On New Year's Eve 2020, French electronic pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre performed as an avatar in a virtual version of the world-famous Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral - a VR experience that set the stage for a concert broadcast live from a studio. 75 million viewers watched the live broadcast of the multimedia event, which was unprecedented in this form. With the album "Live In Notre-Dame VR - Welcome To The Other Side", the spectacle can now be relived purely acoustically on CD or visually on Blu-ray
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?
After 40 years, the charmer of electronic music returns to his great first work. After "Oxygene 7-13" (1997) and the new recording of 2007 he does this for the fourth time. The anniversary is reason enough, but has the lively Frenchman also managed to create a really ambitious sequel? Jarre definitely does a lot of things right.
![JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - "Oxygène" for the third time](https://www.eclipsed.de/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Jean_Michel_Jarre_2016_10_Frankfurt_Portrait_20_v1_24cm%20web.jpg?itok=93rqpn-w "JEAN-MICHEL JARRE - "Oxygène" for the third time")
Floating synthesizer sounds, a Moog purrs and squeaks, and slowly a melody emerges. After about eight minutes, a bass begins and interrupts the atmosphere slightly stepping away. Meanwhile, the synthi fires nervously in the background like rockets. And above all hovers a soothing, constantly repeating melody. An ethereal melodic intermezzo finally leads to what is today one of the most popular electronic pieces of all time: "Oxygène 4". This simple melody in combination with bubbling synths could even be played in a disco - that was new. The first modern electronic album was born, recorded in 1976 by Jarre soloing on eight tracks with instruments like Arp Synthesizer, Mellotron, Farfisaorgel and AKS Synthesizer. This music has no message, but it invites you to daydream.
NEIL YOUNG - The Indomitable
Even as a young singer, as a representative of the hippie generation, Neil Young didn't mince his words. And he has remained the most controversial, sometimes in the best sense of the word uninhibited spirit of rock music: The Canadian, who turns seventy on November 12, shows no signs of age-mild. In the following we show why it is so important that "the old man" is still there.
JEFF LYNNE'S ELO - Alte Schule
We meet Jean-Michel Jarre, 67, at a luxury Berlin hostel to talk about his latest project, "Electronica 1 + 2". The Frenchman has invited 30 well-known musicians to record two concept albums with him - the DNA of electronic music, so to speak. The first part will be published in October, the second in April.
eclipsed: In the "Electronica" project, you tell the story of electronic music and its legacy from your perspective on two albums. How much time did you put into this project?
Jean-Michel Jarre: I worked on it for four years and haven't had a holiday for three years. This project has grown bigger than I thought. An endless story also because I tend to constantly change something about the music. I also wanted to meet everyone involved in person. Nowadays, artists who have never met in person, who have never spoken to each other, send files to each other. I want real encounters, that's much more delightful.
A brave album, but also a difficult one. France's visionary of electronic pop music has ambitious plans: He wants to illustrate the history of electronic music on two independent records. Where to start, where to stop? Of course, one could not expect him to set a monument to the earliest pioneers of the scene such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen or Pierre Schaeffer. But names like Tangerine Dream, Air, Moby and Laurie Anderson promised a lot.
PINK FLOYD
The refinement of the perfect
With "Why Pink Floyd?" the British rock legend Pink Floyd not only refines their back catalogue, but also launches a marketing campaign that even surpasses the Beatles madness of 2010. eclipsed drummer Nick Mason took to the verbal sweatbox and demanded Tacheles - about ongoing reunion rumours, unreleased recordings, the current band chemistry and mistakes of the past. We also interviewed sound engineer Andy Jackson about his experiences with Pink Floyd. And: We start the walk through all the studios where the band ever recorded.
STEVEN WILSON
Soli Surcharge
LED ZEPPELIN
Destination unknown
The sparrows whistled it off the roofs for months on end, now it's official: Led Zeppelin, another 70s icon, takes part in the illustrious reunion hustle and bustle of modern times. So far, however, without a new album, let alone a complete tour, but "only" with a one-off show on 10 December in London's O2 Arena. But already the announcement of the group's participation in the "Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert" was enough to put 20 million fans into hysteria.
THE SAN FRANCISCO
JETS The Hippie Year 1967
