Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Billy Bunt]

Another retro version of a JMJ classic!

TBH I'm not that happy with the end result - it's such a fiddly track I think I got a bit bored, especially with snare programming in the two breakdown sections, and it's been a sod to mix, so I present it "as is" for your amusement.

https://soundcloud.com/thequixotes/arpegiator
(downloads enabled)

I've always found this track (one of my favs) a bit of a curiosity in the Jarre canon: it's like nothing else (that's been published) in his career. I know this is going to be heresy, but transcribing it in detail does lead me to wonder exactly what the story is. The dualling funk basslines and the solo at the end really don't "feel" like something JMJ would have composed, and absolutely not something that he would have played live (cf his Oxygene V solos ). I suspect there's a very good article to be written about Arpegiator, if all the participants told the truth! The original CiC version - that's a studio recording, right?!

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[Analog-Umph]

Hmm interesting points.

Actually the way it is composed and arranged is very similar to the usual Jarre repertoire, in fact it's C minor, G minor and F minor just like the most Oxygene. It could have been in that album, it's just that when you take out Minipops drums and put in something closer to acoustic drums, aka Linn Drums with SDS-5, that the track gains a whole different flavor. It worked really well for the next track on the same album, Equinoxe 4, the track took on a whole different flavor, even more akin to rock and psychedelic rock - which I feel was the feeling Jarre was going for in the original album version. But could not quite get it out - which is why he's kept on playing with that track in every subsequent release of it.

Take his usual composing, change the synth line up significantly, add completely different drums and you've got Arpegiator and the rest of CiC. I feel that his CiC sound was the best combination of synths and drums, it really took his music out of niche territory and made it "big". All you have to is change the drums, add a bit more reverb.... who woulda thunk it!
It did not get this kinda improvement again till Chronologie, but then with Oxy 7-13, I thought everything took a significant dive, the whole album sounds generic and passe - the drums, the unimaginative composing and thematic exploration, the mixing and mastering...the lack of organs, the self-referential moments....

Btw, really enjoyed your 'as is track', was funny hearing circus drums in there, made it sound very

[Billy Bunt]

Yup, we'll never know the truth, of course!

The sequences themselves (and I say "sequences" because I'm not convinced there are any actual arps, at least in the modern sense in there) are almost certainly Jarre.

The fascinating thing about the lead sequences, is that they are in a different time signature from the rest of the song. That, I imagine, would have been very, very difficult to program in 1981; sequencers even today tend to prefer to be in 4/4 and anything else requires some work. While different tracks in different time signatures is not a unique thing, it's still not something you hear very much, I'm fairly certain it's unique for Jarre. The time signature the main sequence is in?

Er... according to my calculation it's 25/8 ... (probably programmed as six bars at 5/8).

So the whole thing feels more experimental than anything on Oxygene or Equinoxe, which are both pretty "straight" melodically.

There are some lovely chords moves as well, its all Cm until well into the second part, then it's Cm > Bm > Fm. However in the third part he throws in an extra chord sequence: Cm > Em >Bm > Em > Bm > Fm. I mean, really! Who the hell does Cm to Em?!!

(Yes, I don't see any major chords in there, either; the choir sounds add some interest with add7 and a lovely sus4).

It's the non-sequenced parts I find curious - the funk bass is more like something Delacroix would have performed (and he almost certainly wrote many of the live and album basslines for Rendezvous Lyon (RendezVous 4, Souvenir etc) and beyond, but obviously CiC predates his (known) involvement with Jarre. So I wonder how much did guys like Perrier contribute in developing the live arrangements? I've always been pretty sure he wrote the original MF2 solo - indeed he's largely been the only one to perform it live. Might he have written the "live" funk bass and perhaps even the solo of Arpegiator; like with Digisequencer, where surely Rondat wrote all the guitar stuff?

[Analog-Umph]

I dunno, without the tape delay on just about everything, the track sounds very rudimentary, almost comically simple. Very Jarre. He did some adventurous chord work on Oxy 1, and Equinoxe 2, so it's not beyond him. He's also known for taking elements from a certain style of track and incorporating them into another style.

If someone else did step in, thank God for it, they did the track and us a phenomenal favour. 31 years after and we are still talking about it.

Who the hell does Cm to Em?!!

Not very popular in EM, but elsewhere...

Yeah the track has a different feel - somewhat, but he let loose with MF as well, real loose.

[Finaero]

Very nice cover! The CiC sound is definitely something that wasn't replicated afterwards (thus enhancing the uniqueness of the album).

I suspect there might have been a large amount of Dominique Perrier's and even Roger Rizzitelli's (RIP) influence involved, since Didier Marouani's 1983 concerts in Russia (that featured Perrier and rizzitelli) were sound-wise (in my view) quite similar to the JMJ China concerts.

[Analog-Umph]

So it was a collaborative effort, with tracks like this he probably laid down the idea that was further refined by one of the other guys. It probably was a back and forth process after the concerts.