(Gallery sponsored by www.planetorigo.com)

As a kid, Jean Michel was very fond of circuses and travelling fun fairs that would arrive in his city, set up their tent for one night, and be gone the next. It was thus only fitting that the venue selected for the Stockholm performance of Oxygene was Cirkus, previously a permanent fairground, now converted into an intimate concert arena. The lights are dimmed and the warm-up long-form track Waiting for Cousteau fades out, and then Jarre surprisingly pops out from his egg chair and greets the audience. From among the audience, someone shouts in poor English; “welcome to Sweden”. Jarre didn’t hear it well and asked that the fan repeats himself, after which Jarre said; “I didn’t hear everything you said, but I agree”. During his following opening speech to the audience, Jarre not only explained why he is doing the tour and why the instruments are unique. He also explained (to great cheering) that he was pleased to play in Sweden again, as Sweden is on the cutting edge of environmental technology, and he felt that it was a good country to play Oxygene in.

He then introduced his three fellow musicians, Claude Samard, Dominique Perrier and Francis Rimbert. Jarre went on and explained that “these old ladies must be tuned”, followed by the band testing and tuning the almost 50 old synthesizers that were on stage. Obviously, the synths must have been tuned several times during the day and I suspect this last fine-tuning is Jarre’s way of visualizing the fragility of the synths, and preparing the audience for any errors that might occur.

The new overture then opened the Oxygene suite. The audience soon got into the vibe and greeted Jarre again at the first tones of Oxygene 1, and at the beat of Oxygene 2 they followed Jarre’s invitation to clap in synch with the music. Oxygene 2 sounded tighter and heavier than in Paris 4 months earlier, and the fluty lead synth towards the end did not go bonkers, as it has done a few times at other concerts, due to machinery failure. Oxygene 4 is an iconic pop cultural phenomenon beyond the synthesizer crowd, and its fat bass intro was supported by more clapping, cheering and whistling from the audience, which by now had warmed up and proved to be very enthusiastic about Jarre, the music and the show.

The concert had been advertised as “the complete Oxygene” and I wondered how the crowd would react to the new tracks, Variation parts 1 - 3. But Jarre did not need to fear the response; the various performances (Theremin, Moon Liberation “keytar”, ribbon controller, live knob twisting, Digisequencer trigging and downright Eminent hammering) captured the listeners’ attentions and minds, and were very well received. The upbeat Variation 3 went especially well down as a natural extention to the original opus, with the crowd sounding out their excitement.

The visual part of the concert had not changed significantly since Paris last December. Usually an important part of a Jarre concert, the visuals for this tour are toned down to a minimum, with sometimes only a green or red or yellow wash of floodlights on the back screen, functioning as a simple but very beautiful frame for the music. Occasionally, rainbow patterns lit up the instruments with sharp precision, or flashes of synched beams created a 3D-like depth on the stage. The huge mirror above the stage was the main visual effect, and I can imagine how Jarre had sat down and tried to come up with a stage design that would be ergonomic, easy and affordable to tour with, exciting for the audience and at the same time showing off the instruments. The mirror in the ceiling takes care of all that, but it also has another function; reflection. And by that I believe Jarre means we should reflect, think and ponder about our environment, the theme of the album. The global challenges we are facing now require a new mental state, a force of the will. Reflection is therefore essential, and the mirror symbolizes that. At the same time, we get to focus on the music, rather than flashy visuals. Another function is that the audience get to see the entire band, and not only a mountain of synthesizers with Jarre in front of it, and three musiciand barely visible. The mirror almost projects the stage towards the audience so that we get to be mentally on the stage, not just in front of it. Nevertheless, during Variation 3, there was a new visual effect compared to the Theatre Marigny performance; white rectangular very thin squares that flashed across a red backdrop in synch with the music, and growing in size as the music went on. A little Kraftwerk-ish and simple, but very effective because you start to follow the pattern and how it randomly develops.

As in Paris before, Oxygene 12 finished off the concert, with the Circle of Life video projected on the back screen. A better closing track than Oxygene 6 perhaps, as it juiced up the audience and made them clap and sweat a little again. The audience really appreciated the concert so far, and when Jarre, Rimbert, Samard and Perrier went to the front of the stage to receive praise, they were greeted by fans who rushed to the stage and waved their hands in the air. The four musicians left, but were called back to the front of the stage twice after that, with standing ovations and the audience clapping and thumping their feet so that the floor of the hall literally rumbled. The cheering would not stop; after leaving, Jarre was called out to the stage once again, where he thanked the audience for being truly fantastic. Jarre also took his time to shake hands with eager fans, and one girl who shouted “je t’aime” got a kiss on her hand by the Maestro. Jarre then left the stage, but yet anonther return was demanded by standing ovations and thundering feet. And yet again Jarre appeared, this time without any co-musicians. He sat down at the Eminent, and performed Oxygene 13 as the encore, with the mirror showing him and his “lady instruments” from above. The song was framed by improvised soundscapes and effects, bubbling synth sounds and spooky pads which sort of felt a little alien since the song itself is very harmonic and structured. But Jarre definitely had the crowd in his arms, and they reacted with more cheering and clapping, which went on for several minutes as Jarre again stated how happy he was with the audience, and that he hopes to be back soon.

