Sunday Synth Jams: A faithful cover of Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene 13, played by GroovBird.

Three things to note about this video:

• GroovBird proves you don’t have to have awesome vintage gear to play classic synth music, if you’ve got some good gear and, more importantly, a good ear.
• Oxygen 13 was released in 1997, 20 years after Jarre’s original Oxygène, yet it matches the original album seamlessly.
  
• Jarre is one of the few artists that explicitly authorizes and encouragse fans to make covers and cover videos of his music for non-commercial use. Kudos to Jarre for a classy call on that.

Gear details below.

via GroovBird:

Many thanks to Jean Michel Jarre, for producing this song, and for allowing us fans to share our interpretations.

I play this live, using the following instruments:- Roland XP-30 with Vintage expansion board, using the Solina patch with heavy modification and some layering.- Korg ES-1 sampler with drum samples from Boss DR-880 used by Jarre in the album version.- Korg RADIAS for the FX in the latter part.

Filmed on Canon EOS 5DMkII, I have some sync issues in the end, I hope you don’t mind.

This video demos using two Small Stone Phasers as a stereo phaser effect for synthesizers to get the classic phased synth sound of Jean Michel Jarre.

via Yorkshirelad69:

This mod requires 2 Small Stone Phasers pedals (EH4800).

The mod will make both pedals work together so that you can use both the left and the right outputs on your synth/keyboard rather than just having the phasing effect through just the left/right channel (listen carefully to the sound track).

The phases are synced together and the rate controlled from the master unit.

It’s a true stereo signal path and doesn’t simply split a mono signal into two.

This is ideal for Jean Michel Jarre fans as the Small Stone Phaser plays an important part in creating his classic Oxygene/Equinoxe pad sound.

Note1: Ignore the slightly odd effect at 0:19 that’s not the pedals that’s my sound processing!

Note2: The revision on the printed circuit board is EC-4800 Rev.L : this mod may not work on other revisions.

This is a demo of the very rare EKO ComputeRhythm drum machine.

via kovalmoog:

This is a pretty rare drum machine manufactured by EKO in 1972 in Recanati, Italy.

Model ComputeRhythm, maybe one of 15-20 ever made (curiously SN #0113).

This particular one is owned by a musician living in Madrid, Luis De La Cruz, and It was repaired and slightly modified by me on the past months (www.synthoma.net).

Before giving back to its owner I have the chance to made these demonstration videos to show its features and incredible programing methods.

Due to the price it was mainly used by famous electronic musicians like Jean-Michel Jarre and Manuel Göttsching (founder member of Ashra Tempel). J-M Jarre has used it extensively on his first albums: “Oxygene” and “Equinoxe”.

If you’ve used the EKO ComputeRhythm, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another demo, via kovalmoog:

Three jacks was applied on this drum machine, Trigger IN, Trigger Out and Start / Stop Out. On this demo, the Trigger IN feature is shown.

When a 1/4″ jack is connected on the Trigger input, the sequence stops, and remain in “waiting” mode for an external trigger.

On this case the trigger is provided from a gate out of a Roland MPU-101 midi converter, then a midi software running on a PC (not shown) controls the tempo of the drum machine, beyond its own internal clock capabilities.

On high speeds the refresh of the webcam can’t permit to see the MPU-101 gate LED flashing synchronized with the EKO sequence, but in very low tempo is easily noticeable.

Resources:

• EKO Computerhythm at Jarrography
• EKO Computerhythm photos at Synthmaster

Timelapse Malmo compresses a Jean Michel Jarre concert into under two minutes.

via jeanmicheljarre

This is a demo of the Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter.

Jean-Michel Jarre used the Small Stone Phase Shifter on synth music classics Oxygene and Equinoxe.

via retrosound72:

strings: Logan String Melody 2 through ehx small stone
drums: Keio (Korg) MiniPops Junior

Jean Michel Jarre kicks off his world tour, via a vlog post on his way to Debrecen, Hungary.

