in the case of upscaling old game graphics.

(The vocal remover algorithms are also getting better as well)

The day you can take a subpar audience recording like the Metamorphoses Showcase, run it through an AI enhancer and get it to sound as if it was a proper line level recording... will not happen, but that'd be far more useful than outsourcing plagiarism

Or more importantly, running some kind of an de-reverb/echo tool on the Docklands radio broadcasts

[Jarrepeggiator]

If he wants me to stand behind his usage of AI, I need that full transparency on how it is being used and where all the data came from that it is using to produce it. AI as it currently stands has proven to be too problematic for its own good.
Don't get me wrong here, the tech behind generative AI is not my issue, I don't want to be cynical about it. However, the way it has been used to this day, the way the data has been pulled together, the way it already has been used to replace people in numerous branches in various industries, that's my issue combined with a complete lack of transparency in this case specifically.

You are talking about the current practical issues of AI use, that the problem is how it's regulated, how people, corporations can use it for financial gain at the expense of others.
This is exactly what Jean-Michel Jarre talked about in that discussion that I mentioned, he says we need to regulate AI, just like we regulated cars or the internet. But most of his critics say that there is no way to do it in the right way, so any AI is bad, evil, AI should be banned and The Matrix is a documentary film.

I'm guessing you are someone who have been following Jarre for a long time. Based on his history, how could you expect him to not be excited about the topic of AI? He is not Vangelis, he is the opposite of him when it comes these issues. He will never say "old school, the old ways are always better". When he had the opportunity to use a Fairlight CMI, he started to use it immediately, it took him just a couple of years to totally abandon the 70s analog space music and make an album like Zoolook. The guy embraces every new technological innovation, with its issues, which he totally sees too, but it won't stop him in his desire to innovate.

There are many fair criticisms of Jarre, but this is the one I absolutely loathe, it's not what you write, but what I often see on his facebook page: "wHaT hApPEnnEd tO tHE olD jArRe?"... Which is an extremely stupid question. He did NOT change in his artistic approach, he is the same guy who did Oxygene. Anyone who did not realise that he is like this, did not pay attention. He does the same thing again and again: reinvents himself according to the times. He never intended Oxygene and Equinoxe to be his permanent style, that was simply what the 1970s saw as futuristic. Now, in the 2020s, the main technological innovations are VR and AI. His main catchphrase in interviews is "technology dictates styles".

As for the loss of jobs: yes, making repetitive backgroud images and things like that no longer require humans. But again, nothing is new, every single technology replaces human involvement, that's what technology does. Remember who workers protested during the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ( ) or how cars, computers, printing, etc. all resulted in job losses. On the other hand, it also created new jobs. We will have jobs like AI supervisor, AI demonstator, AI educator, AI designer, etc.

[Richard-Eastham]

You know with everything about how amazing the AI is for this concert and I genuinely have to wonder... What data was this actually trained on? Who were the original artists? Were they compensated? Do they even get credit? How will this technology be handled going forward? It's all a bit... Problematic to be honest.

This, 100%.

I do like the artwork used at Versailles 400 and Bridge From The Future. It was a return to a graphic style closer to what we saw in Docklands, Houston, Lyon and Place de la Concorde... that ambiguous pop-art, street-art style of colourful imagery. Credit for the visuals in Houston went to Christian Bourret, Caroline Crochard, Anne Slizewicz, Catherine Roca and Richard Lorion. Who gets the credit now?

The live visuals for the Electronica era (and I include Monaco 2011 here) were defined more by geometric shapes and lines and it was, well, a bit boring. So a good move for Versailles 400 but yes, who were the original artists and how do they get credited?

JMJ's work for CISAC over the years, to promote and protect authors’ rights, should give him pause for thought.

Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, the actor Julianne Moore, the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke are among 10,500 signatories of a statement from the creative industries warning artificial intelligence companies that unlicensed use of their work is a “major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/o ... ai-warning
https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/signatories

JMJ has not signed this letter, obviously - he thinks differently

[Jarrepeggiator]

I think we should get back to the original topic, discussing the Metamorphoses album here.
As we are getting closer the 25th anniversary, I wrote my previous post to tell you how much I love the album overall, it's a top 3 Jarre album for me:

As we are getting closer to the 25th anniversary of this masterpiece (which will come this winter), I just want to tell you how much I absolutely love this album.

Even in 2024, every time a listen to it, it still amazes me how creative, unique and complex it is. It took me some time to really get into it, but now, I can say that this album is my 3rd most favourite JMJ album, right after Zoolook (1st) and Equinoxe (2nd). It is one of the three 10/10 Jarre albums for me.

This album was a pivotal moment is the Jarre story. It took him to a level that made him way above any of his 1970’s collegues, from Kraftwerk to Vangelis (if that wasn’t the case already). Because he established himself in a new millennium as a forward-thinking, modern artist, who still has his previous strenghts, but also, pushes forward.

The 1990s had many different electronic revolutions, so many new genres and styles. According to Jarre, he had been thinking about creating an album which is inspired by these new waves of art and technology through the 90’s. He created the more retro-sounding Oxygene 7-13, but during the recording, was already think about doing something very fresh and unique next time. After already experimenting with some techno, trance & hiphop rythms on Chronologie, he was finally ready to create someting truly new.

Metamorphoses has everything a great Jean-Michel Jarre album needs: mind blowing, super complex, layered, innovative sound-design, beautiful, emotional, powerful melodies, organic, traditional instruments mixed with industrial electronic sounds and effects, huge variety of genres from ambient to techno, from progressive house to downtempo and ethnic fusion, huge variety of cultural influences: many different languages and world music elements. etc.

I love „Je me souviens” with Laurie Anderson, buliding that special vibe with groovy piano lines and a digital drums. It’s a perfect start to the album. And then, the brillant „C’est la vie” comes in, mixing Arabic world music with 90’s electronic breakbeats, 3 different languages, the organic and the electronic parts answering to each other making the perfect, cathartic mix between East and the West, then we got the brilliant „Rendez-Vous á Paris”, with beautiful harp parts and the most beautiful Irish violin-solo I’ve ever heard, then we hear the progressive-house influenced Hey Gagarin... I could go on and on about each track on this album. Even the themes are so unique and interesting, like with „Love, love, love”, a track that sounds like a parody of a love song, is a track about a nymphomaniac person feeling nothing but still pretending be in love and therefore sounding forced, or „Gloria, lonely boy”, which is about the lives of trans people, or the fun, extremely catchy, but still so weirdly complex „Tout est blue”.

I honestly like every single track on the album, even my least favourites mean a lot to me. It is a complex, unique, emotional, groovy, well structured and brilliantly produced work.
I’ve listened to it so many times for so many years and I still can’t get tired of it. This album is my favourite post 1985 Jarre album and I hope the 25th anniversary will be celebrated!

But in that post, I did no mention the amazing way he used the 90s Pro Tools software. This is one of my favourite Jarre videos of all time, because we can see him and Garraud producing the album in 1998-1999:



I honestly think the most underrated ability of Jarre is that he always finds the right collaborators for the right projects, he know when to keep them or when to say goodbye to them like did with Geiss or Rimbert. And I'm sure he has connections who help him finding candidates, but at the end of the day, it's his decision to pick the right people, he does the actual work with these people. Even today, he was able to find someone like Adiescar who perfectly fits his concerts with her multi instrumentalist abilities.