Media reviews after the concert were mixed, with most being medium kind to Jarre, and one totally burying him. While Jarre is a great commander of his massive fan base, critics do not seem to understand the Frenchman, who has not embraced dance music and leaves much to the viewers’ and listeners’ own imagination. Maybe that is the explanation; maybe media critics, who grew up on traditional rock & roll and only have read about electronic music, lack a deeper understanding about what electronic music really is. Oxygene (and Jarre in general) is not utilitarian music, like music for dancing, meditation, etc. While using the same instruments and coming from the same period in music history, Jarre is often compared to Krafterk but they are completely different traditions, with Jarre going more in the jazz and classical direction than many other 1970s pioneers. Oxygene in Stockholm proved that Jarre has more in common with serious music (while still being fun and sexy) than his musical “children” Air, Daft Punk or Sebastastien Tellier. Too bad many critics did not hear Jarre’s unique music for what it really is this night.

Then again - 1600 fans enjoyed a concert that to them, based on their feedback to Jarre, was truly unique and amazing. Which is what counts.

(Published courtesy of www.planetorigo.com)

I will be updating Aero Magazine live from my mobilephone with pictures during the day. Also i will try to post ‘normal’ pictures on the site if possible. The updates will come here: http://aero-magazine.com/blog.

Second an update will be online later tonight.

The Royal Albert Hall is a unique venue and one of the UK’s (if not the world’s) most treasured and famous buildings. The world’s leading performing artists have performed there and the venue has given birth to some extremely famous and legendary performances by artists such as ABBA, Genesis, Robbie Williams, and The Who, among many others.

Jean Michel Jarre has long spoken about his desire to play the Royal Albert Hall. As far back as 1977 Jarre was talking about releasing his second album (Equinoxe) and playing the Albert Hall, combining music and theatrics in the performance (Record Mirror, September 17 1977). It’s taken Jarre over 30 years to finally get there, and theatrics were refreshingly minimal, but Jarre’s performance at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night was nothing short of majestic.

As fans are well aware, Jarre has taken his seminal album “Oxygene” on tour to celebrate it’s 30th Anniversary. The tour actually started in December 2007, with a series of one-off shows in Paris. The tour ‘proper’ kicked off in Glasgow and had visited Ireland, Holland and Germany before arriving back in the UK for the Birmingham, Manchester and London dates. By the time of the Royal Albert Hall show Jarre had bedded himself in and teething troubles had been ironed out. On his blog Jarre had remarked “Playing London is always special and the Royal Albert Hall a challenge,…”. The venue was indeed a challenge, being by far the largest show on the “Oxygene” tour.

I was initially overjoyed at the news that Jarre was playing the Royal Albert Hall as I hadn’t seen Jarre perform since 1997, but when I learned of the seemingly extortionate ticket prices joy turned to despair. I had enjoyed shows at the Albert Hall recently which cost a quarter of what Jarre was charging and it seemed exceptionally poor value for money, given that Jarre was expected to be on stage for little more then an hour. This feeling began to fall away as I walked around the venue with my brother-in-law prior to the gig. There were French trucks everywhere, suggesting that there was a lot of equipment being transported. These transportation costs alone would justify an increased ticket price! and suddenly it the prices seemed more then reasonable for a one off gig from an artist I have loved all my life.

I was also pleasantly surprised when I stepped into the box to take my seat. The box seated five and, being at the back of the hall, commanded an excellent raised view of the stage and stalls. We had access to a queue-less bar and we were allowed to take bottles into the box and ’stock up’ as it were. “Waiting for Cousteau” drifted gently around the hall as people took their seats. At one point the track ended, sending a premature ripple of applause around the audience, before being restarted once more.