Tour info below:

Box office info

04/05/09 – Debrecen, Hungary – F?nix Csarnok (Phoenix Hall)
Venue Capacity: 8,500 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: HUF
Tickets On Sale – http://www.ticketpro.hu/events.php?event=233

05/05/09 – Ostrava, Czech Republic – CEZ Arena
Venue Capacity: 12,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: CZK
Tickets On Sale http://www.ticketpro.cz/jnp/

06/05/09 – Wroclaw, Poland – Hala Stulecia (Centennial Hall)
Venue Capacity: 6,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Zloty 175/195
Tickets On Sale – www.livenation.pl

08/05/09 – Aarhus, Denmark – Atletion – NRGi Arena
Venue Capacity: 4,740 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Kr 595/695/795
Tickets On Sale – www.billetnet.dk

09/05/09 – Herning, Denmark – MCH Messecenter Herning
Venue Capacity: 5,200 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Kr 550/750/775/975
Tickets On Sale – www.billetnet.dk

11/05/09 – Malmo, Sweden – Malmo Arena
Venue Capacity: 15,000 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 470/570
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

12/05/09 – Goteborg, Sweden – Scandinavium
Venue Capacity: 14,000 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 470/570
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

13/05/09 – Oslo, Norway – Oslo Spektrum
Venue Capacity: 9,700 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: NOK 450/550
Tickets On Sale – www.billettservice.no

14/05/09 – Stockholm, Sweden – Hovet (The Court)
Venue Capacity: 9,800 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 570/670
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

16/05/09 – Helsinki, Finland – Hartwall Areena (Helsinki Arena)
Venue Capacity: 12,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 68.70/73.70/78.70
Tickets On Sale – www.lippupalvelu.fi

20/05/09 – Glasgow, Scotland – SECC – Clyde Auditorium
Venue Capacity: 3,000 – Time: 19:00 – Tickets: £40/£50
Tickets On Sale – www.secctickets.com & www.seetickets.com

22/05/09 – London, England – Wembley Arena
Venue Capacity: 12,500 – Time: 19:00 – Tickets: £45
Tickets On Sale – www.ticketmaster.co.uk & www.seetickets.com

23/05/09 – Manchester, England – Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena
Venue Capacity: 22,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: £43.50
Tickets On Sale – www.ticketmaster.co.uk

24/05/09 – Birmingham, England – National Indoor Arena (NIA)
Venue Capacity: 13,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: £43.50
Tickets On Sale – www.seetickets.com

26/05/09 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
Venue Capacity: 5,500 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 59/64/69
Tickets On Sale – www.livenation.nl

27/05/09 – Brussels, Belgium – Vorst Nationaal (Forest National)
Venue Capacity: 7,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 50/55/60/65/75
Tickets On Sale – www.sherpa.be

30/05/09 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion
Venue Capacity: 13,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: CHF 77/88/99/110/130
Tickets On Sale – www.hallenstadion.ch

This is an official Jean-Michel Jarre Souvenir of China, Oxygene – Concert Pékin.

via jeanmicheljarre

Jean Michel Jarre

Here’s the official tour info:

With his forthcoming “IN-DOORS” World Arena Tour, Jean Michel Jarre invites the audience to journey into his singular universe; to immerse themselves totally in his world of timeless music and vision, in place and time. He promises with this unique and brand new super production to share the energy of his macro concerts with the emotions of an arena experience.

With the fusion of analogue synthesisers, cutting-edge digital technology, oversize HD video projections, spectacular lasers design and lighting choreography, Jarre has conceived a show that encapsulates his signature expression and talent for creating milestone events.

Jean Michel Jarre is an innovative artist who has entertained and thrilled millions of people live and has broken several world records with attendance figures. His electronic music and singular performances have travelled the globe and left their imprint on major landmarks from Houston’s Skyline, to China, to London’s Docklands to the Pyramids of Egypt, to Moscow and…

He has just concluded a sell-out tour of Europe celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the release of his break-through multi-million selling album, Oxygene.

For his upcoming “IN-DOORS”, World Arena Tour, he has conceived a spectacular high-tech production especially tailor made for arenas where he will perform music from all of his best selling albums.

Jarre revolutionised the out-door concert format with his city-scale events. For this “IN-DOORS”, World Arena Tour he aims to break new ground and deliver yet again a unique concert experience.

Jean Michel Jarre tour dates below.

