Jean-Michel Jarre is a bit of an enigma of the music industry. He's a composer and pioneer of electronic music but better known for his outdoor spectacles. He has sold records in the tens of millions and performed to millions of people with his ‘son et lumière’ one-off events, which have been awarded the Guinness Book of Records entry for largest outdoor concert crowd four times over the years. He has influenced thousands of bands and released new albums every couple of years from the mid 70s till about ten years ago. Though he has never really fitted well into any of the traditional music industry’s genres and sometimes considered a novelty rather than a popular musician.
It was his 1986 Huston concert to celebrate ‘The 150th anniversary of Texas, and 25th anniversary of NASA’ that first caught my attention when it was broadcast on British TV back in the mid 80s. Then he announced the ‘Destination Docklands’ concert in London a few years later in 1988 and I just had to go and see it. Well I did but from about half a mile down the river on a cold wet October night. Back then I would never have thought in my wildest dreams I’d get as close to him during a performance as I was going to get this night at the Brighton Centre.
When you are performing to millions of people at a time the majority of them are really too far away for Jean-Michel Jarre to really interact with the crowd. The 'Electronica World Tour' seems to be about putting on a more intimate experience to a smaller number of people and to have a bit of fun.
The show is just as spectacular visually as his outside affairs with some of the best semi-transparent video displays I've ever seen. The show kicks off with the title track from his latest album Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise with a massive rotating gyroscopic cube filling the video screens hanging across the front of the stage. After a while these screens move around the stage to reveal Jean-Michel on his central podium surrounded by all his musical toys.
He is helped out throughout the concert by two multi-talented musicians either side of him who provide extra percussion, a bit of help with the vocals and other extra bits to flesh out the music. One of the huge advantages of seeing Jean-Michel Jarre in a 'small' venue like this is that the audio quality was quite superb. You could really hear every nuance of the music and it's a much more controlled environment for him to sling loops and samples around the hall. While it’s easy to get blown away by the stunning visuals, if you closed your eyes for the whole concert and just listened to the music it would have still been a stunning experience.
If you were expecting a best-of show then you may be left a little disappointed. While you got a few Équinoxe and Oxygène tracks, including the new ‘Oxygène 17’ from his upcoming third and final Oxygène album. The majority of the set is taken from his last two Electronica albums where Jean-Michel has been working with some of the people who he has influenced or has impressed him over the years. Including 'Brick England' recorded with The Pet Shop Boys and 'Exit' a song about surveillance concluding with a call to arms type speech by Edward Snowden delivered via a fullscreen in your face video display at the front of the stage. Ending with him repeating the line "And if you don't stand up for it, then who will?".
The music seems much more a journey through the history of electronic music than recycling his best crowd pleasers. In fact he did not even play the popular 'Rendez-Vous 4' track, though he apparently did in Cardiff the day before when he kicked off the tour. So it looks like this is not a performance that he is touring with a fixed set list, rather a pool of songs he can tap into and play what he feels is right for the crowd, venue or how he is feeling that night. He got through quite a range of instruments throughout the show including a range of keyboards, one track played off a tablet app and both electric and midi guitars which gave him the freedom to move around the stage a bit and act all rock star. His show would not be complete without the laser harp which he joked about not knowing if it would work or not before trying the first note. I must say the laser harp looked very scary up close and you really got the sense that this was not a trick of lights but instead some serious industrial lasers.
There are a couple of times throughout the concert where Jean-Michel leaves his platform and came down to the front of the stage to have a little chat with the audience. He told us the tale of him coming to Brighton back when he was a teenager playing with his first rock band, well before he was famous and explaining how the city still has a special place in his heart. I guess this tour gives Jean-Michel the perfect opportunity to visit places he likes and get to an audience who may never otherwise get to see one of his massive concerts. Probably nice not to have to factor in the weather to your performance too.
After the concert you can't help but have the loops and melodies of his music rolling round in your head all backed up with the memorable images from the show. I think Jean-Michel Jarre has done an amazingly good job of bringing his music and light show inside into a good roller coaster ride that will take you from gentle rolling melodies though to pumping techno tunes with a nod to dozens of other styles along the way.
Destination Docklands was one of the seminal concert experiences in my life and this one is going to live alongside that as the benchmark of how to do a multimedia show.
Jonski Mason
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