Jean Michel Jarre, Sessions 2000

23 November 2002

The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century.

The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century. Recorded for Parisian label Disques Dreyfus, it's far removed from the  shiny synth classics Oxygene and Equinox that soundtracked a thousand 80s nature documentaries. The album is laced with acoustic instruments (a mix of live playing and samples) placed over a backdrop of seamless ambient electronics and soft trip hop grooves, with chilled jazzy undertones throughout.

Sessions 2000 contains 6 tracks recorded by Jarre and long term collaborator Francis Rimbert, each one named after a specific day of the year. The album opens with ''January 24th'' with a soundscape of bubbling, piano scaling and fake double bass plucking that places you in the midst of a passing rainstorm.

By ''March 23rd'', I was surprisingly mesmerised and really loving the dispersed hail of acoustic trumpeting sprayed over a lazily swaying groove, although I felt this track slightly outstayed its welcome; after 8 minutes of losing myself in the long spring grass I emerged feeling slightly hazy and unbalanced.

''May 1st'' has to be by far Jarre's finest day of the year (unfortunately the shortest track on the album) with a soft pulsing backdrop underpinning a stunning piano acoustic throughout, while the album tails off with the much more subdued end of year offering that is ''December 17th''.

The whole album left me feeling unbelievably serene, standing on the station platform in rush hour listening through headphones I felt so unusually calm and composed.  It is the perfect remedy for dismissing the chaos around you, although if you need the ability to concentrate throughout your day then I suggest you file this album under the 'purely for lounge listening' category.

Reviewer: Lorna Palmer

        

Jean Michel Jarre Sessions 2000

 
Jean Michel Jarre Sessions 2000
BBC Review

Lorna Palmer 2002-11-20

The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century.Recorded for Parisian label Disques Dreyfus,it's far removed from the shiny synth classics Oxygene and Equinox that soundtracked a thousand 80s nature documentaries. The album is laced with acoustic instruments (a mix of live playing and samples) placed over a backdrop of seamless ambient electronics and soft trip hop grooves, with chilled jazzy undertones throughout.

Sessions 2000 contains 6 tracks recorded by Jarre and long term collaborator Francis Rimbert, each one named after a specific day of the year.The album opens with ''January 24th''with a soundscape of bubbling, piano scaling and fake double bass plucking that places you in the midst of a passing rainstorm.

By ''March 23rd'', I was surprisingly mesmerised and really loving the dispersed hail of acoustic trumpeting sprayed over a lazily swaying groove, although I felt this track slightly outstayed its welcome; after 8 minutes of losing myself in the long spring grass I emerged feeling slightly hazy and unbalanced.

''May 1st'' has to be by far Jarre's finest day of the year (unfortunately the shortest track on the album) with a soft pulsing backdrop underpinning a stunning piano acoustic throughout, while the album tails off with the much more subdued end of year offering that is ''December 17th''.

The whole album left me feeling unbelievably serene, standing on the station platform in rush hour listening through headphones I felt so unusually calm and composed. It is the perfect remedy for dismissing the chaos around you, although if you need the ability to concentrate throughout your day then I suggest you file this album under the 'purely for lounge listening' category.

• Composed by Jean Michel Jarre
• Produced by Jean Michel Jarre
• Programmed by Jean Michel Jarre and Francis Rimbert

Tracks

      1 January 24
      2 March 23
      3 May 1
      4 June 21
      5 September 14
      6 December 17

Released	November 2002 January 7, 2003
Recorded	2000–2002
Genre	Electronica, jazz, lounge, ambient, minimalist, experimental
Length	42:50

   

Playlist Sessions 2000 - Videos :


  

Jean Michel Jarre - December 17

Wind and music have something in common.
They are both invisible.
And sometimes by only moving your hands, it will wind.
You can create sounds... sounds... You can create sounds...
- Jean Michel Jarre, "AERO"-concert, 7 september 2002


      

Jean Michel Jarre - September 14

            

Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is unclear what these particular dates represent. Some synthesizer workstations, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80, were heavily used. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

Track listing

"January 24" -- 5:57
"March 23" -- 8:02
"May 1" -- 4:49 "June 21" -- 6:18
"September 14" -- 9:30
"December 17" -- 8:11

Sessions 2000 - Disques Dreyfus flash promo - video

Jean Michel Jarre, Sessions 2000
(Disques Dreyfus)

"The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century."

