Jean Michel Jarre - A Dream as Long as a Keyboard

We meet the legendary musician from Lyon ahead of his two special Italian concerts in Pompeii and Venice, to hear what they will be like, but also to reflect on current issues such as artificial intelligence, which Jarre will use on stage, and to look back to the earliest synthesizers.

Finally back in Italy again...

Actually, I'd decided to stop for a moment and take some time for myself. I didn't want to do any concerts this year, since I was also working on a project for next year. But when they proposed Pompeii and Venice to me, I couldn't say no, because it was a dream I'd been carrying with me for a long time. So I said, "okay, let's do it, but I won't play a single other concert."

So these will be two truly special live shows.

Exactly, and I really want to create something tailor-made for these two fantastic locations. That's why I'll be using the most technologically advanced tools, precisely to try to shape a different kind of sound.

After all, Pompeii and Venice were also both historic stops for Pink Floyd.

They really are two places I've dreamed of, like the pyramids or so many other evocative places I've performed. Pompeii is also a pure example of immersive architecture, where everything was designed in 360 degrees back in Roman times. Playing today with sounds and visual technologies that are themselves immersive means paying homage to this extraordinary place. You also have to consider that in the middle of the amphitheatre at Pompeii, a person can be heard perfectly from every direction. In a way, it's a sort of ancient architectural version of Dolby Atmos. So my goal will be to celebrate the Pompeian acoustic engineers and technicians who created this architectural work. What they did was an absolutely revolutionary and visionary act.

In what way?

The best way to honour them is through today's innovation, and to use it to create a link with the innovative spirit of that particular past. Certainly, the Pink Floyd concert at Pompeii was a great source of inspiration. I also love the idea of "hijacking" a piece of architecture like that for a moment. I certainly won't get a second chance. I know I'll only do this once. It's not like a tour or a city where you can perform for a week. When Pink Floyd played at Pompeii, they also conceived a project that was completely outside the box. No one can compare to what Pink Floyd did. But I hope to get excited about a completely different aspect, trying to match in my own way that kind of originality and freshness that Pink Floyd brought to Pompeii in their own way.

What's your relationship with Italy?

Italy has always been a source of inspiration for me and it's particularly dear to me because electronic music was born here. People mistakenly think it might have blues, jazz and rock roots, but in fact it all began in Italy, to be precise in 1913 thanks to the composer Luigi Russolo, who laid the foundations for what would become the music of the 21st century, which isn't made up only of notes, but of sounds and noises, the very same ones that have become something like the grammar of contemporary music.

Is artificial intelligence just a new "rib" of humankind built to serve us, or an "organism" with infinite possibilities?

You could ask me the same thing about the violin. Because the violin also has infinite possibilities, but at the same time it's equally very limited. It all depends on what you do with it. We need to understand that technology is neutral, and so artificial intelligence is neutral too. What matters is how you use it. AI isn't a threat at all. The people who use this new technology could be a threat. Just as nuclear fission or electricity aren't a threat, but the people who use them in a certain way could be.

So, no danger then…

For me, artificial intelligence is just a new tool, and it's actually expanding the boundaries of my imagination. That's why I'll try to share that expansion with the Italian audience at the concerts in Pompeii and Venice, as well as at the Venice Architecture Biennale with the installation Oxyville (from 10 May to 23 November, ed.) and at the Meet Digital Culture Center in Milan for my first exhibition of visual works, Promptitude (from 12 June to 7 September, ed.). Someone called it a "Total Work of Art", and I really like that definition. Obviously it involves AI and how to use it nowadays, that is, not in a cold, robotic way, but in a poetic one. The same will go for the staging in Pompeii and Venice, which will be as poetic as possible. It all depends on what I ask AI to do. Just like what I ask of a piano or synthesizers. And I find that truly exciting. We humans should never be afraid of technology.

Why?

Well, we can't stop AI. So the best way to deal with it is to embrace it, to accept it as soon as possible. Then we can certainly explore it, make the most of it, and finally fight its negative effects. And we can only do that if we understand what it actually is.

Stepping outside the planet for a moment, which album from your discography would you play for an alien?

I'd tell them to listen to the live recordings of the Pompeii and San Marco concerts. Because in truth every artist keeps chasing the ideal music at an equally ideal moment. That's why I keep going, and why I'm here now, because I'm not very satisfied with what I did before. And that's true for so many other musicians too. We're all chasing that impossible mirage, we do it to reach a kind of musical magic. And I hope to keep getting closer and closer to that possibility, and that's exactly what I would share now with an alien audience.

You've explored the most uncharted corners of electronic music, contributing to the evolution of sound. And you've played everywhere. But how much remains today of the boy who used to lean out on the balcony at home to watch circus bands go by, or of the guitarist from rock bands like Mystère IV and Dustbins?

I hope I've stayed intact after all these years. I think the further I go, the more I realise I've always had the age I have now. I'm not talking about health or time, I mean what I feel, my emotions, my curiosity — in that sense I feel the same as when I played with Dustbins, that is, full of hope, though maybe just a bit more nervous about what will happen next, but still facing every project with the same curiosity and freshness as back then.

From "Oxygene" to "Equinoxe" all the way to "Oxymoreworks", you've used countless synthesizers. Is there one you love more than the others?Certainly. It's my first synthesizer, the Ems Putney VCS3. It's British-designed, and I bought it at the end of the 1960s. It still works and I use it for every project. It'll be with me on stage in Venice and Pompeii.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google