JARRE, JEAN MICHEL
146186
CD
SESSIONS 2000
CLASSIC (SYNTH)Wow – when we heard this for the first time we couldn’t quite believe it – This really is different, different for Jarre, or indeed different for any ‘Synth’ musician! ‘Sessions 2000’ is great - Absolutely brilliant if fact, but it introduces a totally new approach to making ‘Electronic Music’ that we found totally fascinating. A more wholly relaxed forty-three minutes of full-sounding cosmic ambience with a slight jazz tinge would be hard to find. Its feel is so chilled and relaxed, you’ll maybe find it hard to believe it’s Jarre, but that said, it has to be his best (and most different) album in ages, of maybe even the best album that Pete Namlook didn’t make!
This really was an initial impression, and what an impression it made! There was no pre-awareness, no quick run-through first – this was how I heard it on that very first play… On the basis of the first track alone, this could well be one stunning album. If I’d shut my eyes, I might well have thought I was listening to a Pete Namlook track, as the opening passage of spacey synths gels elegantly with deep resonant bass textures and some odd little twittering synth sounds. As the flow moves into the third minute, a lilting piano joins even deeper acoustic bass and the piece is into sensuous territory with an emotive feel that is both dark and melodic at the same time - All very slow and jazzy, yet so warm and inviting. The Namlook influence is even stronger on the 2nd track, with it’s wondrous mix of string synths, chunky but slowly flowing chilled rhythms, gorgeous jazzy trumpet (is it real though?) and the ambience is just out of this world. The Mellotron sytle cello sounds that emerges half way through is a little passage of pure genius, and then the addition of the sparse, yet sparkling synth textures just adds more colour and ambience all around. Then, out of nowhere, comes a bottleneck slide guitar and even firmer chunkier rhythms, over the soaring, swooping and swooshing string/space backdrop, creating a mix of blues-jazz-synth that is utterly unique and completely compelling – This is beautiful, and even more adventurous in its own way than anything Namlook’s created in this avenue of music. Track 3 (it’s easier to say this, because all 6 tracks names are just dates) has a gorgeous, languid quality to it with keyboards, piano, cascading space sounds and more, all creating a deep, warm, flowing musical environment that lingers and drifts stylishly up to track 4. From there it continues the jazz-ambient-synth mix, this time with an old-style Hammond organ sound accompanying what sounds like a muted trumpet, as the ever present string-synths flow in relaxed and atmospheric fashion throughout, with more thudding, slow, chunky rhythms appearing along the way. For the near ten-minute track 5, it’s the turn of xylophone, piano, brushed drums, resonant acoustic bass and synths to weave that old black magic, while the final track, at over eight minutes long, takes us out on a delicate sea of strings, distant echoed piano, swirling electronics and deep acoustic bass, with melodies that are just hinted at, plus gorgeous, stirring atmospherics.
Weight: 150.00 g
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