BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Great read indeed!

SeePer wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:51 pm It will be interesting to see what Jarre says in the sleeve notes around all of this. I get the impression that Jarre was on Dreyfus's "in house" roster when the opportunity to work on Deserted Palace came along, though perhaps Deserted Palace was a test which actually led to the Dreyfus contract? Library music was inexpensive, cheap to produce, and relatively risk free, so it is not as if Dreyfus was to lose out in any significant way.

I suspect the same. I think Deserted Palace and Pop Corn are related in that way. Pop Corn was big in 1972 and every record company wanted their own Pop Corn. Dreyfus probably asked JMJ to do it, he himself half-admitted to have done it for the money in an interview at ADE in 2019. The b-side is an alternative version of a Deserted Palace song.

Describing the album as a collection of jingles is probably apt, he's been doing jingles before and after (Sport en Fête comes to mind).

"I've seen a letter from Jarre to Peter Zinovieff (EMS studios) from April 1972. In this letter Jarre say he is working on a further opera, but I don't think this work ever saw the light of day..."

Wouldn't this opera be Doria?

That's a ballet, or rather a pas de deux, but yeah, that's what I suspect too.

Dr_Jones wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:10 pm Describing the album as a collection of jingles is probably apt, he's been doing jingles before and after (Sport en Fête comes to mind).

Was the elusive A4 Autoroute jingle written around this time? The jingle (that reports say) with a motif that sounds very much like Oxygene 4?

Wiki: The first section of the A4 between Porte de Bercy, in the south part of Paris and Joinville-le-Pont opened in 1974 with a single carriageway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_autoroute

rinogurr wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:17 pm "I've seen a letter from Jarre to Peter Zinovieff (EMS studios) from April 1972. In this letter Jarre say he is working on a further opera, but I don't think this work ever saw the light of day..."

Wouldn't this opera be Doria?

Sorry - my bad. From memory I said opera, but when I checked again, the letter actually refers to a further Bejart ballet.

I don't think either ballet or opera happened though?

Richard-Eastham wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:54 pm

Dr_Jones wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:10 pm Describing the album as a collection of jingles is probably apt, he's been doing jingles before and after (Sport en Fête comes to mind).

Was the elusive A4 Autoroute jingle written around this time? The jingle (that reports say) with a motif that sounds very much like Oxygene 4?

Wiki: The first section of the A4 between Porte de Bercy, in the south part of Paris and Joinville-le-Pont opened in 1974 with a single carriageway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_autoroute

Has anyone actually heard this jingle?

SeePer wrote: Tue Apr 01, 2025 12:52 pm Has anyone actually heard this jingle?

I haven't heard it and I can't find an audio file anywhere online. There are several references to it in reports, though including this from early 2022 around the time he first performed his Oxymore concerts:

https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusiqu ... re-9445055

SeePer wrote: Tue Apr 01, 2025 12:52 pm

Richard-Eastham wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:54 pm

Dr_Jones wrote: Mon Mar 31, 2025 5:10 pm Describing the album as a collection of jingles is probably apt, he's been doing jingles before and after (Sport en Fête comes to mind).

Was the elusive A4 Autoroute jingle written around this time? The jingle (that reports say) with a motif that sounds very much like Oxygene 4?

Wiki: The first section of the A4 between Porte de Bercy, in the south part of Paris and Joinville-le-Pont opened in 1974 with a single carriageway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A4_autoroute

Has anyone actually heard this jingle?

Yes, a few years ago, maybe 10... Radio Equinoxe broadcast some rarities, including this initial version of Oxygene 4... but after that, I never saw it again... what a shame.

SeePer wrote: Tue Apr 01, 2025 12:51 pm
Sorry - my bad. From memory I said opera, but when I checked again, the letter actually refers to a further Bejart ballet.

I don't think either ballet or opera happened though?

Dorian was a short ballet by Norbert Schmucki who also directed AOR. JMJ did some music for it including Erosmachine and La Cage (again) and a mellow version of Bridge of Promises (and a very proto Oxygene track at the end, which is awesome)

rinogurr wrote: Tue Apr 01, 2025 10:32 pm

Wow! I had seen reference to it, but nothing more! That Oxygene-esque opening feels like something from Live In Your Living Room! It shows a real depth compared to the other sections. That's not a VCS 3 or an AKS making that phased sound is it?

Just wait until you hear the last part

I love how some of those moment are clearly on which Jarre would continue to build his later work on, while other stuff is borderline unbearable. I really like that choir sounding thing he uses in that video and in many later albums (I think it was the mellotron?). Such a wonderful sound!

The LP can be ordered at local record shops now too

https://www.fnac.com/a21502561/Jean-Mic ... nyle-album

Plato in the Netherlands
https://www.platomania.nl/article/15543 ... ean_michel

Happy to see that multiple places will make it available, will still be going through Bandcamp myself, love that platform for applying you with a digital copy along with the physical one.