This album is a tribute to the composers of concrete music “Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer” and “also at the House of Radio and Music“, declared this Friday on franceinfo Jean-Michel Jarre who released his 22nd album Oxymoron produced in the sound creation studio of Radio France. In this new opus, the composer of electronic music and immersive works has used sounds that Pierre Henry bequeathed to him shortly before his death.
Jean-Michel Jarre promises concerts in the future “in the real world and at the same time live in the metaverse and in virtual universes“. According to him, the metaverse “will become a mode of expression in itself and will generate new actors, new creators, new musicians“.
Is it a project that has somewhat materialized at Radio France?
Absolutely ! It’s a project I’ve had in mind for a long time because I’ve always been obsessed in my music with the notion of space. Already in stereo with Oxygen, the idea of expanding the space was in my wishes. It is also a tribute to the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, of which we can never say enough about the extent to which public service is a pioneer in sound matters. It is in this house that FM, binaural and multichannel were developed. This project could not have existed without the Innovation studio of Radio France.
But is it also a tribute to concrete music?
Absolutely. Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, who was the head of the Musical Research Group attached to the ORTF at the time, defined what today’s music was ultimately going to be, that is to say in a kind of apology forOxymoron, to be able to mix the sounds of life with music, to be able to mix the sound of a bird with a clarinet, the sound of an engine with percussion. This very iconoclastic and very surreal way of approaching music is ultimately a major contribution to the way we listen to and make music today. Whether we do hip hop, electro, jazz or rock, everyone has become a bit sound designer, a bit of the grandchildren of public service, the grandchildren of Pierre Henry in particular, and of Pierre Schaeffer to whom I pay homage through this album.
The concerts of this album will necessarily be special. Are you going to take us into the metaverse?
With Covid-19, we changed the paradigm. Our relationship to digital tools has evolved. We told his family about it through interposed screens. We can therefore see that digital tools are changing our lives. We talk a lot about metaverses, virtual reality which are not cold and disturbing abstractions, but which on the contrary have a social dimension. The fact of being able to reach people who, for geographical reasons, for social reasons, for reasons of disability, have not been able to be connected until now, to share concerts with us and the rest of the population. So indeed, these are technologies that will allow us to express ourselves differently, to also democratize creative tools.
“My concerts in the future will necessarily be in a somewhat hybrid situation, that is to say in the real world and at the same time being live in the metaverse and in virtual universes.”
Jean Michel Jarreon franceinfo
You say “Do not be afraid, this is the possible future of live performances“?
A possible future is exactly the term. At the time of the Lumière brothers, we invented the cinema, the theater people said, “these people who move on a white screen, they are not real actors”. A real actor is someone who is on a stage, in front of an audience. Finally, cinema has become the major art that we know. For all the metaverse, it’s the same thing. It is something that will certainly not weaken live performance, but on the contrary strengthen it, but will become a mode of expression in itself and will generate new actors, new creators, new musicians, a whole new ecosystem. , and create jobs, new sound engineers, new producers. And the public service is still clearing the way in this regard, in particular with Radio France’s Innovation studio, with which we have great ambitions together, precisely to create a sound academy that will allow us to train and pass the baton to young creators, young producers.