J-M Jarre World Tour

[Niklas Lindberg]

Hi list!

As I was to the same concert, I thought I could fill in a little...

On 12 May, Bjoern Starmark wrote:
> 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...

It was certainly a very old Theremin he used, probably built
by Leon Theremin himself. J-M had a real hard time trying to master
the instrument, but he certainly did a nice try :)
A few more hours of practice, perhaps...

>  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.

I think this was a JP8000 actually (It was blueish and had the right
size anyway...)
 
>  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.

This was a Mellotron mark II (with a synthi A placed on top of it btw,
what a nice pair :)
There was indeed some trouble, either with the Mellotron or the cable.
Normally, the Mellotron wouldn't add any hearable noise (in that
particular situation)

>  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?)

Yeap, that's right. It was a NordLead (prototype?)

>  Later on, he played on a big wooden monster, the sound wasn't so clear,
> I've no idea what it was.
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You must mean the Moog system 55...not a bad description really :)
J-M was a bit precatious and didn't use the system for any complex
patches, just a simple sawtoothish leadline using 1 901b and the
904A LP Filter (as far as I could see). He _did_ start the sequencer,
but it wasn't connected anywhere...
Ah well, you have to be a little visual sometimes :)

> 
> 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. 
>
Also seen onstage (only parts of it):

Minimoog
2x VCS3 in special cabinet
ARP 2600
ARP 2500 (behind Dominique Perrier)
2x NordLead
A lot of modern anonymus keyboards...

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

Nice report!

/ Niklas