Jean Michel Jarre 2009-2010 World Tour

04/05/09 – Debrecen, Hungary – F?nix Csarnok (Phoenix Hall)
Venue Capacity: 8,500 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: HUF
Tickets On Sale – http://www.ticketpro.hu/events.php?event=233

05/05/09 – Ostrava, Czech Republic – CEZ Arena
Venue Capacity: 12,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: CZK
Tickets On Sale http://www.ticketpro.cz/jnp/

06/05/09 – Wroclaw, Poland – Hala Stulecia (Centennial Hall)
Venue Capacity: 6,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Zloty 175/195
Tickets On Sale – www.livenation.pl

08/05/09 – Aarhus, Denmark – Atletion – NRGi Arena
Venue Capacity: 4,740 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Kr 595/695/795
Tickets On Sale – www.billetnet.dk

09/05/09 – Herning, Denmark – MCH Messecenter Herning
Venue Capacity: 5,200 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: Kr 550/750/775/975
Tickets On Sale – www.billetnet.dk

11/05/09 – Malmo, Sweden – Malmo Arena
Venue Capacity: 15,000 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 470/570
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

12/05/09 – Goteborg, Sweden – Scandinavium
Venue Capacity: 14,000 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 470/570
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

13/05/09 – Oslo, Norway – Oslo Spektrum
Venue Capacity: 9,700 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: NOK 450/550
Tickets On Sale – www.billettservice.no

14/05/09 – Stockholm, Sweden – Hovet (The Court)
Venue Capacity: 9,800 – Time: 19:30 – Tickets: SEK 570/670
Tickets On Sale – www.ticnet.se

16/05/09 – Helsinki, Finland – Hartwall Areena (Helsinki Arena)
Venue Capacity: 12,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 68.70/73.70/78.70
Tickets On Sale – www.lippupalvelu.fi

20/05/09 – Glasgow, Scotland – SECC – Clyde Auditorium
Venue Capacity: 3,000 – Time: 19:00 – Tickets: £40/£50
Tickets On Sale – www.secctickets.com & www.seetickets.com

22/05/09 – London, England – Wembley Arena
Venue Capacity: 12,500 – Time: 19:00 – Tickets: £45
Tickets On Sale – www.secctickets.com & www.seetickets.com

23/05/09 – Manchester, England – Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena
Venue Capacity: 22,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: £43.50
Tickets On Sale – www.ticketmaster.co.uk

24/05/09 – Birmingham, England – National Indoor Arena (NIA)
Venue Capacity: 13,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: £43.50
Tickets On Sale – www.seetickets.com

26/05/09 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
Venue Capacity: 5,500 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 59/64/69
Tickets On Sale – www.livenation.nl

27/05/09 – Brussels, Belgium – Vorst Nationaal (Forest National)
Venue Capacity: 7,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: € 50/55/60/65/75
Tickets On Sale – www.sherpa.be

28/05/09 – Koblenz, Germany – Sporthalle Oberwerth (EXTRA DATE)
Venue Capacity: 5,000 – Time: 21:00 – Tickets: € 49/59/70/80
HOTLINE: 0180/5001812 (14CENT PRO MIN/ MOBILFUNKPREISE KÖNNEN ABWEICHEN)
www.noisenow.de – www.bonnticket.de
Tickets On Sale Now – www.eventim.de

30/05/09 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion
Venue Capacity: 13,000 – Time: 20:00 – Tickets: CHF 77/88/99/110/130
Tickets On Sale – www.hallenstadion.ch

Note to Jean Michel Jarre: How about some North American tour dates?

This is a promo for the DVD Jean-Michel Jarre – Live in Your Living Room, which is highly recommended for synth music fans.

via jeanmicheljarre

This is a rendition of Jarre’s Oxygene played entirely on a cheap Casio toy organ (except percussion and sound effects).

Why?

“Just to see if it was possible to get a minimally recognizable result, and to show that you don’t need lots of expensive keyboards to have fun playing classic synth stuff.”

All lines were played by hand with no sequencer and no MIDI, just a multitrack recorder. Some parts were just ad-libbed or deliberately changed to sound better with the (very) limited range of available sounds, but you’ll get a general idea of arrangements and overall mood.

Not bad for a $20 casio toy!