Eventually the lighted dimmed and the audience waited for what seemed like an age before the huge black curtain slowly lifted to reveal the synths bathed in a gentle blue hue. A spotlight was trained on the white egg shape to the left of the stage, it span to reveal Jean Michel Jarre. “Good Evening!” he cried to a enthusiastic crowd, Jarre encouraging further applause with his gestures. Jarre then proceeded with his introduction, dedicating the performance to the late Arthur C. Clarke, before introducing his musicians. During this introduction a huge chain fell from the light gantry above the stage and swung perilously across the stage, closely missing some of the vintage synths. The crew hurriedly tried to sort the problem out, with a tech running on stage to deal with the problem as Claud Samard made his appearance.

With the introductions over the musicians took their places and started their tune up. The sound immediately hit me. Oxygene is an album I’ve listened to regularly throughout my 30 odd years; I know it intimately, I’ve watched the “In Your Living Room” DVD dozens of times and listened to MP3’s of other Oxygene shows, but I wasn’t prepared for the beauty of this sonic assault. It was, quite literally, perfect.

Jarre and his team delivered a pretty perfect rendition of “Oxygene”.  The instruments were on their best behaviour (though Dominique Perrier appeared to have a bit of trouble during an extended tune up) and the overall quality of the playing was timeless. Highlights for me included a note perfect rendition of Oxygene 2, some stunning Theremin (the best I’ve heard Jarre play yet) on Oxygene 3, a blinding rendition of Oxygene 4 and an emotionally draining Oxygene 6 (I’d seen the earth video presented on YouTube but the power of those images coupled with the sensitive ‘come down’ of Oxygene 6 was overwhelming and I’m sure it will be my lasting memory of this event). The lighting was also superb, possibly the most effective use of lighting I’ve ever seen in a live gig.

If I have any criticism it’s aimed at the other effects. The chain dropping down and the subsequent clanging about as the technicians tried to fix the problem was an obvious low, but the various screens didn’t seem to work properly for some of the time (for instance the earth video was dual projected at the start of Oxygene 6) and it put a slight dampener on the overall presentation.

The show closed with an emotional (if a little busy) rendition of Oxygene 13, Jarre took a final bow, the lights came up and we made our way to the merchandise stall to stock up on keyrings, posters and t-shirts.

After we had shelled out our cash (￡15 for a programme?) we left the Albert Hall and ran around the outside to the stage door. The Jarre fan really came out in me as I stood with a lot of other fans waiting patiently for the maestro to come out. This is something I’ve never done before as I’ve always been running to get coaches previously. The atmosphere was happy with lots of cheering for crew members. A guy came out of the stage door with his wife. His wife went on but he held back, shouting loudly that he was going to sell his backstage pass to one of the desperate fans outside. This annoyed me slightly as he immediately struck me as someone wanting to make some fast cash but I was pleasantly surprised when he had a change of heart. This guy was the winner of a ‘Mail on Sunday’ Jarre ticket giveaway. As he made his way along the fans he came across a young boy waiting patiently with his parents. I saw this man’s expression completely change and warmth fill his heart and he gave the boy the ticket for nothing… he even went further by trying to help the boy get into the backstage area and get the ticket signed. No such luck but extremely generous no less.

Jarre finally came out and the fans surged forward, pressing for photos and signings (some had brought albums and limited editions in a bid to make them even rarer). Everyone was literally on top of Jarre and I had seen anything quite like it… I know Jarre does this thing all of the time but from my point of view he looked intimidated by the hysteria and wanted to get onto his coach as quickly as he could. I held back slightly, happy to get a photo, but my brother-in-law joined the surge, managing to get a program and a ticket signed with considerable style.

It was then time to go. It had been a truly great night and a truly great experience. Jarre proved beyond all doubt that he was a master in his field and I hope it’s not another ten years before I get to see him live again.

In the early 1970s, the young Jean Michel Jarre started to explore various directions of the art of composition and sound design. These explorations were based on his background in traditional music education and experimental work at the GRM center in Paris. Jarre composed pop songs, an electronic opera, advertising music, soundtracks and environmental music, but he was not happy with the way music was created according to traditional rules, both in terms of composition, sounds and instruments. He felt tied up by predefined norms and stiff expectations. With money earned from songs written for other artists and producers, Jarre started to focus on something he was not sure where would end. He realized he could not put his new music in any known category, and it didn’t sound like anything he had envisioned beforehand. Having finished his album, Jarre tried to sell it to the record companies, but it bore no fruits, as it was not disco, not classical and not jazz. It didn’t even have lyrics, pretty singers or proper song titles. Jarre had to turn to Francis Dreyfus, who had hired Jarre as a song writer, musician, composer and lyricist for some time already. Dreyfus, with his small independent record label Disques Motors, had experience from progressive music by being the one who introduced Pink Floyd and David Bowie to France. And since Jarre had written hit songs for other Motors artists earlier, he was willing to give Jarre a chance. Then, at an art exhibition, Jarre bought a painting that depicted a human skull breaking free from the Earth. The paininting was called Oxygene.It has been more than 30 years since Oxygene kickstarted a revolution in modern music, and the amazing thing is that the album does not sound 30 years old today. Certainly the old analogue sounds are there, but if the album had come out today, it would not have sounded dated. It’s transparency, fluidity, and spaciousness makes it as futuristic and timeless today as it was 30 years ago. But, the album is more than timeless; it was the big bang of electronic music.

