dimanche 19 septembre 2010

3 Summer Outdoor Concerts

31/7: Santiago de Compostela, Spain


Gothic and spiritual ambiance.. Monsignor Barrio gave for the first time, a special agreement to build the stage on the stairs of the cathedral.. The result was quite spectacular, with the façade of the church directly behind us.

The stage was at 6 meters high, and i got slightly dizzy during the laser harp! What I really enjoyed were the live videos in B&W directly projected on the walls in a ghostly, haunted mood. The whole atmosphere particularly during songs such as Rendez Vous 2 & 3 ,Chronology 2 and Fin De Siècle was very "Phantom of the Opera".. The concert was broadcast live on Spanish TV and the Spanish female director did a good job with a quite cinematographic approach.




28/8: Oslo, Norway


An outdoor concert took place for the first time in the central Oslo in front of the Royal castle. It was a kind of festival, with different bands and I closed the event by a concert starting at 10:30, with Royksopp playing just before us...

Coming straight from the south of France, it was quite a shock to be in Norway with around 10 degrees and a pouring rain.. Fortunately the rain stopped 2mn before we got on stage.

The crew was really happy to get together again after the August break, the mood was really warm, and we delivered quite a good show in front of a pretty young audience. The sound and the energy of the music plus the impact of the visuals demonstrated that the production is ready for any kind of big festival. Everybody was quite excited..


18/9: Beirut souks, Lebanon


After having been postponed twice because of logistics issues and then the Ramadan, the concert finally took place yesterday night at the Beirut souks in a totally crazy atmosphere..

Extraordinary city, being rebuilt so quickly by Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Solidere, Beirut is so full of energy. The new generation who used to go to school under constant bombing have learnt the value of being alive and they hardly sleep, working during the day and having fun every night... Clubs such as the Sky bar or the White are full all the time with probably amongst the best sound systems on the planet.

At 37 degrees, the sound check was hot and hectic with a lot of technical problems due to the heat. The lebanese audience was definitely hot and we had great time in spite of a few problems on my side. The digisequencer refused to work (probably overheating too!), meaning we had no sequence in Oxygene 2 and Oxygene 5. Patrick came behind me to reset it while we were desperately improvising to give him enough time to reload the sequence.. Risks and magic of live performance..

Apart from this glitch, we had great time and finished the night at the Sky bar... This morning I visited my friend Bahia Hariri ( Rafik Hariri's sister), Unesco ambassador and President of the Rafik Hariri Fundation for Education, cultural development and for Women. We had an interesting conversation about the future of Beirut, Lebanon and the all Middle East. She talked me through all the activities of the fundation.. She is an extraordinary person and a luck for Lebanon and all Middle East..

We decided that we should get together more often to promote her projects.

12 commentaires:

LJ.Isis a dit…

Great to read about how the concerts went.
Looking forwards to seeing you in Glasgow and Manchester
Love and hugs
LJ
x

Anonyme a dit…

Awesome show in Oslo at Akershus fortress. Please come back. :)

Unknown a dit…

Hello Jean Michel,

Great to read you're all having such a great time with the concerts. I hope the "old ladies" don't suffer too much from all that temperature change.
See you in Rotterdam.

Best wishes to you and the team.

Albert

Robi a dit…

Hope, and I'm sure, all these projects (thinking myself mainly on Beirut, an exotic, growing and pulsing pleace in the Middle East) will inspire any of your future projects...concert-, concept- and musical-wise.

Nina, Anna Ostasiuk a dit…

Hi Master well well :)) the concerts was sensational :)
We hope thats concerts on open air will keep more :)in the next year ;)
I hope you return with concert open air to Poland ;p hmmmmm :))

Many kisses and good health JM
Greet Nina :))

jarreblogru a dit…

HI, Jean Michel!
Always so happy to see your posts in the blog!
See you're are getting more and more enegry with every concert!
Hope you really enjoy them!

We hope the Eupopean and World winds will bring to our big country next year...
Waiting for you so much!

Best wishes and good health, Jean Michel!
Yours sincerely,
jarreblogru

Juan Ignacio a dit…

Hello Jean Michel, Santiago concert was spectacular, I hope that in 2011, come back to Spain and why not Asturias. I thought I recognized two new songs, including Will the next album? and if so Why when this new album?. Does the project had intended to do on the island of La Palma, will resume someday?. Thanks for keeping this blog and even forever.

Anonyme a dit…

Just a small correction, dear JMJ; the concert in Oslo was not in front of the Royal Castle, but in the grounds of a former fortress and castle (it was a royal castle in medieval times). It was indeed the first time a big concert was held there. Great show and we're very lucky to have had JMJ in Oslo three times in three years!!!

Robi a dit…

I guess the 2011 world tour will bring fantastic, exotic places and venues...not forgetting the new release !

Robi a dit…

America, Australia?

Let's persuade those promoters!!! D

ramosdrc a dit…

Mister Jarre, thanks a lot for Santiago de Compostela concert. It was GREAT! I believed that it colud be good, but it was more than just good. It was an unforgettable experience for me, my wife and my little brother. Thanks!
PS: Maybe you have an old-forgotten synthesizer in some place... May you give me as a present? :)

Walter Tully a dit…

I hope to produce the same kind of intense performance that happened in Santiago, Spain.

Our team is up to produce a Christmas outdoor concerts. Denver or perhaps in Glendale parks and recreations are the venue options. I hope to find out the final location so I can prepare early. Wish me luck!