BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Yeah, the DVD is great, though for some straneg reason my copy, that I got second hand has the slipcase from the NTSC version, while I have the proper PAL version, I got it signed by the way.

Jote wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:57 am

shadow wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:26 pm

Jote wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:48 pm And they botched it. GOL part 1 is missing the strings. It's nice for fans more on the "die-hard" side, because we have another version of this track, not so much for others.

It's a different mix? Curious if they used the final recording or if the opened up the original files and messed up with a new export.

No idea how that happened. I raised the issue to Louis back then, but he was on his way out, so the conversation died of natural causes

2003:
Geometry-of-Love-part-1-2003-CD.mp3

2018:
Geometry-of-Love-part-1-2018-Spotify.mp3

So I received my copy of this re-release just now, it's quite interesting to hear the mix in action. Such a strange experience considering I've been listening to this album for so many years. For the few euro I paid for it, I guess it's cool. Still really odd that this slipped through though.

Also, Geometry of Love Part 2 is different. I can't quite put my finger on what's different. But it's absolutely not the same mix as the 2003 release.

Looking back at the electronic musical landscape 1990-2000
overtaken by Trance, Chillout, Ibiza, Hardcore, DrumNBass, BigBeat, BreakBeat,
Progressive Ambient, Progressive House, FutureDisco, FutureTechno,
Enigma copycats (even Mike Oldfield copied Engima on Songs of Distant Earth 1994, Moby in 1999 his album Play).

For JmJ to bring out an album that was different to all these yet with aspects of each of these
was special.
A summary of 1990-2000 Electronica.
The only Electronic album to do so thus making it the most diverse Electronic album of the era.

As we are getting closer to the 25th anniversary of this masterpiece (which will come this winter), I just want to tell you how much I absolutely love this album.

Even in 2024, every time a listen to it, it still amazes me how creative, unique and complex it is. It took me some time to really get into it, but now, I can say that this album is my 3rd most favourite JMJ album, right after Zoolook (1st) and Equinoxe (2nd). It is one of the three 10/10 Jarre albums for me.

This album was a pivotal moment is the Jarre story. It took him to a level that made him way above any of his 1970’s collegues, from Kraftwerk to Vangelis (if that wasn’t the case already). Because he established himself in a new millennium as a forward-thinking, modern artist, who still has his previous strenghts, but also, pushes forward.

The 1990s had many different electronic revolutions, so many new genres and styles. According to Jarre, he had been thinking about creating an album which is inspired by these new waves of art and technology through the 90’s. He created the more retro-sounding Oxygene 7-13, but during the recording, was already think about doing something very fresh and unique next time. After already experimenting with some techno, trance & hiphop rythms on Chronologie, he was finally ready to create someting truly new.

Metamorphoses has everything a great Jean-Michel Jarre album needs: mind blowing, super complex, layered, innovative sound-design, beautiful, emotional, powerful melodies, organic, traditional instruments mixed with industrial electronic sounds and effects, huge variety of genres from ambient to techno, from progressive house to downtempo and ethnic fusion, huge variety of cultural influences: many different languages and world music elements. etc.

I love „Je me souviens” with Laurie Anderson, buliding that special vibe with groovy piano lines and a digital drums. It’s a perfect start to the album. And then, the brillant „C’est la vie” comes in, mixing Arabic world music with 90’s electronic breakbeats, 3 different languages, the organic and the electronic parts answering to each other making the perfect, cathartic mix between East and the West, then we got the brilliand „Rendez-Vous á Paris”, with beautiful harp parts and the most beautiful Irish violin-solo I’ve ever heard, then we hear the progressive-house influenced Hey Gagarin... I could go on and on about each track on this album. Even the themes are so unique and interesting, like with „Love, love, love”, a track that sounds like a parody of a love song, is a track about a nymphomaniac person feeling nothing but still pretending be in love and therefore sounding forced, or „Gloria, lonely boy”, which is about the lives of trans people, or the fun, extremely catchy, but still so weirdly complex „Tout est blue”.

I honestly like every single track on the album, even my least favourites mean a lot to me. It is a complex, unique, emotional, groovy, well structured and brilliantly produced work.
I’ve listened to it so many times for so many years and I still can’t get tired of it. This album is my favourite post 1985 Jarre album and I hope the 25th anniversary will be celebrated!