Actually, electronic music was made before Oxygene. Even some albums with a certain degree of success. Artists like Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd and Walter Carlos had explored ambient and electronic music before Jarre, and synthesizers had existed for some 15 years. However, electronic music as a genre of it’s own did not exist. Electronic music was seen as a novelty, something exotic that prog rockers dabbled with. Those who had a special interest in electronic music (not to be confused with people interested in the instruments for their imitation of “real” music, or the casual use of synths among other instruments) were either engineers and scientists, studio musicians, art-scene weirdos, or a limited crowd of music fans. Even if well known bands such as ELP and Yes had huge walls of modular synths at their concerts, they did not do electronic music as such. Then came Oxygene, which charted in France and around the world in 1977 and out-sold other electronic albums many times over. For the first time, many millions of listeners opened their eyes to beautiful music made on electronic instruments. Few people knew what the instruments were or could do, but no doubt did Oxygene represent something new to millions of people. It was not the first electronic album, but it was perhaps the first pure electronic music album that reached a wide audience and brought (was later was to be known as) electronica to the people. It’s not a surprise that Oxygene was named the most important electronic album of all times in the Future Music reader poll around the Millennium.

Oxygene was thus essential in paving way for a new type of music. Other similar artists followed (Yello, Space, Kitaro, YMO, Yanni, Software, Art of Noise, etc.), “space pop” was now commercially possible, and a surge of new electronic pop groups in the 1980s (Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Human League, OMD, Erasure, Alphaville, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, and many more) followed in the wake of Jarre’s success and proved that synthesizers were not just an exotic feature of music, but a staple of music making. While many bands credited Kraftwerk as a big inspiration, they were musicians - record buyers owed a great deal to Jarre for introducing them to electronic music. Jarre’s high media profile made him one of the few original electronica artists to actually reach the masses, which sadly is still true today.

With Oxygene, electronic music was selling as many copies as the biggest selling rock and disco albums of it’s time; at least 12 million copies went over the counter, sales today may approach 15 million. The album is still, more than 30 years after it’s release, the biggest selling French album internationally. The uniqueness of Oxygene is emphasised by the fact that the scale of Jarre’s success was not repeated by other artists or bands, while Jarre continued to sell millions of his subsequent albums. The fact that Oxygene was release during the punk wave is also worth noting; “punk” was a reaction against the smooth disco (perhaps a reaction to most things) and one could not anticipate that it would be electronic music, then in it’s infancy, that would introduce something new to the music world. Add to this the fact that Oxygene had no lyrics, and the phenomenon grows. Music without lyrics was not popular at that time, this was before new age music emerged, and instrumental music was either classical music or jazz. Today’s dance music with no or few lyrics did not have it’s equivalent then either. The notion that music without lyrics could communicate was a new idea to many, an oxymoron. Nevertheless, Oxygene proved it could communicate across all borders, with no worries about language barriers, age gaps, or cultural background. A few years later, Oxygene helped making Jarre the first popular Western artist to play in post-Mao China, thanks to it’s lack of words and richness of emotions. Against all odds, Oxygene became a success: “I had all the odds against me. I was French, I made music on machines, and did not have lyrics. In a TV interview I had to explain how I made the music. I walked over to the TV studio camera, knocked on the lense, and said; this is a machine, it is not dangerous. I really had to explain electronic music”, Jarre said later.

Oxygene was also probably the first album that successfully combined state-of-the-art technology with instantly recogniseable melodies, a shimmering futuristic sound, a perfectionistic production and an overall universal theme. Compared to other albums released around the same time, Oxygene took huge leaps forward in sound design, mixing and sonoric depth. Other electronic music producers came from the disco business, the experimental camp, the rock field or were engineers. Jarre was not only the composer, musician and performer, he was also a complete artist who elevated the album beyond mere music, especially with the famous skull artwork that predicted the global environmental issues of the 00s with some 30 years! This is why the music of Oxygene is still relevant today.

