Artist: JEAN-MICHEL JARRE
Title: EQUINOXE
Label: POLYDOR RECORDS, 1978
Format: LP
Catalog #: CT-1-6175
Condition: VG++ to NEAR MINT
Price: $10.99 + shipping
"Where Jarre spent only three months mixing his Oxygene album, Equinoxe required an estimated seven months. I believe I can safely say that the effort was well worth the trouble. I have recently re-discovered this album, only to listen to it more frequently than the Oxygene album. The latter, while groundbreaking at the time, is a splendid atmospheric saunter. Equinoxe, on the other hand, is a symphonic dance, one where Jarre has found his niche and continues to expand on his ideas of Earth-inspired melodies.
Every track has something to offer. Jarre's current modus operandi is based on the two equinoxes: vernal (spring), which occurs on March 21, and autumnal on September 23. Jarre will revisit these months 25 years later with his Sessions 2000 release, on which two tracks are titled March 23 and September 14. (Jarre's influences do not escape him: two other tracks on Sessions are titled for the months of the solstices.)
The idea of the equinox is vaster than that of, say, oxygen. Where his first album played on the sounds of wind, air, light, and space, an equinox occurs when the sun is aligned with the equator. The Earth will be immersed in light for 12 hours during the day, and submerged in darkness for 12 hours at night, equilibrium of life. Spring announces new life, and re-growth; autumn is the preparation for survival, or the expectation of death.
Jarre carefully avoids references to death, but doesn't hesitate to utilize the idea of life. Weather is ubiquitous in nature, inevitable even on uninhabited planets. Jarre incorporates these themes into his music, the most recognizable being the thunderstorm on Equinoxe 8. The prelude in this track will soon become a famous concert favorite: L'Orchestre sous la pluie (Band in the Rain), performed to great effect on a Barrel organ.
Blatant on Equinoxe 6, Jarre reverts to a more old-fashioned electronica approach to the music, almost taking a step back from his previous album. In so doing, there is a familiarity invoked from the haunting Deserted Palace album. The track is still a step forward, but makes a grateful nod to the history of electronica. Still, note that Equinoxe 6 is almost a slow motion foreshadowing of Magnetic Fields 1.
By this time, Jarre has polished the idea of a concept album, keeping a similar theme, or a certain key or tempo, through all the tracks. The leitmotif is an undercurrent of a dark musical passage. He also blends the tracks together, ultimately creating a 40-minute rhapsody. What he brings from Oxygene is the familiar swooshing of oceanic air, and a more refined bubbling effect. Those high-pitched time-compressed tones -- like crystalline leaves on aspens in the breeze -- are formally standardized in this album, becoming a trademark that can be heard in nearly all his albums henceforth."
