Jarre Releases Breath After Decade

By London_Duncan Last edited 194 months ago
Jarre Releases Breath After Decade
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Ten years after storming Wembley Arena with his revival of the 1976 album, Oxygene, its creator and performer, French synth maestro Jean-Michel Jarre, is back in town... to play exactly the same thing again, only this time in the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, March 30th. The 59 year-old has released 18 studio albums in his 36 year career so far so we'd have hoped he'd have seen fit to treat us, say, to any one of the six he's made since he came here last, but it appears that, for some reason, London only reminds him of gasping for breath.

Nevertheless, we are very pleased to see him back with his own, personal brand of son et lumiere, though slightly ominously he's going all retro and playing the whole thing with three mates on the original pioneering instruments used in the making of the album first time around, which makes us a bit nervy in case he's also decided to abandon modern stagecraft in favour of hunching distractedly over an old Moog illuminated only by the light from a dusty anglepoise. If he's looking for new ideas he could do worse than incorporate a dance-off.

If you want to get the essence of how he's going about this you could acquire his recently released thirtieth anniversary edition of Oxygene which includes a video of him and the lads replaying the original oeuvre as live at JMJ's pad. In fact, given the fierce ticket prices for this one-off gig you may be tempted instead to get the version with the 3D glasses and settle down for the whole forty minute duration with a soothing glass of wine to enhance the mood.

If you're not put off by paying £45-£75 for the privilege of attending rush straight to the Royal Albert Hall box office and snap up one of the fast disappearing seats. We recommend the excellent Theatremonkey guide to help you in finding the bargain best views amidst the remaining options.

Picture via Simon Willison's Flickr stream.

Last Updated 21 January 2008