The way the album turned out was not planned. Jean Michel Jarre wanted to free himself from traditional composition by working with intuition and emotions. That is why you on the album will find six different pieces, though they still evoke the same feeling of melancholy. Maybe the electtronic version of “the blues”. It is common and maybe Jarre’s hope that you will get many different associations and visions by listening to the album, but musically it is not very happy and cheerful, like the sequels. Not to say you will be depressed by listening to it; on the contrary, on a bleak and rainy day maybe it will massage your soul and lift your spirit, because the music of Oxygene corresponds with very human emotions. Oxygene was never crafted with mathematically calculated notes on a paper, or restricted by the limitations of the technology, hence the album is not technological. In fact, it is not electronic music at all. Says Jarre; “I do not have other emotions than other composers, wether it is a Mongol shaman thousands of years ago or a modern rock musician or a European caveman who bangs to stones together. We communicate the same things, just with different tools”. It is not the music that is electronic, just the instruments. Oxygene is therefore the perfect example of how emotional depth can be communicated through technology.

This article was originally going to be an analyzis of Oxygene from a musical posittion. I planned to dive into each note and sequencer pattern. However, I do not think there is a need to explain what Oxygene sounds like. First, it is difficult to explain with words what abstract music sounds like. And second, I believe you know every note and chord change very well, enough to play back the album in your sleep, or backwards, with one arm tied behind your back. I’d rather want you to put on Oxygene again, and listen. Enjoy!

(This article was written by Steinar Larsen and Glenn Folkvord, and first printed in the IMAGES magazine in 1997. Updated and reproduced with kind permission by www.planetorigo.com)

The Oxygene Tour is on the road with a big success. The reports coming in from fans around Europe says it all: Jean Michel is back.

Jean Michel performs on stage with Francis Rimbert, Dominique Perrier and Claude Samard, to give the spectators a unique live experience to date. Because of the relative  small audience of each concert, it becomes a very intimate and raw performance. You can almost feel the musicians playing on stage.

The Oxygene Tour has already been perfomed in Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and coming soon to a city near you!

The team!

ps. If you have any pictures from the Oxygene Tour 2008 you want to share with us and put online, please send them to us.

Minutes before the show, the lobby area of the concert hall was crowded with a staggering mix of people, some very young, some old with a definite majority of male to female fans. Some hand made t-shirts can be seen, some old concert ones. The place is buzzing with excitement and my own sense of hope for what is to come is heightened.

The NCH is deceptively small, holding around 1000 people, but this gives the concert goers a level of intimacy that may be missing in places like the Royal Albert Hall. My friend and I took our seats, about twelve rows back, dead centre, perfect seats infact. The haunting tones of “Waiting for Cousteau” swirl around the acoustically brilliant hall, and the rest of the crowd mills about. I wonder how many had any idea of what was to come, how many were fans, how many were there out of curiosity and how many were there simply to hear Oxygene IV….

About ten minutes late, the lights dim and the crowd goes pretty wild. A bank of speakers disappears off stage and the infamous Egg appears. There are a few moments of silence and then “Good Evening Dublin….” Jean Michel swivels round with a big smile on his face and the place goes wild. People stand up. It’s a standing ovation before the gig even starts! Jean Michel acknowledges the crowd, looking pleasantly surprised, and there goes one of my worries for the night: the crowd are good! He then very quickly talks about his instruments and Oxygene’s connection with the environment, holding the crowd in the palm of his hand. He then introduces his partners in crime, Francis Rimbert, Dominic Perrier and Claude Samard. He promises to share any accidents with the audience and then they begin to tune the instruments. The crowd cheers again and then we all hear those amazing sounds for the first time.

The first thing that strikes you is that the sound quality is amazing, crystal clear, and sonorous in a way you can’t describe. White noise soars over my head, the different sounds blending together uniquely. The Eminent strings so crucial to Oxygene as a whole, phase this way and that, again whooshing around the concert hall. Then, JMJ starts to play the first bars of Prelude. Electricity hung in the air, and a rapt audience sat back and took it all in.

The Doeppler ribbon controller is the star of this introduction, its unique sound holding the piece together, JMJ finishing with a deep booming bass sound that melds into the opening section of Oxygene I. Another worry I had was that the more ambient parts of Oxygene would fail to keep the crowds attention. How wrong I was! So accomplished is the performance that the crowd is held enthralled, as much interested by the technology being used as the sound they were creating. The excellent light show, never too overbearing, also helps to keep us all involved.