It would be so nice to see Jarre playing Rendez-Vous a Paris with Adiescar on the violin, I love that track so much and now he has the skilled violin player in his band.

It's such a strong album until Bells (though Tout Est Blue can bugger straight off into the sun) and just mostly fizzles out from there on out. The tracks are not bad, do not get me wrong, Miss Moon is absolutely brilliant and Silhouette is just *chefs kiss*. But going from the mostly super upbeat tracks before, it's such an odd choice to end the album the way it does. Whenever I relisten to the album again, I reshovel the tracks a bit to spread it all out, though Silhouette is always the final track. Because the album, as is, for me just does not work.

Does anyone still happen to have that photo of the original intended track listing for the album which included 'The Sun'? I know I used to have it, but can't find it whatsoever at the moment. It's an interesting juxtaposition to see which tracks went and what eventually was added on the end result.

shadow wrote: Sun Sep 29, 2024 11:35 pm It's such a strong album until Bells (though Tout Est Blue can bugger straight off into the sun) and just mostly fizzles out from there on out. The tracks are not bad, do not get me wrong, Miss Moon is absolutely brilliant and Silhouette is just *chefs kiss*. But going from the mostly super upbeat tracks before, it's such an odd choice to end the album the way it does. Whenever I relisten to the album again, I reshovel the tracks a bit to spread it all out, though Silhouette is always the final track. Because the album, as is, for me just does not work.

Does anyone still happen to have that photo of the original intended track listing for the album which included 'The Sun'? I know I used to have it, but can't find it whatsoever at the moment. It's an interesting juxtaposition to see which tracks went and what eventually was added on the end result.

1. Je Me Souviens
2. Bells
3. Hey Gagarin
4. ?
5. C'est La Vie
6. Rendez Vous A Paris
7. Millions of Stars
8. Tout est Bleu
9. Miss Moon
10. Gloria Lonely Boy
11. Love Love Love
12. The Sun
13. C'est La Vie part 2
14. ?
15. ?

14 and 15 (probably "Give Me A Sign" and "Silhouette"? although one seems to be 4:xx and the other 3:xx) seem to be optional (?) as durations are put in parentheses.

I would love to hear C'est La Vie part 2 and I'm pretty sure there's a snippet of it in that Joachim Garraud video from a couple of years ago.

Why can't we get *this* instead of the pointless V400 releases?

I guess the track Metamorphoses/Crazy Saturday/Body Language (as released on the Bourges live album) could be one of those tracks too.

I remember reading in COTM that Jarre recorded the album as a double, but had to give up and only do it with 12 tracks... so I imagine there should have been a lot more tracks... He had even promised to release The Sun as a single ...but the album flops !!!

shadow wrote: Sun Sep 29, 2024 11:35 pm It's such a strong album until Bells (though Tout Est Blue can bugger straight off into the sun) and just mostly fizzles out from there on out. The tracks are not bad, do not get me wrong, Miss Moon is absolutely brilliant and Silhouette is just *chefs kiss*. But going from the mostly super upbeat tracks before, it's such an odd choice to end the album the way it does. Whenever I relisten to the album again, I reshovel the tracks a bit to spread it all out, though Silhouette is always the final track. Because the album, as is, for me just does not work.

That's what the concept is, to start with a less intense track like Je me souvies, to be more upbeat and finally finishing with Gloria lonely boy-Silhouette. Gloria has a beautiful, memorable melody and epic drums. 'Tout est bleu' is just a fun, likeable song, I simply can't imagine not liking it, it's a pop song, but with such an amazing, detailed production and with such a unique concept. Tout est bleu has a super high replay value for me, just like the entire album, it's just asking me to play it again.
Today, I have to admit that for me, when I think of Jean-Michel Jarre's music, Metamorphoses is one of the first albums that comes to my mind, wich Oxygene and Zoolook, because I played it so many times.

Dr_Jones wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:32 am I guess the track Metamorphoses/Crazy Saturday/Body Language (as released on the Bourges live album) could be one of those tracks too.

Here is what Garraud said in an interview. Apparently, they also made a trip hop song... At least we had Watching You, but still, I wish I could hear his other take on this style.