Let me know what you think of covering Jean Michelle Jarre’s Oxygene on a cheap Casio toy!

via cmatsuoka

Jean Michel Jarre has announced that he’s killed off plans for a Houston concert DVD:

WE REALISE HOW MUCH YOU WERE ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO THE HOUSTON CONCERT BEING AVAILABLE ON DVD, HOWEVER THE UPCOMING RELEASE BY FRANCIS DREYFUS MUSIC HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

DUE TO THE EVIDENT POOR QUALITY OF THE FILM, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN RESTORED OR UPGRADED TO TODAY’S DIGITAL STANDARDS, NOR AT ALL TO A LEVEL OF A PRODUCT THAT JEAN MICHEL JARRE COULD BE ARTISTICALLY SATISFIED WITH, THE DVD, AS F.D.M. PLANNED TO RELEASE IT, WOULD HAVE DONE MORE HARM THAN JUSTICE TO WHAT REMAINS A MILESTONE EVENT.

A MERE DVD COPY OF THE VHS FORMAT, WHERE THE ORIGINAL IMAGES AND SOUND ARE FAR FROM OPTIMUM, WHERE NO BONUS NOR EXTRAS ARE PROPOSED, WITH ARTWORK THAT LACKED PUNCH…WOULD HAVE LED TO A LESS THAN MEDIOCRE PRODUCT SOLD AT NORMAL PRICE.

MOREOVER, IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERLINE THAT JEAN MICHEL JARRE WAS NOT CONSULTED OR INFORMED OF THE RELEASE BY F.D.M., THIS IN ITSELF IS SUFFICIENT TO OPPOSE IT.

AS YOU KNOW, JEAN MICHEL JARRE TAKES TOO MUCH PRIDE IN HIS WORK AND CARE IN HIS CREATION, TO ALLOW IT, AND YOU, TO BE EXPLOITED, WITHOUT THE NECESSARY INVESTMENT OF OFFERING THE BEST STANDARD POSSIBLE.

WE THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR CONTINOUS SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING, ESPECIALLY IN THIS CASE.

AERO PRODUCTIONS

While disappointing to fans – it’s probably a smart decision. His recent Oxygene: Live In Your Living Room set a high standard, and fans would probably be disappointed with something that was just shoveled into DVD format.

Image: p_c_w

p_c_w has posted a great collection of images of Jean Michel Jarre performing Oxygène at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Jean Michel Jarre has personally authorized the publication of fair-use fan videos from his current Oxygene concert tour:

I, Jean Michel Jarre, hereby authorise anyone to broadcast on Youtube any videos filmed during my concerts on ” Oxygene in concert” tour, as long as it is a fair excerpt with the right credits which has been the case so far.

I certify that the only person able to allow or forbid these videos on Youtube is myself, being the composer of all the music, being the sole producer of the live audio and visual version, the performer and the co-publisher. I think these videos are a fair tribute to my work and contribute in a positive way to the exposure of my music.

Yours truly,

Jean Michel Jarre

It’s great to see musicians actively encouraging things like this.

Image: Little02

“When I got them out of storage and played them again, I realised something that even I had forgotten – that these analogue instruments are unique,” Jarre says. “Choosing to use these old synths instead of their modern equivalents is not a retro thing, it is not nostalgia, it is because technological progress has almost nothing to do with the quality of the instrument.”

“A violinist playing today would rather play a Stradivarius than any other instrument – a violin made 400 years ago. Many guitarists would say that the best electric guitars ever made were Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Telecasters from the 1950s or early 1960s. It is the same with these analogue synths.”

“They are totally irrational, unreasonable machines to work with. But this is the source of the inspiration,” Jarre says. “You could say I was taking the risk of all those accidents, but they are also sometimes the special moments. I did a few concerts in a nice theatre in Paris last year. One night, I had one Moog synthesizer that went quite berserk, but because the audience reacted to it – and because they realised then it was really live – it was fun. It creates something quite human, in an age when everything is so neat and clean.”

via TimesOnline

To celebrate, Jarre revealed some of the history of Oxygène:

Oxygène was turned down by all the record companies. It was like a UFO – it was made in the middle of the disco and punk eras and the record companies said, “What is it? No singer, no proper song titles? And, on top of that, it’s French!” Even my mum asked, “Why are you giving your music the name of a gas?” Yet people talk of Oxygène now as my “masterpiece”. When it became such a success, it was strange – a very exciting period and kind of innocent. You find you have a lot of new friends around you and it’s almost as if they want the success to continue more than you do.

