Star of the electro
Jean-Michel Jarre electrified the GIFF
He received an award, gave a master class and presented an immersive work. Meeting with an artist whose last album was released on November 3.
He received the Film & Beyond Award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to music and digital arts, he created and presented an immersive work, gave a master class and released a new album. GIFF 2023 is also the year Jean-Michel Jarre. As every year during the event, an artist is thus crowned. After Abel Ferrara, Peter Greenaway, Woodkid and Riad Sattouf, to name a few, the electro veteran adds himself to the list. And he was very happy to come, as he told us yesterday, in the living room of a large hotel in Geneva.
“I have been following the GIFF for several years. I have always appreciated its eclecticism. And it turns out that I had this immersive work to offer, "The Eye and I". Its central theme is that of surveillance. He came to me after a meeting with Edward Snowden. It is often thought that what he says is a news item, but it is false. Humans do not like to be controlled, but they like to control. We adapted this idea to VR (virtual reality)."
A genre that in any case seems to correspond to a missing level in the star's incredible career. His biography would indeed go beyond the scope of this notebook. In addition, the artist seems tireless, constantly leading several projects, which generally succeed. "My engine is curiosity. And a jubilation that is as palpable as the anxiety that beginners have. What interests me is what is happening now. I'm not someone who turns to the past. Another engine is to prove to me that an unreasonable idea can very well be realized."
"When I was 25 or 30 years old, I saw colleagues who had been successful and were already in nostalgia. Afterwards, I think the artists are not comparable. Look at Miles Davis. When he plays, we immediately know, after twenty seconds, that it is him. And I don't think artificial intelligences will change that. In our fields, what is important is first of all to create for yourself. If we think too much about the public and create according to them, we are screwed."
Tribute to the pioneers
This refusal of nostalgia prevents Jean-Michel Jarre from looking behind him. "I will always prefer the present. And when you create electro music, you are like a painter, alone with his canvas in a studio. It's exactly the same thing. With my album "Oxymore", in 2022, I wanted to pay tribute to the roots of electro. To pioneers like Pierre Henry, for example. That said, I have already been dry, short of inspiration. We must then tell ourselves that to everything, misfortune is good."
At the moment, Jarre is on all fronts with the release of a new and magnificent musical project, "Oxymoreworks". "This is an extension of the previous album. I asked artists I like to come and rework songs by giving them carte blanche. Otherwise, I am increasingly interested in immersive creation. And since "Oxygene", the notion of space has been central to my approach. I especially noticed that when we approach new virtual worlds, we never talk about sound. While it is through hearing that we first feel immersion. I have been involved in these projects for five or six years. Covid, for me, has accelerated the process."
An "Oxygene" generator
We know less today, but Jean-Michel Jarre is also a man who wrote hits. "Lost paradises" and "Blue words" for Christophe, "What are you going to do?" for Françoise Hardy, "Where are the women?" for Patrick Juvet, or "Beauty and the Beast" for Gérard Lenorman. So many standards of the French variety that, paradoxically, have never given him the desire to sing himself. "I don't have a voice for that. It always gives the impression that I have chronic sinusitis. And then it doesn't interest me at all. The music virus, and by extension of electro, comes to me from my grandfather, who gave me a Grundig when I was little. My first hits, or hits if you prefer, such as "Oxygene" and then "Equinoxe", arrived while we were in the middle of the punk or disco period. Almost no one did electro. It was absolutely not fashionable. Afterwards, everyone started. But the album "Oxygène", in 1976, had a generating role. I remember that my mother didn't like the pouch because you can see a skull under the globe."
However, this was the beginning of a stratospheric career, a succession of tubes and megaconcerts, sometimes in quite unlikely places. Like the one given in 1986 on the Fourvière hill in Lyon, for the coming of Pope John Paul II. "It was normal, Lyon is also my hometown. It is also for this reason that I am very connected to Thierry Frémaux' Lumière festival and that I even opened the doors of this event." When we said that Jean-Michel Jarre is everywhere.
Source:
https://www.tdg.ch/star-de-l-electro-je ... 5786152453