Oxygene II is truly amazing. The throbbing bass line kicks in, followed quickly by the soaring Eminent strings. The VCS3’s and the AKS’s add beautiful colour to the song and then JMJ starts to play the lead, which is a huge improvement on the Live in your Living Room DVD performance. Indeed, that DVD cannot prepare you for the live show. This may well be the highlight of the night, but JMJ has more tricks up his sleeve.
Oxygene III is a track that benefits greatly from live performance. Some might consider it “filler” material but it is great live. Jean Michel cranks up the Theremin, and his performance on this weird and difficult instrument earns a huge round of applause. His playing has come on leaps and bounds since the first time he used this instrument live on stage.
Speaking of performance, JMJ’s musicianship overall is excellent, but his live sequencing is even better. These show’s should be required viewing for anyone studying electronic music. Jean Michel programmed his Digisequencer live, and set up melodic sequences live on the RMI Harmonic Keyboard without a hitch. Indeed, later on, he started to improvise wildly on the RMI, as an introduction to….well that’s for later.

The sequencer kicks in for Variation I, Jean Michel dancing around the stage firing off various effects and tweaking VCS3 white noise generators and OSCar sounds. It is a tremendous effort to keep it all in sync manually but these four guys pull it off..The stage changes colour quickly, the curtains behind the stage open too. Then a familiar sound echoes once, twice, three times…

A VCS3 noise peaks and the Minipops percussion kicks in on Oxygene IV, followed swiftly by the bassline, Dominic Perrier playing frantically. Jean Michel gets to his Memory Moog and plays the famous five note melody, looking out at his audience. The now equally famous mirror starts its descent to wild applause, and suddenly the whole stage can be seen from this amazing vantage point. People behind me and around me are genuinely amazed by this simple effect. The song fades out into Variation II, which marks a nice come down from the heights of Oxygene IV.

Oxygene V and Variation III prove to be THE highlight of the night, for me at least. The mellow opening bars are intoxicating, Francis Rimbert’s Bass lead thumps me in the chest as he plays, ably mirrored by Jean Michel’s RMI lead. Then, some frantic repositioning of the keys on the RMI and some playing about on the DIgisequencer leads us to the magnificent rolling bassline of the second half of Oxygene V. The persussion blends in and the three backing players get in sync. Then, JMJ heads for the Moog Liberation.

What follows is simply JMJ having so much fun that the solo seems to go on and on. Jean Michel fingers the ribbon controller, pitch bend and modulation wheels wildly and we are treated to a bizarre but undoubtedly wholehearted rendition. Again, JMJ is treated to a huge round of applause, and his enthusiastic approach means that Variation III is also a beautiful performance. The sequencer part is so clear, a truly exceptional sound quality.

The curtains pull back fully and the Oxygene 3D skull appears and starts to zoom in as the four musicians start to play Oxygene VI. Jean Michel’s confidence is at a high now and his RMI solo is assured and fluid. It makes you wonder why he hasn’t performed completely live in the past. Again, the VCS3’s sour majestically, crashing waves of sound against the walls of the NCH. Oxygene VI is excellent, and segues into yet more live sequencing. This is where JMJ starts to let loose even more. He plays around with the RMI again, until we get a nice octave jumping melody going. He adds layers and layers of sound to this, literally bashing keys to create explosive washes of noise. And then suddenly, the repeating melody of Oxygene XII appears and the Circle of Life film plays in the background. The music crescendos and JMJ hits the final loud note and the lights go down. Cue standing ovation, handshakes and triumph.

He returns with the sad news of Fiona’s fathers Death and dedicates Oxygene XIII to him. This is a far longer version, coloured with effects and sound at the start and fading out to the same effects. I have always loved this song and this version is excellent. As the last haunting wind fades, JMJ says thank you and the crowd erupts again.
This concert was fantastic, a true ode to analogue synthesis and to the power of live interpretation. And to the power of Oxygene itself. Hearing it complete for the first time, you get a real sense of its uniqueness, and how all the sounds blend effortlessly together to create this perfect symphony. One wonders whether the tour will reach this level of intimacy again, maybe Ireland has been privy to the best night of the tour?

Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene
Paris, December 15, 2007

In the fall of 2007, the French electronica pioneer Jean Michel Jarre celebrated the 30th anniversary of his seminal album Oxygene with several projects; a unique live performance released as a 3D-DVD, a new note-for-note Master Recording using the original analogue synthesizers and released as a CD and in surround sound, and a series of 10 intimate live concerts at Paris’ Theatre Marigny. The album, released in France in 1976 and worldwide in 1977, definitely deserved these celebrations, as it not only defined the spectacular carreer of the artist, but it was also a great influence in the music world in general and for electronica especially, and was voted the most important electronic music album by Future Music readers a few years ago.