Question: Were any songs recorded for Metamorphoses that didn’t end up on the album?

Joachim Garraud: Yes, we recorded and finished four songs that were not chosen for the album. Two of these songs are planned for being used on the website, but I am not sure. I can’t talk so much about these songs, but Lonely Beat and Crazy Saturday are two of my favourites but still we can’t add them to the album because they are so different. Lonely Beat is a trip-hop song and Crazy Saturday is really aggressive, but has a great sound.

melo wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 3:18 pmI remember reading in COTM that Jarre recorded the album as a double, but had to give up and only do it with 12 tracks... so I imagine there should have been a lot more tracks... He had even promised to release The Sun as a single ...but the album flops !!!

It's a shame that the album nowhere near reached what they had hoped for, but it also released four years late in the US, which probably did not help much either. But I'm curious, why did they have such high hopes for this album specifically anyway? Yes, it's a good album, but looking at where music was in the late 90's and early 00's and what Metamorphoses ended up becoming, yeah it's not odd if you ask me.

Jote wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:22 amI would love to hear C'est La Vie part 2 and I'm pretty sure there's a snippet of it in that Joachim Garraud video from a couple of years ago.

Why can't we get *this* instead of the pointless V400 releases?

First of, thanks for the photo, genuinely could not find it to save my life.
And to this day, I can't decipher the fourth track besides: "The" being the first word unfortunately.
And I remember that video, a lot of interesting stuff that unfortunately never saw the light of day, though it can always happen. I remember seeing a video of Jarre in his studio some time in the late 00's, early 10's, and we heard Suns Have Gone if I remember correctly. So some of those tracks can always rear their head in one way or another later down the line. It's doubtful with how rarely Jarre does this, but you never know.
Also to answer the V400 question... *scrape throat - ahem*: HAvE YoU MIsSed ThiS AMaZinG aI TecHnoLOgY THaT iS THe FUtUre!
Yes, there is the slight chance that I absolutely loath this technology.

shadow wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 9:36 pm I remember seeing a video of Jarre in his studio some time in the late 00's, early 10's

It was in 2010 in "Thé ou Café"

Also to answer the V400 question... *scrape throat - ahem*: HAvE YoU MIsSed ThiS AMaZinG aI TecHnoLOgY THaT iS THe FUtUre!

Yes, this "Versailles 400 is much more than just a concert. It explores new artistic territories, including visual expression, and where AI becomes an artistic partner, creating a multisensory experience that transports the audience into a completely new artistic universe" could have been hallucinated by "AI".

Jote wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 10:23 pmIt was in 2010 in "Thé ou Café"

Yes, that's the one I was looking for! Checked it out straight away and it's really a fun insight in how Electronica eventually formed, add 'These Creatures' to the list of tracks we heard years in advance. Only Time Will Tell.

Jote wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 10:23 pmYes, this "Versailles 400 is much more than just a concert. It explores new artistic territories, including visual expression, and where AI becomes an artistic partner, creating a multisensory experience that transports the audience into a completely new artistic universe" could have been hallucinated by "AI".

You know with everything about how amazing the AI is for this concert and I genuinely have to wonder... What data was this actually trained on? Who were the original artists? Were they compensated? Do they even get credit? How will this technology be handled going forward? It's all a bit... Problematic to be honest.

shadow wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:58 pm
You know with everything about how amazing the AI is for this concert and I genuinely have to wonder... What data was this actually trained on? Who were the original artists? Were they compensated? Do they even get credit? How will this technology be handled going forward? It's all a bit... Problematic to be honest.

This, 100%.

I do like the artwork used at Versailles 400 and Bridge From The Future. It was a return to a graphic style closer to what we saw in Docklands, Houston, Lyon and Place de la Concorde... that ambiguous pop-art, street-art style of colourful imagery. Credit for the visuals in Houston went to Christian Bourret, Caroline Crochard, Anne Slizewicz, Catherine Roca and Richard Lorion. Who gets the credit now?

The live visuals for the Electronica era (and I include Monaco 2011 here) were defined more by geometric shapes and lines and it was, well, a bit boring. So a good move for Versailles 400 but yes, who were the original artists and how do they get credited?

JMJ's work for CISAC over the years, to promote and protect authors’ rights, should give him pause for thought.