Jean-Michel Jarre... his astounding first album in 1972

[BlackWinny]

I think that everybody knows Jean-Michel Jarre and his beautiful albums Oxygene, Equinoxe, Rendez-Vous, etc.

But I think also that very few of you have ever heard the very first album released by Jean-Michel Jarre in 1972, four years before the splendid "Oxygene".

The very first solo album (he took part in other collective productions before) was released in 1972 with the title "Deserted Palace".

The least one can say is that the content of this album is somewhat... hem... weird.


It has been released on Sam Fox Records for use in television programmes, adverts, films, ambient sounds in markets and airports, etc.

It is very short (33 minutes) but there is need of a certain dose of courage to listen to it until the end without stopping the play or throwing your computer or hi-fi by the window. However I strongly propose you to not chicken out and listen to the full album after having carefully locked up the cat in the bedroom.

Just a last mention: this album is now sold around 700 to 1000 bucks. Having a true original copy of it... means that you are an unconditional fan of JMJ or that you have the extremely rare luck to have bought it at an era when JMJ was yet unknown... then kept it for 40 years in the garage without having destroyed with the wheels of your car.

Listen to this incredible album and you'll understand why it doesn't appear in the official discography of this grand musician that he became later:

[cubanoid]

Now we know why it was deserted

[Numanoid]

He made giant steps from 72 to 76

I've heard that DP album before, and it sounds nice enough, but it doesn't break new ground like Oxygene did

[cubanoid]

He made giant steps from 72 to 76

I think his dad must've had a word with him about melody and harmony.

(and the other three angels).

[Numanoid]

I think his dad must've had a word with him about melody and harmony.

I can't really hear any Maurice Jarre in JM Jarre's premium output/holy trinity (Oxygene, Equinoxe, Les Chants Magnetiques)

[cubanoid]

It wasn't really meant as a serious comment but I think Oxygene IV is closer to the theme from Lawrence of Arabia than it is DP.

[Numanoid]

When it comes to all things JM Jarre I'm d-e-a-d serious

[JonSolo]

That is if you don't count the EP La Cage Erosmachine. I have that on the Rarities CD set.

I had a teacher play his music in a junior high psychology class in 1980 (he played Oxygene)... I immediately rushed out to find everything Jarre I could.

[vurt]

its better than the later stuff.

[Numanoid]

I had a teacher play his music in a junior high psychology class in 1980 (he played Oxygene)... I immediately rushed out to find everything Jarre I could.

I got hooked when I saw Houston/Lyon concert on TV, must have been '87 or '88 they rebroadcasted it here

[cubanoid]

I got the "holy trinity" in 1981 while I was still at school. I think it was a cumulative process of hearing little bits on TV and radio culminating in the first airings of Magnetic Fields which had just come out. I bought Oxygene with my pocket money and got the other two for xmas.

[Nielzie]

What synthesizers did he use on his first 1972 album? I see 2 EMS synthi's on the screenshot, but did he use any others too, like those big modulars at that time? What is the black box in front of him on the picture?

[BlackWinny]

What synthesizers did he use on his first 1972 album? I see 2 EMS synthi's on the screenshot, but did he use any others too, like those big modulars at that time? What is the black box in front of him on the picture?

All the album was made with nothing else that:

• an ARP 2600 that he had just bought and was experimenting (and that he keeps on using today)
• an EMS VCS 3 Putney (the same he uses yet today, he has always said that this Putney is his fetiche and his "porte-bonheur").
• an EMS Synthi AKS bought also recently, it was his first use of it.
• A Farfisa organ

Nothing else.


He used the same material to record (the same year) the soundtrack of the french movie "Les Granges Brûlées" (which was outed a few months later in May 1973).

[fmr]

What synthesizers did he use on his first 1972 album? I see 2 EMS synthi's on the screenshot, but did he use any others too, like those big modulars at that time? What is the black box in front of him on the picture?

All the album was made with nothing else that:

• an ARP 2600 that he had just bought and was experimenting (and that he keeps on using today)
• an EMS VCS 3 Putney (the same he uses yet today, he has always said that this Putney is his fetiche and his "porte-bonheur").
• an EMS Synthi AKS bought also recently, it was his first use of it.
• A Farfisa organ

Nothing else.


He used the same material to record (the same year) the soundtrack of the french movie "Les Granges Brûlées" (which was outed a few months later in May 1973).

Basically almost all of the Jarre trademarks are already there - the melodic vein, the naïve simplicity (strange from someone who came from the experimental avant-garde of Paris), and the pop beats. Only things missing are the Eminent String Machine and the Mellotron.

BTW: My first Jarre records was a double LP Oxygene/Equinoxe, bought a couple of years before he launched Chants Magnetiques (which, BTW, up to today I don't know wht were changed into Magnetic Fields in the english title, when the correct title would be Magnetic Chants).

[cubanoid]

I don't know wht were changed into Magnetic Fields in the english title, when the correct title would be Magnetic Chants).

According to Wikipedia:

The album has official titles in both French and English. The French title, Les Chants Magnétiques is a play on words. Literally translated into English this means "Magnetic Songs" or "Magnetic Singing". Spoken aloud however, it sounds as "Les Champs Magnétiques" (literally: "Magnetic Fields"), due to the French words chants (songs or singing) and champs (fields) being homophones. As this is not the case in English, such word play could not have survived translation, and the more straightforward title "Magnetic Fields" was chosen instead. In the caption for picture 5 on the album's inner sleeve, the word "champs" in "champs magnétiques" is crossed out and the word "chants" is written above it.