THE
FRENCH CONNECTION
JEAN
MICHEL JARRE is, quite simply, a pioneer. The guy has been
twiddling synthesiser controls since before most of todays
techno-stars were born. Basically, before Jarre (son of famous
film composer Maurice, fact fans) came along, electronic music
was simply not listened to. Tunes that featured bleeps were for
weirdos.
Then came along 'Oxygene', Jarre's 1977 debut
album, a record full of nothing but electronic textures and sounds
making big pop tunes. It sold and sold and sold some more... and
Jean Michel Jarre became electronic musics first megastar, playing
enormous, stadium-dwarfing concerts in Paris, Houston and China,
selling over 50 million records along the way and influencing a
whole new creative generation to pick up their synthesisers and grow
up to be the house, techno and electronica musicians of 2000.
Now, Jarre has come full circle, taking inspiration from
these artists, people like air, Underworld,
The
Chemical Brothers and Les Rythmes Digitales and exploring the
worlds of trance, house and trip-hop on his Metamorphoses.
One of those influenced by Jarre was LES
RYTHMES DIGITALES. Originally a resident of Reading, JACQUES LU
CONT (as he claims he is called) got himself signed to the legendary
Wall Of Sound label and proceeded to make Darkdancer, an album of
digital watch-wearing, electro-bopping, airbrushed, warts and all
'80s-style synthpop.
The record had such an impact that Les
Rythmes Digitales was recently asked to perform at one of the
designer Versaces parties. None of it would have happened, Jacques
maintains, had he not started listening to Jean Michel Jarre as a
child.
Until Music365 brought them together, Jean Michel
Jarre and Jacques Lu Cont had actually never met....
VIDEO: 'Bonjour!' from Jean Michel and Jacques; select optimum connection: 28K, 56K, 300K
Music365: Jean Michel meet Jacques, Jacques meet Jean
Michel.... VIDEO: Select optimum
connection: 28K, 56K, 300K
Jarre: Good to see you. Jacques: Nice to meet you. Im a
big fan. Jarre: We are sharing the same taxi in Paris.
Jacques: Ah, Joe. Do you know him? I didnt know whether to
believe him or not and then he came back with this pile of
[your] minidiscs. Jarre: He did the same with yours.
The same taxi driver? Called Joe? Jaqcues:
Theres this taxi driver in Paris... Jarre: ...Called Joe Le
Taxi. You remember the song? His name is Joe, he owns a taxi and
its nothing to do with the song. Jacques: Actually, he told
me it was to do with the song. Jarre: Its nothing to do with
the song but maybe hes right, that the guy who wrote the lyrics
might have done it because of him. Anyway, we are sharing the same
guy so obviously it creates links and Im a big fan of your
[Jacques] work.
Jean Michel, what was the first time
you heard Les Rythmes Digitales? VIDEO: Select optimum connection: 28K, 56K, 300K
Jean: What you have to understand is this is my tribe. Even
if I like rock'n'roll or jazz or classical music, the main music Im
listening to is really electronic music. I felt quite lonely in the
'80s because it was the punk and grunge period and even if I liked
it, and I did enjoy some of those acts, it was far away from my
world. Then suddenly in the '90s the whole electronic scene
exploded. People like Jacques really influenced me and gave me the
energy to develop on my own way.
Jacques: I remember
listening to your 'Zoolook' (1984) album, it was then I knew I had
to get a sampler because I wanted to use sounds that you cannot use
in any other sense as an instrument. How else can you use a voice as
an instrument? I like how you say you got the energy from the
'90s. Its funny because you know that energy was really passed to
me by people. Its a sharing thing, and hopefully it will go
backwards and forwards between us until we are both hundreds of
years old.
Jean Michel, why did you start composing and
recording electronic music? VIDEO:
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It was the first time I discovered that music was not about
notes but about sounds. I have always been convinced that one day
[electronic music] would become a style and a genre in
itself. Its not a movement, electronic music is not just a scene.
