Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe
(Disques Dreyfus Records 1979 FDM83150 French Press)
Sleeve in Nr MINT- condition
– a little wear to edges
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from the odd light pop/crackle)
Jean-Michel André Jarre (born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer, and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient, and new-age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.
Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents, and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including those of street performers, jazz musicians, and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales.
His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events, and he is now perhaps as well known as a performer as he is as a musician.
As of 2004, Jarre had sold an estimated 80 million albums. He was the first Western musician officially invited to perform in the People’s Republic of China, and holds the world record for the largest-ever audience at an outdoor event.
Équinoxe (English: “equinox”) was the second major-label album release by French musician Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus (with license to Polydor) in late 1978.
The album reflects a day in the life of a human being, from morning to night.[citation needed] Parts 1 to 4 (i.e. side A) and tracks 5 to 8 (side B) segué smoothly from one to the next.
Jarre had developed his sound, employing more dynamic and rhythmic elements, particularly a greater use of sequencing on basslines. Much of this was achieved using custom equipment developed by his collaborator Michel Geiss.
The release was followed by a concert on the Place de la Concorde, Paris on July 14, 1979. The concert attracted 1 million people, becoming Jarre’s first entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest crowd for an outdoor concert.
Two singles were released from the album, “Équinoxe Part 5” first, and then “Équinoxe Part 4”. Part of “Équinoxe Part 8” has been played live with different arrangements, including a version for an acoustic street organ, under the title of “Band in the Rain”.
The album reached #11 in the UK charts and #126 in the US charts.
During the 1980s, “Équinoxe Part 4” was used in the opening credits of the TVNZ documentary series Our World.
Track listing
- “Équinoxe Part 1” – 2:23
- “Équinoxe Part 2” – 5:01
- “Équinoxe Part 3” – 5:11
- “Équinoxe Part 4” – 6:53
- “Équinoxe Part 5” – 3:47
- “Équinoxe Part 6” – 3:23
- “Équinoxe Part 7” – 7:25
- “Équinoxe Part 8” – 5:02
Personnel
- Jean-Michel Jarre – ARP 2600 Synthesizer, EMS Synthi AKS, VCS 3 Synthesizer, Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim TVS-1A, RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, RMI Keyboard Computer, ELKA 707, Korg Polyphonic Ensemble 2000, Eminent 310U, Mellotron, ARP Sequencer, Oberheim Digital Sequencer, Matrisequencer 250, Rhythmicomputer (Korg MiniPops 7), EMS Vocoder
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.