Hi, my name is Jean-Baptiste, I’m 30, french and live in suburbs of Paris.
Don’t blame me on my poor English, I’ll try to make for it in few, simple words.
I discovered Jarre in 1987 with excerpts of “The essentialâ€, and since then, Jarre has never really left my mind nor my disc players. Nowadays, I got “The essential†of his work : a bunch whole of his discs.
I first felt strong interest in his works back in 1988, with album Revolutions, for which he was host of a French teen TV show (so did Dave Stewart from Eurythmics), and what impressed me so much at that time was his engineering skill and the novelty of instruments he had brought to his albums.
Listening to earlier albums made me realize what a brilliant composer he was, especially Equinoxe, Oxygène, my two vinyl delights, which I enjoy very much, though they travelled a lot and are a bit exhausted by now !
Jarre’s two first albums fill my soul with peaceful images, and is a direct link to landscapes I love or moments of the day. Each sound carries a special purpose, as actors getting up on stage or colorful brush strokes on an abstract painting. Of course, I managed to purchase all of his albums (except the Docklands misadventure). I even caught some of his Tunes from radio on audio tapes.
En attendant Cousteau and even more Chronologie gave me will to compose my own music, in a Vangelis (a clever melodist) way, that is, without studying music theory. But the MIDI results were not at the stake I was dreaming. I now know better that composing music is a great matter.
My true favorites are Ethnicolor part 1 (a true masterpiece)and Oxygène 2. My favorite album is Equinoxe. Besides Jarre, I’m keen on Vangelis (Albedo, Spiral, Blade Runner and L’Apocalypse des Animaux) most of Mike Oldfield, some works of Klaus Schulze (X, Mirage and Timewind), debuts from Deep Forest, Kraftwerk’s Man machine, Trans Europe Express and Minimum maximum, Tangerine Dream’s Stratofear, Laurent Garnier’s Unreasonable Behaviour. I also enjoy prog’ rock along with Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Yes, Supertramp’s Crime of the century, Pink Floyd’s Wish you were and Dark side…, Camel, Dead can dance, Spock’s beard, Radiohead’s Kid A and OK Computer, Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain, Led Zeppelin, Porcupine Tree, Frenchmen Patrick Rondat, Air, Magma, Alain Bashung and... others I forget.
My other interest are drawing, philosophy and documentaries.
I love Jarre’s music so much for making me listen to so much more things, from classic piano recitals to art-rock, from opera to concrete music and from latino to good techno. I got the continuous pleasure to listen over and over his wonderful albums and find a true emotion to it all. I look forward to each new record with greatest interest.
France can honor itself that one of its artists brings the most spectacular shows and life-lasting albums to large audiences. He revealed or confirmed so much talented sidemen and women, singers, musicians. It is inspiration for millions of people and synonymous with intelligence and universality.
Thanks Jean Michel. Long live Jarre !