28 May 2009

Synth.nl meets Jean Michel Jarre

On Tuesday the 26th of May I had a memorable meeting with Jean Michel Jarre and his band members after his concert in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. It was a very good concert in my opinion. One of the best I have seem from him. He played a lot of older material from Oxygene, Equinoxe etc. So great music, but the sound was very good too and I loved the laser show. Also it was obvious that he enjoyed himself. After the concert we went with a little group of people backstage and had to wait a while. We heard that he had a meeting with Armin van Buuren first who was sitting two rows behind me in the audience actually :)

When Jean Michel walked in his manager Fiona said right away that he had only 4 minutes, but luckily he stayed much longer than that. I think more like 30 minutes or so, though I didn't keep track of the time. I thanked him for the great concert and then I gave him my latest CD AtmoSphere as a present. He was very happy about this I could tell from his reaction and I asked him if he was actually going to listen to it and he promised me that he would do that for sure. So I really hope that he is going to keep this promise that fact alone would be a great honor for me.

Even nicer of course would be to hear back from him, but I don't expect much from that to be honest. But you never know :) When he does I'll surely let you know!! Here you see another picture of him holding my CD. Doesn't this look just great? :) Well after that we chatted about some other stuff, but I can't even remember what. I was in such a rush of adrenaline that I hope I didn't say anything stupid ;) Well it was a big honor for me to finally meet the man that put my to buying my first synthesizer and inspired me to start composing and producing my own music. It will be a long life memory for me for sure.

After that his band members walked in. Here you see a picture of me with Francis Rimbert. I met Francis before on E-live in Eindhoven when my first album was released there. Back then I did give him a copy as well. It was nice that he recognized me immediately and we had a nice chat. I gave him my AtmoSphere album as well and he asked if this was me new one. So he did remember the first one. I was happy to hear. I also heard that they had looked on my website at several occasions. Francis is really a very nice guy and has worked with Jean Michel Jarre for a long time.

Also Dominique Perrier was there. I never met him before. So I introduced myself by saying my name and pointing at the 'Synth.nl' on my T-shirt. His reaction was nice. He recognized it so he probably saw my website as well :) He is not a big talker but we did chat a bit. And I also gave him a CD. So I guess probably one of them will listen to it and hopefully tell the other ones to do the same :) Dominique Perrier has played with Jean Michel Jarre also from the beginning and is the guy that introduced him to the Eminent 310, a Dutch build organ that produces the famous phased string sound on the Oxygene album and is generally seen as the 'typical Jarre sound'.

Well here is another picture of me talking to Jean Michel Jarre to close this report. I had a really great time. And I would like to thank Remy Stroomer for organizing this meeting. Remy is a very good musician himself, but he also distributes the music from Francis Rimbert through his label AKH record. He got in touch with Jarre's Aero Management to set this up. I would also like to thank Michel Voorn from the Dutch Jarre Forum who also helped to organize this meeting. Thanks guys :) I have much more pictures and probably will get more since more people were there with camera's. So let me know if you would like to see the rest too. I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly did :)

19 comments:

Poesboes said...

Weeee!!! Now that's the meeting of a lifetime!!
Nice report Synth.nl!

Cheers,
Poesboes

oxbys@yahoo.co.uk said...

Wow. To chat to him in person must have been awesome. I have seen him in concert twice, he does put on a great show. I am sure you will get good coverage from your meeting. excellent blog. well done! :)

matrix said...

Lucky, lucky man. :)

Sabri said...

Wohaaaa dat doe je goed man... Ik was er graaag bij geweest...

K said...

I think my mouth would have just seized up!

One to talk about to the kids for sure :)

Septic Underground said...

Ha nice synth.nl. i am sure you totally loved this :)

elen said...

wwooohhh! that`s too cool!you must be very happy and I`m a little envious of you;o))))....!

Hogne B. Pettersen said...

Great story. I also got to meet him after the concert in Oslo. You can read about it and see my photos here -> http://www.elfworld.org/vis_dag.php?id=641

Best wishes
-Elf-

Synth.nl said...

Great that you also got to meet him. Nice story as well on your site :) Congratulations! Is the interview available somewhere?

mono-poly said...

Wohaa cool Michel!

Roboter said...

Great report! One day you will play a concert with JMJ I think :o)
Regards

Synth.nl said...

That'll be the day :)

Baldovin said...

O lala!
Good for u Michel to meet JMJ. I think he listened your music. What to do else than listening music?

Besides that is seeing yourself through someone else eyes.

But did u ask him What he thinks about Armin and trence mouvement? Did u? What do you think?

Synth.nl said...

No I did not ask him about Armin. I think Jarre should stay away from Dance music anyway and make a nice vintage sound album for us :) I'd be happy to assist him with that ;)

Baldovin said...

Cm'oooon!
Trance is differnet than Dance. Trance goes many times in spaces, into galaxies like Equinoxe ...

Maybe Armin is not the best example

Synth.nl said...

I'm very sorry. I'm not into all those styles.

Baldovin said...

No need to be Michel. Your music and the one of JMJ is a philosophical one. Listening to it makes one feel that is alone watching the Universe

Dance and other drummy styles are for clubs, for finding mates. Trance is in the middle I guess.

ronaldalusier said...

a little bit jealous if I see your pictures..., great you had to chance to meet JMJ

ronald
spain

DS said...

Jean Michel Jarre is the King of synth music, his live shows are awesome, when he first played UK it was stadiums but he plays a great Arena show too, his concert 2009 in Manchester was just unbelieveable but why does he play indoors? Guess he must have heard about the British weather! To me, only Pink Floyd can put on a similar light/laser show.

My musical dream is to see JJM play a concert at the Humber Bridge, you never know, he might even be your support act!