BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

I do have Arte on my digital TV reciever.

Mark Gidley ran the brilliant JMJ fanzine "Conductor Of The Masses" in the early 1990s. If any of you have back issues, you'll find some articles in there from me!

French artist Jean-Michel Jarre will perform this Tuesday, July 8, at Icónica Santalucía Sevilla Fest, his only concert scheduled in Spain for 2025, an event for which all tickets have already been sold out.

Video: https://x.com/abcdesevilla/status/1942603299296780727

If any of you guys are attending the Seville tonight, if you see this kind of van/truck. Please let me know.
This is SNG van and it's used for transmission of a backup concert feed and I am trying to find this info.

Jean-Michel Jarre, legend of electronic music, performs tonight at the Icónica Santalucía Sevilla Fest in his only concert in Spain, a performance that will be recorded for a film.

Source: https://x.com/EFE_Andalucia/status/1942605990873932026

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He looks like an eternal young man and in addition to being a 'bad boy' with that way of looking that as my grandmother would say, 'he is plotting all day'. Jean-Michel Jarre (Lyon, France, 1948), has sold out the tickets for his concert in Icónica in no time. Cult musician, performer and composer, he is the son of also musician Maurice Jarre, author of mythical film music such as 'Doctor Zhivago', 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Ghost' or 'The Society of the Dead Poets'. With that background, dedicating yourself to music was quite simple, but the surname would weigh, so Jean Michel changed the paternal aesthetic for one more in line with his generation: electronic music and electro-rock.

He is part of several groups and begins to compose in the 70s of the last century and finally in 1976 his international catapult arrives with 'Oxygene', an album that he confessed to composed and recorded in his kitchen converted into a studio, using archaic electric instruments, a work of six tracks of which he sold millions of copies. After 'Oxygene' came 'Equinoxe', an album made with sequencers and new synthesizers, and inspired by water as an element.

He was the first Western musician to perform concerts in China in 1982 and anticipating the performances of the 21st century in 1983 composes 'Musique pour supermarché', of which a single copy was mastered in the world and was broadcast only once through Radio Luxembourg before being destroyed. Bansky at that time still played with balls.

In 1993 he gave a concert in Seville taking advantage of Lake Cartuja where he projected a 150-meter stage and ten screens on which he projected his soundscapes, and incorporated flamenco as one of his proposals.

This time instead of the Lake of Spain it is the Iconic Festival and the Plaza de España that hosts the concert of Jean Michel Jarre before a very heterogeneous audience, bringing together several generations, those who were in 93 and those who were born years later.

- I have read that they consider him the youngest grandfather of electronic music, do you like that definition or not?

- I like children, I think being a grandfather is positive in life. It keeps me young and fresh, and in contact with the new generations.

- It is said that electronic music is intended for a minority audience. Do you think he has contributed to breaking that myth?

- At first we were considered a gang of crazy young people making strange music with machines, a few years later electronic music became the most influential and popular in the world. Today I think that 'Oxygene' contributed to popularizing the genre.

- He has been making music for fifty years, how does he manage to continue and always stay on top?

- You are still active, and you continue there, thanks to two elements: firstly there is health, your body continues to allow it, and secondly curiosity. Curiosity is the key factor for everything in life, for music and for any other aspect, because it makes you explore new territories, and makes you feel excited every time you make a new discovery, when you expect what the future holds for you. For example, today I am excited, and a little nervous, because tonight I play in Seville and I am excited as if it were my first concert, and I hope that everything goes perfectly and have the best possible response from the audience. I remember very well my first concert in Seville, and I am convinced that I will always remember tonight's concert, throughout my life, because the public of Seville is one of the best in the world.

- When you started in music, did your family take a burden on you or expected something different from you?

- Actually, my mother always supported me. My mother always encouraged me to do what I wanted in life, and my father, of course, too. As you know, my father was a great composer, but my parents divorced when I was 5 years old, and my father went to America, and I grew up alone with my mother with very little contact with him. My relationship with him has never been a burden, or anything negative, but it has not influenced my career either.

- How has the music industry evolved since its beginnings in the 60s until today?

- When I started the music industry was more artisanal, everything went step by step. Everything changes in the 80s and 90s when music becomes an industry controlled by lawyers and bankers. And today, it is curious, the musicians work independently, each at their level and style. Thanks to the Internet, music has been democratized, and now you can compose, produce and distribute your music with your computer from your bedroom, so once again the music industry has completely changed, and how musicians relate to our audience.