Jean Michel Jarre

The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century. Recorded for Parisian label Disques Dreyfus, it's far removed from the shiny synth classics Oxygene and Equinox that soundtracked a thousand 80s nature documentaries. The album is laced with acoustic instruments (a mix of live playing and samples) placed over a backdrop of seamless ambient electronics and soft trip hop grooves, with chilled jazzy undertones throughout.

Sessions 2000 contains 6 tracks recorded by Jarre and long term collaborator Francis Rimbert, each one named after a specific day of the year. The album opens with ''January 24th'' with a soundscape of bubbling, piano scaling and fake double bass plucking that places you in the midst of a passing rainstorm.

By ''March 23rd'', I was surprisingly mesmerised and really loving the dispersed hail of acoustic trumpeting sprayed over a lazily swaying groove, although I felt this track slightly outstayed its welcome; after 8 minutes of losing myself in the long spring grass I emerged feeling slightly hazy and unbalanced.

''May 1st'' has to be by far Jarre's finest day of the year (unfortunately the shortest track on the album) with a soft pulsing backdrop underpinning a stunning piano acoustic throughout, while the album tails off with the much more subdued end of year offering that is ''December 17th''.

The whole album left me feeling unbelievably serene, standing on the station platform in rush hour listening through headphones I felt so unusually calm and composed. It is the perfect remedy for dismissing the chaos around you, although if you need the ability to concentrate throughout your day then I suggest you file this album under the 'purely for lounge listening' category.

Reviewer: Lorna Palmer

Stretch Your Ears: Jean Michel Jarre, Nordic Exposure, Instant Vintage

By Phil Johnson

22 November 2002

As one of the giants of electronica's prehistoric past, Jean Michel Jarre might be expected to have all the contemporary relevance of a dinosaur, or Rick Wakemen on ice. After all, there's nothing quite as sad as an old futurist whose time never came. Irredeemably stigmatised by the use of his music in early Eighties science documentaries, and since then apparently attracted only by projects involving both fireworks and the population of China, Jarre – whose vision of a clean, compliant, future never quite happened – should probably have retired to a lucrative senescence on his own private island.
Instead, he's made a new, relatively lo-fi album for an independent jazz label. Sessions 2000 (Disques Dreyfus) is pretty good, too, showing that Jarre has lost none of his synthesiser-chops. Certainly, one of the album's most notable characteristics is the way in which real instruments such as acoustic bass, trumpet and National Steel guitar are digitally reworked though sampling to produce very real-sounding effects, as in the opening track's bass solo.

According to the credits, all the music is produced either by Jarre himself or by Francis Rimbert; alternatively, Jarre could just not be telling us who the session-men for Sessions 2000 are.
Essentially, this is Jarre's millennial chill-out album, a form you could argue he more or less invented avant la lettre. As such, it's best when it most fulfils this functional brief, like the down-tempo grooves heard on the third and fourth tracks (all of which bear dates – presumably of composition – as titles). Here, the listener's experience is akin to audio-snorkelling through an ocean of sound, with the music forming a beautiful, Jacques Cousteau-like, panorama of liquid life.

Throughout all the tracks, sundry bleebs, burbles and industrial-gobbets of noise nibble away at one's periphery of hearing, bringing to mind the dirty future of Blade Runner rather than the clean one of "Oxygène". Well done. We await Rick Wakeman's riposte with interest.

Just how colloquial-sounding electronic pop has become since the days of Jarre's more grandiose musical statements can be judged by two other new releases. Nordic Exposure (Quango) comes lumbered with the cumbersome and frankly off-putting subtitle of A Global Journey Into Scandinavian Nu-Jazz, but don't let that deter you; as compilations go, it's a very superior product. The contributions by Royksopp and Koop may already be familiar, but it's the obscure tracks that really impress, such as "Trying" by Nu Spirit Helsinki, and "Kerma Elastica" by the Bobby Hughes Combination.

All the constituent parts mix together well, while the whole thing carries the same excitement one once felt with old Gilles Peterson soul-jazz protégés, Young Disciples.
There's a similar excitement to much of Instant Vintage (Universal/ Island) by Raphael Saadiq, whose past credits as a member of Lucy Pearl and Tony! Toni! Toné! are summarised on the opening track. Using string and horn arrangements that have been recorded on to vinyl and then scratched back into the mix, Saadiq has found a mid-point between Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg, even reusing one of Dr Dre's most famous samples. Whether Jean Michel Jarre would recognise it as electronic music is a moot point, but Saadiq proves that there really is a soul, if not a ghost, in the machine.