After his very contemporary March 2007 release Teo & Tea, Jarre decided it was time to get back to his roots, and decided to perform his classic album in a way it had never been performed before. Known all over the world for his baffling megaconcerts with millions of spectators, fireworks and building-sized projections, Jarre decided to go the other direction for his December concert series where the entire album would be performed completely live. He hired three supporting musicians (Dominique Perrier, Francis Rimbert and Claude Samard) because the original album was recorded with 8 layered tracks, thus one would require 2 x 4 hands to play the music on stage. The old, venerable Theatre Marigny on Champs Elysees in Paris became the location for 10 concerts, each with only 1000 people in the audience, and Jarre set up his kit (over 30 old synths from the 1970s) on the stage with the aim to perform Oxygene live from start to beginning for the first time, in a way that was not intended back in 1976 when the album was recorded, and probably not possible either.

Nothing is left to it’s own at a Jarre concert. Even this small concept offered something extra; outside the theatre, skytracker searchlights formed an arch above the theatre, signalling the location for fans from all over the world, and all ages. Inside in the foyer, the long-form ambient track Waiting for Cousteau is playing on speakers, a tradition at every Jarre concert since 1990. It relaxes people, but also creates expectations, a countdown of sorts. On flat panel screens, close-up video images of knobs and sliders of analogue synths give the audience as taste of what to expect.

And then the curtain is raised. Jarre pops out from an egg-shaped chair like a jack-in-a-box, and greets the audience, then spends several minutes explaining the eccentricity of the analogue synths, comparing them to Stradivarius violins, and his thoughts about why Oxygene is still relevant as a concept and as music; the environmental message, for one thing. He also wants to be closer to his audience, he says, because Oxygene was during it’s creation an intimate moment for him, and now it’s time to share that experience for the first time.

The concert itself started with synthesizer tuning, just like you’d hear from a symphony orchestra. For some people, the fact that you need to tune synths may be a surprise, but the old “ladies” of the 1970s could go sour simply from the heat generated by the audience in the house. Then, the first track, but the first track is not from the original album. For this anniversary project, Jarre composed four new tracks, and Prelude is an overture in the style of the album. Then the first sounds of Oxygene part I flows smoothly from the loudspeakers. Immediately it strikes me that the sounds are less polished and more crudely mixed than on the album, and that is because it’s 100% live! All (or most of) the sounds on the album are present, and no leads, chords, special sounds, pads or bass sequences seem to be missing in any of the tracks. It really sounds as if the album only had 8 layers and now they are being replicated by the 8 hands on stage, who always were busy, flying between racks of synths continuously. The live aspect is reinforced by the tuning of synths throughout the concert, the impro-style variations and at one point, the complete detuning of one synth that refused to play in tune at any point in the song. Jarre frantically worked it and attempted to play the flute lead of Oxygene part II, but the beast would simply not obey, resulting in out-of-tune sounds until the end of the track. Would Jarre be booed? No, the crowd seemed to appreciate the whimsical nature of the instruments and enjoyed the exhibition of live playing, and cheered and encouraged Jarre to keep going. The only major non-live instrument was the Digisequencer, which replaced the old Matrisequencer. The Digisequencer is a custom built sequencer that Jarre triggered patterns and rhythms off of, basically to replace a non-existant drummer, and then played leads and/or pads himself.

The tracks were faithfully rendered, but were sometimes shorter, sometimes longer than the album version. For his concerts, Jarre usually re-arranges his old songs but for this concert series the original arrangements were kept, adding only slight variatons on leads and themes whenever suitable. Some passages were not composed for traditional keyboard performance, but the four musicians pulled it off anyway, and created a complete sonic picture with keys, custom controllers, human sequencing and a wide range of playing techniques. In addition to Prelude, three Variations (named simply Variations part I - III) bridged the original tracks. The first Variation is an ambient, dreamy soundscape with abstract effects, and heavy on classic Mellotron choir sounds. This track is placed between Oxygene part III and IV. The second Variation follows Oxygene IV, and is a gentle, yet dramatic piece with Jarre performing an improvised lead on a detached ribbon controller. The third Variaiton is a sequencer based piece that follows Oxygene part V, though not in the Berlin School sense, but in the more poetic and subtle “Paris school” style. These new compositions were not just there to extend the concert, but also an exercise in composing music with purely analogue instruments without memory, and for 8 hands only.