- Do you think today's musicians depend too much on technology?

- I think technology is an ally of music. Thanks to the fact that we invented the violin, Vivaldi was able to make his music, and thanks to electricity we also have the music of Chuck Berry, Coldplay or Pink Floyd. Thanks to the electronic components we are making the music we make, both me and other electronic music artists. So the technology is neutral, it is only a problem if it is not made good use of.

- I feel very privileged when I look back, both for having made the music I make for so long, and for being able to continue making it with so many followers all over the world. It's a great privilege. And it is also when I think that my first album 'Oxygene', has been released by so many record companies around the world. No singer, no drums, with a 20-minute song that everyone thought wouldn't work. But they were wrong and that makes me feel very privileged too.

- In the musical field, who defines the styles, the market, the fashions, the technology?

- Everything is in the public. No one knows why something works at a certain moment. It's a kind of mystery that I adore. Because it doesn't depend on a producer, or a great machinery. What is very important for an artist is to know that his career is in the hands of the public, the successes and failures, but it is impossible to know what will happen.

- Do you also think that old rockers never die?

- Unfortunately, by definition, old rockers are old, so they have lived a lot of adventures. Those who died young fell into the hands of drugs or alcohol. I think there are two types of artists, there are those who fall destroyed by an excess of sensitivity that leads them to alcohol or drugs, and then there are the artists for whom music is a refuge, it is something that helps them advance strongly supported by art. Neither of these two categories has anything to do with talent or the quality of the music. Between these two extremes are also the survivors, such as Keith Richard or Eric Clapton, survivors of everything, whom I deeply respect.

- Aren't you afraid that artificial intelligence can also be used to compose music?

- Don't fall for the old myth that technology is the enemy. Technology is a tool, you just have to know how to use it. You don't have to be afraid of AI, you have to learn how to use it and get the best out of it. It is true that at the moment it is like the West, there is no law. It is very important that there are laws to control AI and protect creators, but at the same time AI gives us a fantastic opportunity to create differently and expand our imagination. For example, in the Seville concert we use a lot of AI and I think that this way we will teach that this or another type of technology can have its poetics and that the algorithm can be your friend if you know how to use it.

- What do you think about the free music or culture?

- I think culture has to be democratized as much as possible, but we have to stop considering that music is like the air we breathe, because behind music work many people, technicians, engineers, illuminators, creators, everyone deserves to have a decent life. So if you like an artist, you have to pay to see his concert, or to have his album. If we pay for our food, we also have to pay for our music.

- Music reflects the time in which we live. How is today's music?

- Today's music is the reflection of our time. Very diverse. Connected to everyone more than ever thanks to the Internet, it doesn't matter if it's hip hop, classic or techno. 20 years ago music grew in different ghettos, there was jazz, rock, pop... they were different tribes. Today those tribes mix, which is a very good sign.

- What is your next project?

- My next project, I have it clear: take a vacation.

Source: https://www.abc.es/queplan/sevilla/conc ... 3-nts.html

Jean-Michel Jarre @ Seville - 08/07/2025

rinogurr wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2025 11:47 pm

What happened to the sound during Brutalism?

Kanta wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 5:51 am

He's only gone and done it! Broken away from the "black box" festival stage and starting to draw in the surrounding architecture into the show design experience. That hybrid approach I was advocating he use in Brussels. It looks great! I know this was the date on the tour when the TV crew was there, so maybe that's why there was a slightly more ambitious approach? But it shows it can be done. Love it! A shame it didn't happen in Brussels (where I was) but so pleased this particular show took that old school JMJ attitude and applied it to today's modern staging.

Richard-Eastham wrote: Wed Jul 09, 2025 10:13 am He's only gone and done it! Broken away from the "black box" festival stage and starting to draw in the surrounding architecture into the show design experience. That hybrid approach I was advocating he use in Brussels. It looks great! I know this was the date on the tour when the TV crew was there, so maybe that's why there was a slightly more ambitious approach? But it shows it can be done. Love it! A shame it didn't happen in Brussels (where I was) but so pleased this particular show took that old school JMJ attitude and applied it to today's modern staging.

I really like it too. That's why I'm looking forward to the rebroadcast on Arte channel. It seems that this could be the best concert of the tour, aside from the indoor performances in complete darkness.