 

Vitaminic review

New Music Now Review

The latest album, Sessions 2000, from the French master of the synthesizer – Jean-Michel Jarre - comes as a refreshing surprise. It is extraordinarily of our time, combining strong jazz lines with atmospheric, synth generated sound scapes.

This album, recorded for Disques Dreyfus, features acoustic instruments against a backdrop of large-scale ambient electronic sounds. From the opening track with it’s focus on a superb jazz bass solo, there are plenty of tracks which would sit comfortably amongst recent releases by musicians considerably younger than Jarre– think Njls Peter Molvaer, William Parker or Matthew Shipp.

Conceived as a chill out album, Sessions 2000 sets out to be a trip through the last year of the 20th Century. It is a well conceived album which carries through it’s theme of a ‘Carnet de Voyage’ to create a cohesive musical journey.

(p) & Š 2002 Disques Dreyfus Records

Music Classic Rock/Pop

Jean Michel Jarre, Sessions 2000 (Disques Dreyfus) "The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century."               The latest offering by the master of the synthesiser, Jean Michel Jarre, aims to take you on a journey through the final year of the 20th century. Recorded for Parisian label Disques Dreyfus, it's far removed from the  shiny synth classics Oxygene and Equinox that soundtracked a thousand 80s nature documentaries. The album is laced with acoustic instruments (a mix of live playing and samples) placed over a backdrop of seamless ambient electronics and soft trip hop grooves, with chilled jazzy undertones throughout. Sessions 2000 contains 6 tracks recorded by Jarre and long term collaborator Francis Rimbert, each one named after a specific day of the year. The album opens with ''January 24th'' with a soundscape of bubbling, piano scaling and fake double bass plucking that places you in the midst of a passing rainstorm. By ''March 23rd'', I was surprisingly mesmerised and really loving the dispersed hail of acoustic trumpeting sprayed over a lazily swaying groove, although I felt this track slightly outstayed its welcome; after 8 minutes of losing myself in the long spring grass I emerged feeling slightly hazy and unbalanced. ''May 1st'' has to be by far Jarre's finest day of the year (unfortunately the shortest track on the album) with a soft pulsing backdrop underpinning a stunning piano acoustic throughout, while the album tails off with the much more subdued end of year offering that is ''December 17th''. The whole album left me feeling unbelievably serene, standing on the station platform in rush hour listening through headphones I felt so unusually calm and composed.  It is the perfect remedy for dismissing the chaos around you, although if you need the ability to concentrate throughout your day then I suggest you file this album under the 'purely for lounge listening' category. Reviewer: Lorna Palmer

Un album de Jean-Michel Jarre publié sans son accord

PARIS (AFP), le 19-11-2002
Un album inédit de Jean-Michel Jarre, "Sessions 2000", enregistré en studio par l'artiste "comme un carnet de route" au cours de l'année 2000, a été publié fin octobre par les disques Dreyfus sans l'accord total de l'artiste.

Un différend oppose en effet le compositeur et musicien français à la société Francis Dreyfus Music sur les modalités de cette sortie, tant en ce qui concerne le calendrier que les pays concernés.

Interrogé par l'AFP, le secrétariat de Jean-Michel Jarre a indiqué mardi que l'artiste ne donne pas suite "pour le moment" aux demandes d'interviews. "L'aspect artistique n'est pas en cause", a-t-on précisé cependant.

"La maison de disques Francis Dreyfus Music et son distributeur Sony prennent acte de l'attitude de Jean-Michel Jarre par rapport à +++ Sessions 2000 +++. Francis Dreyfus Music ne peut que s'étonner de cette réaction", a indiqué à l'AFP la maison de disques.

Jean-Michel Jarre est le producteur de ses spectacles et albums. Depuis 1973, Francis Dreyfus dirige la maison de disques qui distribue les enregistrements du créateur d'"Oxygène".

"Sessions 2000" réunit six morceaux inédits de style jazz-électro qui tranchent avec le répertoire habituel de Jean-Michel Jarre. Francis Rimbert, le fidèle partenaire artistique de Jean-Michel Jarre, a été associé à ce travail de studio.

Du 24 janvier au 17 décembre 2000, Jean-Michel Jarre s'est mis aux claviers. Chacun des six morceaux dont certains font appel aux cuivres et au chant, porte comme titre la date de sa création.

