Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[rfoshaug]

I was wondering the other day about that chilling howl or cry in Ethnicolor (the sound that the piece starts with).

I assume (this is Zoolook, after all) that this sound is a sample played on an Emulator or Fairlight.

But the big question is - what has been sampled? Does anyone know?

What on Earth (or elsewhere) makes such a sound??

[Jon]

I think its a recording of Jean Michel after he hit his thumb with a hammer while trying to put a nail in the wall.

I may be wrong, but I think that sound contains eliments of a whale call?

[Jakob BC]

Or simply just some strange sound played at a lower pitch. It could be a lot of things.

[jeanbatman]

I think it is Charlotte Rampling's voice, playing backwards. But I don't remember who told me this.

[AnDrOiD]

I've always heard the sound as being the sound of an elephant.

[Jakob BC]

I've always heard the sound as being the sound of an elephant.

Back in the days I thought that track or part was just strange, and none of the sounds made any sense (which was actually the cool thing about it) which made it mysterious and special. Maybe I was thinking in the direction of an elephant, but never really considered it... I was just a very small child back then

[tinmachine]

I've always heard the sound as being the sound of an elephant.

Yes, and also about 19 minutes into Waiting For Cousteau (the 46 minute version) there's a sound I always thought of as a growling elephant... if they ever growl!!! It repeats a few times in the following few minutes after that too.

But, I can't really imagine that JMJ really went round the world recording vocals from all the languages referred to in the Zoolook sleeve... I believe it's a nice story that's been concocted which is difficult to disprove!

Having said that, there is that picture of Michel Geiss recording outside a supermarket for Music For Supermarkets, so maybe there is some authenticity with the sounds for these projects? However, popping down to your local supermarket is a bit different to visiting loads of far off countries!

[LaDefense]

I think it is Charlotte Rampling's voice, playing backwards. But I don't remember who told me this.

This is not right. The "elephant-sound" was used the first time in the Aor music in 1971 (you can hear it in the Aor excerpt 5). And JMJ's and Charlotte Rampling's first meeting was later in the Oxygene era. Somewhere in the net there was an information that JMJ saw her the first time at a dinner...

[matt222]

Can't remember where but I distinctly recall Jarre calling it the whale cry.

[Phil J.]

Since it states in the sleeve notes that - "THE HUMAN VOICES IN THIS ALBUM WERE CREATED FROM RECORDINGS OF SPEECH AND SONG. THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS WERE MADE IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES: ABORIGINAL, AFGHAN, ARABIC, BALINESE, BUHNDI, CHAD, CHINESE, ENGLISH, ESKIMO, FRENCH, GABONESE, GERMAN, HUNGARIAN, INDIAN, JAPANESE, KADAGASCAN, MALAYAN, PIGMY, QUECHUA, RUSSIAN, SOUX, SPANISH, SWEDISH, TIBETAN, TURKISH. THEY WERE EDITED AND TRANSFORMED USING DIFFERENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES." I would guess the howling comes from one of these voices.

[matt222]

The album also contained other sounds than just human voices, perhaps I am wrong but I definately remember Jarre calling it a whale cry - might have been in a COTM mag.

[Jakob BC]

The album also contained other sounds than just human voices, perhaps I am wrong but I definately remember Jarre calling it a whale cry - might have been in a COTM mag.

Still that could be his easy way to point out the sound.

[jeanbatman]

I think it is Charlotte Rampling's voice, playing backwards. But I don't remember who told me this.

This is not right. The "elephant-sound" was used the first time in the Aor music in 1971 (you can hear it in the Aor excerpt 5). And JMJ's and Charlotte Rampling's first meeting was later in the Oxygene era. Somewhere in the net there was an information that JMJ saw her the first time at a dinner...

Well, I never heard the AOR excerpt, so... You certainly might be right!

[GeeJee]

I think it is Charlotte Rampling's voice, playing backwards. But I don't remember who told me this.

This is not right. The "elephant-sound" was used the first time in the Aor music in 1971 (you can hear it in the Aor excerpt 5). And JMJ's and Charlotte Rampling's first meeting was later in the Oxygene era. Somewhere in the net there was an information that JMJ saw her the first time at a dinner...

Well, I never heard the AOR excerpt, so... You certainly might be right!

It is indeed featured in AOR, and sounds exactly the same as in Ethnicolor. Back in the days of Electro-Acoustic music, he didn't have many other editing options than reverse and slow down/speed up.. apart from splicing and putting back together, which is obviously not the case with this sound. It sounds like its slowed down, perhaps reversed, not sure. Also the original voice recording may have been affected by basic effects like spring reverbs or flanger to give it this metallic twist. I also recall a conversation with Francis Rimbert in which he said he was experimenting with recording his voice into a metal box or something like that.

Also, we can see Mme Durand 'sing' this sound during the La Defense concert. Obviously the metal structure in which she sings it does not slow the sound down, but give it its metallic edge. Slowing down can be done live, so this would declare how this sound came together. It's nothing that special.

If you compare it to the 'elephant' sound in Genesis' "No Son Of Mine", it sounds quite similar. In this case it's a slowed down guitar riff...

[rfoshaug]

A lot of good info in this thread. Thanks.

So I guess the conclusion is that we don't really know what sound it is, but it is probably a sample that has been sped up or slowed down and / or reversed and that has had some effects applied to it along the way...

It is a very unique sound!