The smart electronics pioneer from France is a phenomenon. Apparently he knows the formula that keeps you young forever. Turned seventy in August, Jean-Michel Jarre still looks outrageously fresh. And although he can look back on a career spanning fifty years, he hasn't calmed down at all. With the compilation "Planet Jarre: 50 Years Of Music" and the studio album "Equinoxe Infinity", which will be released in mid-November, he shows that he can still be reckoned with.
At the beginning of the seventies the synthesizer found its way into popular music. Initially only used by a few innovative artists, the magic box prevailed in almost all genres in the eighties at the latest. Jean-Michel Jarre laid the foundation for his international success with the groundbreaking works "Oxygène" (1976) and "Equinoxe" (1978). His mixture of experimental music and sensual, pop-compatible melodies hit a nerve.
eclipsed: Do you feel old or wise at seventy?
Jean-Michel Jarre: I still feel like a beginner. The eternal search for the ideal music, for perfection, also makes the perception of time abstract. I basically never look back.
eclipsed: You have divided your show "Planet Jarre" into four sequences. What's the matter with you?
Jarre: I don't really like compilations that much, but I liked the idea of making it like an independent album with a concept for the listener. Ethereal pieces like "Oxygène 1", which is part of "Soundscapes", get a new quality. "Themes" shows the arrangements around clear keyboards and melodies. "Sequences" emphasizes the rhythmic patterns of my electronic music. "Explorations And Early Works" refers to my experimental origins, when I created sounds with microphone and recording device and later introduced sampling technology with "Zoolook".
eclipsed: These playlists also reflect modern listening habits. How do you see the development that more and more individual song compilations are heard and less and less whole albums of an artist or a band?
Jarre: Of course you always have to keep the necessary distance from modern behaviour. Many say that young people are thoughtless about it. But new technologies and innovations always proceed in this way until they are integrated a little less hysterically than a part into the other lifestyle. Streaming also gives you the freedom to experience music in many different situations.