Francis Dreyfus Music présente "Sessions 2000" comme une "odyssée musicale". "A la croisée des chemins, le compositeur a décidé de tenir son carnet de croquis à la manière d'un peintre en vadrouille. Ces six compositions constituent une nouvelle symphonie pour un nouveau monde que nous livre le pionnier de la musique électro-acoustique", ajoute la maison de disques.

Jean Michel Jarre - June 21

           

Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is unclear what these particular dates represent. Some synthesizer workstations, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80, were heavily used. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

Track listing

"January 24" -- 5:57
"March 23" -- 8:02
"May 1" -- 4:49
"June 21" -- 6:18
"September 14" -- 9:30
"December 17" -- 8:11

Jean Michel Jarre - May 1 - For all my wonderful Friends and Subscribers!

 

THANKS everybody for your opinions! Thanks for all great support! Best regards!!!

Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Sessions 2000, Jean-Michel Jarre's first Stateside release after a maddening drought, is essentially a year in the life of the mind of the master who wowed the world with his seminal "Oxygene" suite in 1976. Jazzier than early fans would probably expect, but as interesting as he's always been, Jarre's six-track view of a year is energetic, invigorating, and after-dinner-drink smooth.

Eschewing song titles for a deceptively simpler system of dates, Jarre has both taken away outside meaning from each song, but has also imbued each one with the sensory synapse each season brings. So, then, "January 24" is shot through with the ambience of ice and wind, becoming a chilled "Auld Lang Syne" of sorts, leaving "March 23" to open up sunnier vibes with jazz trumpet and down beat synths. And it just goes on from there across the rest of the year, as "May 1" gives way to the sleepy vibe of midsummer's "June 21," before "December 17" eventually comes round full circle to connect the end to the beginning. The use of breaks and spaces to define moments of sound and moments in time are things we've come to expect from Jarre, and Sessions 2000 is no exception; his formula is refreshed here with some surprising musical twists and turns, including a pedal steel guitar.

Jarre is, for most, an acquired taste, so those not accustomed to the musician's musings, or not in love with instrumental experiments in melodic fusion probably won't get it -- at all. But that's fine, because that just leaves more glee for the rest of us.


Track listing:

1. "January 24" -- 5:57
2. "March 23" -- 8:02
3. "May 1" -- 4:49
4. "June 21" -- 6:18
5. "September 14" -- 9:30
6. "December 17" -- 8:11

Jean Michel Jarre - March 23

          
Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is unclear what these particular dates represent. Some synthesizer workstations, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80, were heavily used. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

Track listing

"January 24" -- 5:57
"March 23" -- 8:02
"May 1" -- 4:49
"June 21" -- 6:18
"September 14" -- 9:30
"December 17" -- 8:11

Sessions 2000 - Full Album

     

                             Sessions 2000

Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is unclear what these particular dates represent. Some synthesizer workstations, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80, were heavily used. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

Track listing

"January 24" -- 5:57
"March 23" -- 8:02
"May 1" -- 4:49
"June 21" -- 6:18
"September 14" -- 9:30
"December 17" -- 8:11

Jean Michel Jarre - September 14

 Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is not clear what these dates represent. Some modern synthesizer workstations were heavily used, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

The CD does not come with an actual booklet. The album cover is just printed on cardboard, with the track listing and credits on the back side.


Track listing:

1. "January 24" -- 5:57
2. "March 23" -- 8:02
3. "May 1" -- 4:49
4. "June 21" -- 6:18
5. "September 14" -- 9:30
6. "December 17" -- 8:11

Ｊｅａｎ Ｍｉｃｈｅｌ Ｊａｒｒｅ - January 24

Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album.

The album was partly created so he could be free from his contract with Sony Music. Therefore it is not so commercially minded. The style is ambient, lounge, chill-out and jazz and the recordings are made from jam sessions. After 2000's Métamorphoses, Jarre somewhat returned to his usual formula with this album, with it consisting of six long, instrumental tracks (like Oxygène), although this time there are short breaks between the tracks, and the track titles are different dates spread over a year (presumably the year 2000, given the album's title), instead of the tracks being indicated as "parts". It is unclear what these particular dates represent. Some synthesizer workstations, most notably the Korg Triton and the Roland XP-80, were heavily used. Some of the sounds in this album were used earlier on Interior Music released in 2001.

Track listing

"January 24" -- 5 :57
"March 23" -- 8 :02
"May 1" -- 4 :49
"June 21" -- 6 :18
"September 14" -- 9 :30
"December 17" -- 8 :11