J-M Jarre World Tour

[Bjoern Starmark]

Hi!

Please forgive me for posting this message to this list, but I hope a
lot of you out there will find it interesting, even though it doesn't
directly relate to DIY/electronics. It does however directly relate to
analog synrhesizer eq...

Jean-Michel Jarre started his world tour yesterday, May 11th, here in
Goeteborg, Sweden, and I was there (of course). During the concert he
played on a lot of old analog 'vintage' equipment. I will only give you
my technical, not artistic impression. Unfortunately, my knowledge is
lacking in this area but here's what I saw:

He started with a track from his new album playing on his Laser Harp,
and then  continued with Oxygene 2, on which he played the lead on an
old monosynth (only one finger at a time !).
 After som new songs, the stage crew came in carrying a big, brown
wooden box, and J-M informed us that this was the one of the oldest
synthesizer equipment ever built (from Russia): A Theremin! It really
had a weird sound, one hand controlled pitch, one the volume...
 There also was a strange synth which sounded almost like a distorted
electric guitar but more synthetic. He 'slided' on it up & down in
pitch. 
 He started one song (Oxygene4 ?) playing solo on something that must
have been old analog, since the background hiss and noise was so loud
that I heard people complaining.
 Then the stage crew came in with a real slim synth. It was a new
Swedish prototype syntheziser, just a couple of _hours_ old,he claimed.
It had all the sounds from Equinoxe4 programmed into it. I was astounded
by the sound from this synth, since it had all the original analog
characteristics, yet being so slim that it obviosly was digital. The
upper lid was in some red plastic, while the bottom was black. It had
many small pots to the left. Maybe it was one of those new analog
modelling synthesizers (maybe Nord Lead  - isn't that a Swedish 
modelling synth?)
 Later on, he played on a big wooden monster, the sound wasn't so clear,
I've no idea what it was.

All in all, I'd say 33% was analog, rest digital equipment. _Many_ old
songs from the 70's in new versions. I really recommend you go and
listen out for your self. 

Again, please forgive my boldness in posting this to this list.
Regards,
Bjoern