Jean Jarre China

The Concerts in China is a live album by Jean Michel Jarre, recorded in 1981 and released in 1982 on Disques Dreyfus. It was recorded during Jarre's Concerts in China tour of Autumn 1981, which consisted of five Beijing and Shanghai concerts in China; this was the first time a Western pop artist performed in China after the Cultural Revolution. The album is a balance of previously released tracks by Jarre, new compositions inspired by Chinese culture, and one rearranged traditional Chinese track ("Fishing Junks at Sunset"). The album consists mainly of live material, plus ambient sound recordings and one new studio track "Souvenir of China". Other new compositions recorded live include "Night in Shanghai", "Laser Harp", "Arpegiator" and "Orient Express". "Fishing Junks at Sunset" is a new arrangement of a very old traditional Chinese song known as the "Fisherman's Chant at Dusk", which was performed and recorded with The Peking Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and is often wrongly attributed as being composed by Jean Michel Jarre, misled by the album inlay.

A five disc compilation of French musician Jean-Michel Jarre. Includes albums such as "Oxygene" (1976), "The Concerts In China" (1982), "Chronology" (1993), "Metamorphoses" (2000).
French synthesizer guru Jean-Michel Jarre brought progressive electronic music to the mainstream, releasing several best-selling albums that helped pave the way for synth pop, new age, and trance, in addition to performing extravagant, record-breaking concerts. He became a household name following the release of 1976's Oxygène, a home-recorded synth odyssey that eventually sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Following its success, he began staging large-scale outdoor concerts featuring laser displays and fireworks, breaking the world record for concert attendance three times…

This set features 41 works "hand-picked" by Jarre himself and re-mastered to deliver what the label describes as "a new and sparkling freshness to the sound of the package".
Jarre has divided the audio offering into four different sections and he explains the methodology: "Going through the body of my existing work for this project, I realised that I have four quite different styles of composition. There is this common idea that people are focusing on shorter and shorter moments of music by zapping constantly. This is not necessarily true. We are also spending more and more time in our day-to-day life listening to playlists. Wherever we are and whatever we do. This is the reason why I decided to divide this project into four different parts, four different worlds that make up my own world… my own planet. And I hope that you will enjoy the journey"…

Hong Kong is a live album by Jean-Michel Jarre released in 1994 on Disques Dreyfus. Even though the album is called Hong Kong and has pictures of the event on its booklet, most of the tracks are from the Europe in Concert venues, except for "Souvenir of China" which is a special mix consisting of the Paris la Defense version and the actual track played in Hong Kong. Also, "Fishing Junks at Sunset" was recorded from the Hong Kong concert rehearsals. Magnetic Fields 2 comes from the encore at Barcelona 1993, which appears on the VHS tape released of this concert. Band In The Rain is also from the Barcelona show.

This album features reworked versions of his golden oldies and three new pieces. The result of the new orchestration is a modern-sounding remix album, rather than a definitive greatest hits.
The music itself, as a collection of greatest hits tracks, is a surprising choice. There's no "Revolutions", "Chronologie 4", "Ethnicolor", "Calypso", "Oxygene 8" or "Hey Gagarin", for instance. We are treated to fresh, excellent reworkings of classics: "Oxygene 2", "Equinoxe 3" and "Last Rendez-vous". Aging tracks such as "Oxygene 4", "Chronologie 6", and "Rendez-vous 4" have all been brought up to date. The three new tracks recall Robert Miles and Orbital. They're good but there's a feeling they were left over from previous projects. There are too many synth presets sounding too clinical and lacklustre compared to the high standard of sounds used in Jarre's other studio albums. Moreover, there are finer unreleased tracks that could have been included.

French synthesizer guru Jean-Michel Jarre brought progressive electronic music to the mainstream, releasing several best-selling albums that helped pave the way for synth pop, new age, and trance, in addition to performing extravagant, record-breaking concerts. He became a household name following the release of 1976's Oxygène, a home-recorded synth odyssey that eventually sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Following its success, he began staging large-scale outdoor concerts featuring laser displays and fireworks, breaking the world record for concert attendance three times. He became the first Western artist to perform in China, and the events were documented on the 1982 release The Concerts in China…

AD Music is pleased to present this tribute album from Glenn Main, who’s first Introduction to the music of Jean Michel Jarre was a cassette recording of ‘Equinoxe’ and ‘Oxygene’ when he was just 9 years old. From the first play of ‘Equinoxe part 1’, Glenn was hooked and he repeatedly listened to the tape on headphones while hiding under his bedsheets. Glenn has followed the music of Jarre ever since and remains an avid fan, and his own music is clearly influenced by the French maestro…

En Concert is an energetic live album with half the tracks played in front of Houston, TX, and the other half played to a crowd in Lyon, France. Jarre ignites the crowd in both cities, letting loose on a multitude of synthesizers and sequencers while playing his classics like "Oxygene V," "Magnetic Fields I," and "Equinoxe V." His sonic display in front of the French crowd is the more spirited of the two, since Europe is where his fan base is the largest. Jarre kept many of his slower mood pieces off of this album, which is rightly so. His quicker, more robust pieces seem to gain momentum as he dazzles the audience with his electronic sweeps and sharp stabs of brilliant synth. The lasers and lights can almost be heard piercing the night sky on "Rendez-Vous II" as Jarre ceases to limit himself to only a few instruments…