Making my music is like being a chef. It’s no coincidence that Oxygène was recorded in my kitchen in Paris. I had to find the right ingredients, bringing everything to the right temperature. don’t like the preconceived idea about electronic music that it is cold, futuristic or robotic. I want my music to sound warm, human and organic. I’m not a scientist working in a laboratory – I’m more like a painter, Jackson Pollock for example, mixing colour and light, experimenting with textures.

I’m really playing those instruments: I don’t just click a mouse and sit back. They are not fake instruments. The beauty is that you can create the sound of the Moon, the sound of light. Nothing is repeated. It’s music that breathes.

To me, the original VCS3 synthesizer is like a Stradivarius. All these old analogue instruments are very poetic.I have a huge emotional relationship with them. My first synthesizer was the VCS3. I got it in Bristol in the late Sixties, long before Pink Floyd used them. I had to sell an acoustic guitar and an old reel-to-reel tape recorder to raise the money. You can do fantastic things with modern computers but you cannot use them in the same intuitive, spontaneous way you can a VCS3. You also have the Minimoog, which is very famous, and a Dutch invention called the Eminent, which was patented in the late Sixties. The sound of Oxygène is based on the fantastic string effects of the Eminent.

To play some of these old instruments you need the Force to be with you. The theramin, for example – it’s totally intuitive. It looks like a Thirties radio with two antennae – just by moving your hands towards the antennae you control the volume and the pitch, producing this fantastic sound like a soprano vocal. Stravinsky used one, as did the Beach Boys on Good Vibrations. It’s very tricky to play.

I own some of the world’s most unusual synthesizers. They include the ARP 2600, a huge modular synthesizer. That’s the instrument Pete Townshend created The Who’s Baba O’Riley on. There are only about 30 left.

Back in the Seventies we had a romantic, poetic vision of the future, like it was in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It felt as if everything was still ahead of us. Today, it is all behind us. That is not to say that my music is attached to sci-fi. I see my music as more attached to the biosphere than the stratosphere.

I collect robots. They’re mainly Japanese, American and especially Russian – small robots, big robots and old toy robots made between 1910 and the Fifties. That period was all about futurism, from the art of Kandinsky to crazy guys building strange robots and sci-fi creatures, utopian-type things. In those days there were lots of dreamers about the future.I got into all that.

Going to the US or China and hearing your music on the radio is like signing your soul to the devil. You can start to lose your own identity when your image becomes bigger than who you actually are. There are so many temptations, so many excesses, it can kill you. America is the worst. I was voted People magazine’s Man Of The Year in the Seventies, and the women… well, you have to be clear in your mind what these things mean or your brain will implode.

Why do I play these big events? First, it’s the fact that electronic instruments are not really made for live performance, so long tours are not feasible. And I became inspired by Italian opera, working with carpenters, painters, costumiers and, in my case, video artists, light-show specialists and architects. Also, because I’ve always considered my music to be attached to the immediate environment, I wanted to perform outdoors, to hijack one whole place for a night – something where, as an artist, you have no second chance. At the Place de la Concorde [in 1979], one guy came up afterwards – he had a long beard like Fidel Castro’s – and he said, “I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life.” I thanked him and someone said, “Do you know who that was? Mick Jagger”

My favourite concert nearly didn’t happen. I thought it was a joke when Lech Walesa phoned me to play at Gdansk in 2005. I just didn’t believe him. The concert was a kind of Blade Runner experience because it was in exactly that spot that the world had changed, leading to the eventual collapse of the Soviet system.

Arthur C Clarke thought aliens would respond to my music. He told me, “We must do something in outer space – perhaps a concert on the Moon.” He thought it would be a good point of contact.

My favourite thing to spend money on used to be cars – especially old British and American ones. I had a Bugatti, which I bought in England, an old XJ140 Jaguar and a Cadillac Eldorado, which I bought in the US. I had cars all over the world. I drove them all, including the Bugatti. I was keener, though, on the XJ140 and the Cadillac. I’d put the family in them and off we’d go. Of course, you had to stop from garage to garage, because they kept breaking down, but I didn’t care.

Oxygène made me rich – but not as rich as you might think. Back then managers and record companies were getting too much money. Having said that, I was able to buy a large house in Paris where I built my own studio, plus a house in London.

It has been very moving playing Oxygène again. In Paris I was playing to small audiences of only about 500. I love using all the old equipment.

It’s been quite an experience.

Oxygène: Live In Your Living Room, the 30th anniversary DVD, is out now.