Life Soundtrack: Jean-Michel Jarre – The Concerts in China
Recently I saw this promotional video of French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, which reminded me of a phase in the 80s, when I bought all his albums, which were by then already a few years old and hence cheaper. I was surprised how many iconic instrumentals he wrote, for example Oxygene 4 of 1976, which probably everybody on the planet has heard at some point.
My favorite album of Jean-Michel Jarre was The Concerts in China with live recordings of his historic 1981 tour to Beijing and Shanghai, complete with Chinese sound bites. The record starts with the track L’Overture. It’s a soaring piece and you can imagine how it gave the audience – there are limited visuals available, but I imagine some sort of stadium with tens of thousands of people – collectively the chills as it slowly builds up. The second track, Arpegiateur is no less riveting with the namesake arpeggios floating through the stereo space.
I used both tracks frequently as openers for my mix cassettes. There’s nothing better to raise your heartbeat and get you in the mood for more good music.
L’Overture:
Arpegiateur:
Listen to the album on Apple Music or Spotify.
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