Excellente overall Elf. Well done.
Nice for JmJ to meet an interviewer familiar and a fan of his music.
Plenty fascinating insights :
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Les Granges Brûlées : Aphex Twin told him that it was like Aphex Twin music, twenty years before he started his career.
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Oxygene : I took the music from one tape that was black, and the other one was pink.
So, if you look at the master tape of Oxygene, most of it is black, but suddenly you have this pink section.
I had to add recorded music to mask these edits.
But I was able to insert this piece coming from something entirely different, and still make it work as a continuous flow.
Oxygene Part 2, for example, the whole structure is based on the fact that I had a broken Mellotron, where only some of the keys worked.
And since nobody were using the Mellotron any more, I couldn’t get it fixed.
So, the whole track, with the strings, is built around that limitation.
It’s the ultimate limitation, which is so important in art.
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Equinoxe : Small Stone guitar pedal, and I had to use a small 9V battery. And that was complicated in itself.
Bcause, when the battery was new, the phaser went nuts. And then I found out if the battery was at 7.6 V, it was ideal for 15 minutes.
More than 7.6 V, it was too much, and if it went below that, it was too weak. Then Michel, no idea how, managed to connect a device to it so that it would be stable at 7.6 V.
Michel was very important for me, especially in the beginning, because he helped me device and design some instruments.
And he also helped me with the technology we had available so that I could make the kind of music I wanted to make.
(JmJ always been very generous towards Michel Geiss :
Michel Geiss always acknowledged this and cleared up in that lengthy interview available google cache what his own contribution was).
However this question from you is lame.
"The hit single from Oxygene, Oxygene Part 4, it’s kind of like Popcorn, with just a few notes missing, isn’t it?
You needed to be more specific.
Asking : just the opening 5notes of oxygene4 melody sounds as 7notes opening melody popcorn right ?
This is the only resemblence.
Rest of Oxygene4 has nothing to do with popcorn thank heavens.
You should know better.
# BTW it used to be considered
rude to refer to a person by their surname as that's what is done when talking down to a person.
Too many magazines, newspapers, articles online do this.
You are Not a rude person therefore
Every instance where you write Jarre you should change it to amicable Jean Michel or a respectful Monsieur Jarre.
