Jean-Michel Jarre: ”It was a strange feeling to realise that my music was travelling faster than myself”
The French sound architect chats to CLUBZ about his Electronica albums and his world tour which launches at Sónar Festival in Barcelona
SOME artists have only dabbled with electronic music production and will always be a million miles away from gaining mythical status.
Jean-Michel Jarre, however, is an aural assassin, a ninja level sonic soldier who is famed for rewriting the music rulebook.
Today, even after achieving album sales of close to one hundred million and holding multiple world records for several of the world’s largest concert audiences, Jarre is still at the vanguard and proving talent is still an essential ingredient for moving the crowd.
I still remember the first time I experienced his sound as a kid 30 years ago. Late at night, lying in my bed wide-awake for hours, continuously listening to his tracks on my cassette Walkman (I have my lifelong buddy ‘Butch’ to thank for that).
When Barcelona’s Sónar Festival announced the Electronica World Tour performance earlier this year, well I was buzzing! An even bigger buzz however, was for him to take precious time out and chat with me for Clubz about the album and tour in between what must be a frenzied schedule for him including the final preparations for his imminent world tour, producing new material with Edward Snowden and the launch of his new album Electronica 2: The Heart Of Noise. He told us:
"I consider Sónar as one of the best electronica music festivals in the world, so I’m happy to start my world tour in Barcelona. The whole programme is very exciting this year. From Boys Noize to Ritchie Hawtin and Flume! So many great acts."
He has been a fan of the festival since the beginning - through press and social media - but this is his first time performing there. He says:
"I have played a few times in Barcelona, including the fantastic Olympic Stadium. It’s undoubtedly one of my favourite cities in terms of the people, arts, food, architecture and design."
A key part of any Jean-Michel Jarre live performance is the visual concept which is now ready. He told us:
"I think that it will be quite spectacular. I’m also excited to share my new music with the audience. There will be tracks from the new Electronica albums alongside some of my classics since Oxygène."
Oxygène established him as an international artist, selling a cool 12 million copies globally. A couple of years ago, I was doing a gig at a castle in Trogir, Croatia, and I will always remember the moment Anthony Rother dropped Oxygène IV into his set and the place went bonkers. Totally off of the reservation, I kid you not!
When Jarre arrived in Australia for the first time in 1977, he jumped into a cab and the driver had the album playing in the car.
“It was a strange feeling to realise that my music was travelling faster than myself,” he recalls.
No mean feat for a young man that just a few years before was listening to artists like Jimi Hendrix in the venue halls back at home in Lyon. Jarre was also playing in a band and writing music, but his first earnings actually came from selling his paintings - he was quite good at that as well, exhibiting in some the country’s finest galleries.
After completing studies at the Conservatorie de Paris, he joined the Groupe de Recherché Musicales, allowing him to work alongside visionaries of a new class of music - Musique Concrete – under its founders Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
He was also a massive fan of George Martin, who inspired him to produce and eventually plot a new chart for an emerging electronic music scene, probably before there was one. He told us:
"When I started electronic music we were just a bunch of crazy kids, and today electronic music has no boundaries anymore and everybody has the means to compose and produce their stuff, which I think is quite positive. My first break was in my home country with some pop songs that became hits, writing for French singers Christophe & Françoise Hardy which became hits."
If I mention Gary Numan or Jeff Mills, hopefully you all get the idea of what’s on the horizon with Electronica 2: The Heart Of Noise. The first release, Electronica 1: The Time Machine, is a 16 tracker and is made up of exclusive co-productions with artists and groups such as Tangerine Dream and Massive Attack amongst a whole host of electronic music pioneers.
The next installment, Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise follows along the same path with 18 tracks and features a mixture of artists from Primal Scream and Pet Shop Boys to The Orb, Yello, Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Mills. It's available from May 6 and completes a compendium of works paying homage to the epoch of electronica as defined by one of the art form’s earliest and hardest working creators. He told us:
"I wanted to collaborate with artists from different generations, who have been a source of inspiration to me and that have also belonged to the electronic music scene over time."
Amazingly, this critically acclaimed showman repeats it all seamlessly live on stage combined with breathtaking visual effects and a stunning presentation.He uses cities as stages such as his beloved Paris, Houston, Moscow, Beijing or Cairo for his Millennium celebration concert at the Pyramids. Barcelona and Sónar is in for a treat. The tour will also touch down in the UK where Jarre will play outdoors at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire during the summer and hitting arenas in the autumn in Cardiff, Brighton, London, Birmingham, Dublin, Leeds and Glasgow.
To miss Sónar is a cardinal sin. As an industry insider however, it is suicidal to miss Sónar+D which is the festival's conference aspect that focuses on creativity and technlogy. Jarre's contribution to the formidable Sónar+D programme is not to be missed. With years of experience and setting the pace for today’s electronic events, as well his studio work, he has a lot to share in this session, such as how he mastered a truly unique sound or brought both musical production and performance into the 21st Century. It’s not like he is chasing the glory of a few top 10’s on digital download, is it? His take on the state of the music industry was quite telling however when he said:
"Music has never been more present and has never generated so much money, but musicians never got such low income out of it. The value of streaming platforms is estimated at a few billion dollars and creators can only afford a pizza without pepperoni at the end of the year with the revenues. Without musicians, all those platforms wouldn’t exist, so we urgently need an appropriate and sustainable business model for musicians for the 21st century."
More than four decades since he changed the game Jean-Michel Jarre's timeless music productions and audio-visual experiences continue to captivate us all. His journey is far from over and the one starting in Barcelona could well be one of his most exciting yet.
Jean Michel Jarre presents Electronica World Tour at Sónar by Night Friday June 17. For more information on the tour and album and for Sónar .