Its a different way of thinking the music, enjoying music and
receiving music. Its being like a cook. I think that our job is
very close to cooking and doing pasta and mixing ingredients and
mixing frequencies. A DJ on his turntables is like being in front of
an oven cooking frequencies in a very organic-type sensual way; I
think electronic music is by far more sensual than classical music
for example.
In a sense [electronic music]s much more
biological than rock. I love rock'n'roll but its about plugging
yourself with electricity in your tummy. Electronic sound is
something else. It is like dealing with your own organs from inside.
What I always enjoyed with electronic sounds is like if you were to
hear the sound through the skin of your brain or the skin of your
heart.
'Metamorphoses', your new album, is different to
anything else you've done, not least because it features vocals. Why
the change? VIDEO: Select optimum
connection: 28K, 56K, 300K
I revisited the past with my last album, the sequel of
'Oxygene'. I was not too happy with it, actually, I think it was
maybe a mistake. I was too faithful to the original. I decided to
move into something else, be more personal, try to express
things in a more intimate way. As soon as you are using words, even
if you are putting just one word in a track, then you are conveying
something, you are less impressionistic, you are not only doing
soundscapes but trying to deal with feelings.
Jean, is
it true that some of the new album was inspired by the film-maker
Pedro Almodovar? Yes. The idea of Metamorphoses was for
me linked with people carrying the idea in their flesh and
trans-sexuals are the human beings carrying metamorphoses in their
flesh on a day to day basis. I was really impressed by All About
My Mother, this movie describing the life of a trans-sexual
as a normal human being, which obviously we all are, and I really
wanted to convey this by using a symphonic orchestra but
transforming it electronically and using my own vocal and making it
like a female voice or operatic voice, metamorphosing the sounds
themselves.
Jean Michel, you've said you are interested
in club culture. Have you ever tried DJing yourself? Jean
Michel: Yes, and I would like to this more but Im better at mixing
CDs rather than vinyl because I think especially these days with big
PA systems you have the problem of rumble with the turntables and I
must say I like the digital approach of mixing. Jacques: It
may not be cool to mix with CDs but I think that with vinyl its an
aesthetic. Vinyl is a very sexy thing to bring out of its sleeve and
show the girls maybe and put it down and put the headphones on.
Thats the show part of it. Jean Michel: "But were being
sexy by ourselves. We dont need the records.
Jean
Michel, tell us about the huge gig you played at the pyramids in
Egypt for the Millennium? VIDEO:
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Jean: Very exotic. Jacques: I tried to come. Jean:
Its really sad; you could have joined us on stage. Jacques:
Dont tell me that now! Jean: Next Millennium, if we are
preserved in ice cubes, we really should think about that. Egypt was
something really very special. I think the concert at the pyramids I
the one I enjoyed the most and yes I am most proud of. When I went
to Egypt three years ago I was on my own in front of the Pyramids.
There were no tourists there, just because of one terrorist act. I
mean you have had less terrorist acts in Egypt in the past ten years
than you have had in London or Paris. Celebrating the Millennium
doesnt mean anything except that we are all hoping as individuals
for a better world, better understanding, better tolerance and if
there is one place to celebrate those ideas it is in the Middle East
and especially in Egypt. To have 20,000 Egyptians enjoying
themselves in the desert in a kind of Egyptian Woodstock way is
something great. VIDEO: Select optimum
connection: 28K, 56K, 300K
How do you intend to follow that? Jean Michel: I
really would like to have more intimate venues for this next tour
and do some festivals, Glastonbury or Tribal Gathering, those kind
of things. And then on the Moon, with him [Jacques]. Now we
just have to find a way of staying up there. Jacques: Maybe
youre making a joke but thats a perfect example of the way you
think ahead... a long way ahead.
Interview: ROBERT
HELLER Video & Images: KIERON FLYNN
Thu Apr 20 2000 18:28 GMT
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