The visual side of any Jarre concert is important. Known for his extravagant high-tech outdoor spectaculars, expectations were high for what he would offer in terms of visuals this time, although it had been made known that the concert would be a musical event rather than a visual feast. As the whole idea of the concert was simplicity and intimacy, the visual effects were toned down this time. During the first few tracks, a stage-wide bar (about a foot high) was slowly lowered from the ceiling, changing colours from red and white to purple and yellow. About one third into the concert, a huge stage-sized mirror is lowered and placed above the musicians, at a 45 degree angle, so we could see exactly what was going on from a bird perspective! These two simple special effects were accompanied by a seemingly basic set of lights, but they were used with extreme precision, using rotation, strobes, colour changes and shapes in a very innovative manner. At one point, the lights created an effect similar to the one you get when watching 3D movies without those funky red and green glasses. As Jarre had recently released his Oxygene “Live in your living room” concert with actual 3D video (funky glasses included), this was a nice hint to the updated version. Towards the end of the concert, the new Oxygene skull 3D animation is shown (in 2D) on the stage’s back screen, and for the final track Oxygene Part XII (from the 1997 seven album Oxygene 7-13) the circle of life video is projected on the backdrop screen. Visually speaking, the concert was low-key but Jarre had wanted the effects to take second seat behind the music, and he also had devised effects that enhanced the feeling of space and reflection, which I think was accomplished with elegance. The visual space was a nod to the layers and transparency of the music, and the reflection was a nod to how the listeners are encouraged to reflect on current issues that Oxygene represented both then and now. Jarre is often about minimalism, contrary to popular belief, and this concert proved he does not depend on eyecandy to please an audience.

The real star of the concert was not Jean Michel Jarre, but the vintage instruments, as he pointed out (between the lines). No less than 33 instruments were present on stage; most of them were classic analogue synths from the 70s, such as VCS3, ARP 2500 and 2600, MiniMoog, Moog Modular 55, the organ Eminent 310, and RMI Harmonic. Many of the synths were duplicated, and some of them were quadrupled, as they could not be pre-programmed. If a different sound were needed, the musicians simply had to use a second or third synth, unless there were sufficient time to rewire. Additionally, pedals such as the Smallstone (four) and Electric Mistress were used to achieve that classic, floating, dreamy Jarre sound. Other special instruments were the Theremin, a Doepfer ribbon controller, and for one song, the heavy Moog Liberation portable synth. The three supporting musicians were placed in their booths behind Jarre, who was busy in the front booth and sometimes had to hurry between two synths as they needed his hands. I was worrying that he would trip in the wires and tear down a rack of indispensable hardware!

And what about the audience? The crowd was a mixed party, with a large portion of foreigners from all over Europe, and possibly other continents as well. Jarre actually acknowledged the presence of long distance travellers, naming Holland, Poland and Norway as some of the countries represented in the theatre. During Jarre’s introduction, one female fan shouted “I love you, Jean Michel” and Jarre replied, with a dry smile; “me too”. In return, the onlookers, who more than ever before also were listeners, responded with honest enthusiasm to each track. During the entire concert, Jarre never spoke between the tracks (since they are all connected, and one don’t want chitchat between them), and he had a serious and focused expression on his face. Sometimes he looked up from the synths to see the audience’s reaction, and sometimes he looked around, planning his next move and checking the buttons of another analogue box. In spite the lack of verbal communication with the audience during the performance, there was still an almost tangible connection between Jarre and the fans, as both parties got immersed into the music.

One might wonder what the creator of the megaconcert spectacle sees in a small Parisian theatre as the location for his Oxygene anniversary. Jarre was never really about oversized outdoor concerts. From the beginning, Jarre wanted to escape from the traditional format of rock and pop concerts, and now he continues that idea by performing his music in a theatre that usually presents great literary classics. Jarre stages his concerts in places that have no business staging concerts, wether it’s a mud field in Denmark, an urban futuristic environment or an ancient world heritage site. More intimate than an arena and more classy than a club, the Theatre Marigny was an ideal location for the live performance of Oxygene. Also, choosing to downplay the emphasis on visual effects and focus on the music was in line with a serious theatre’s tradition of content over whizbang. Jarre prefers to explore different ways to perform and present music, and while a Parisian main street indoor theatre is not as exotic as the remote desert of Sahara where he played to thousands of people in 2006, it’s not a typical concert location for any artist. The format was thus different and new, but also ideal for a this intimate event, and worthy of a classic album. Jarre chose to play his “stage version” of Oxygene in one location, for several nights, just like you do with stage plays. With real people and real working synths on the stage, it was indeed more like a stage play than a high-tech, remote, invading, surrounding mega production. By making it all simple, Jean Michel Jarre once again managed to create a unique night and a unique series of 10 small concerts for his faithful fans, who showed their appreciation by demanding Jarre and his musicians back on stage three times, with standing ovations.