The living room Paris Audio Video Show* which is held on weekends in Paris could not have dreamed of a better sponsor. Jean-Michel Jarre, who is releasing his twenty-second album this week, will be there** to unveil Oxymoron. This is the very first album entirely thought out, designed and developed in immersive sound, in Dolby Atmos, at 360°. The musician takes the opportunity to invest the metaverse and its virtual worlds where he has created Oxyvillean imaginary place in which he will perform simultaneously with his next physical concerts, probably in 2023. He explains this exclusively for 20 minutes.
You are a sponsor of the Paris Audio Video Show. What motivates you in this gathering of builders?
This show is turning this year towards immersive sound, with technologies, such as Dolby Atmos, first developed for the cinema. I’m releasing a rather special album, which is called Oxymoron (SonyMusic). It is precisely the first that is really designed and composed at 360°, in immersive sound, whereas most current creations are made in stereo, then mixed in Dolby Atmos, in binaural sound or spatialized. Today, we can really be “in the music”! It’s like entering the canvas, going from painting to sculpture for the musician.
Is this the development you were hoping for?
It’s something I’ve worked on a lot over time, yes. Even at the time of my album Oxygen, I tried to broaden the stereo as much as possible and therefore the notion of the relationship between music and space. Now the tools are there.
Is 360° sound the future of music?
We can listen Oxymoron with a standard helmet at 100 euros and his smartphone. And with very good results. But that presupposes that you have to write the music accordingly. And I absolutely do not believe in the current trend of majors who say to themselves “we are going to repeat the trick from vinyl to CD, and sell the same music with a different technique”. I don’t see the point of listening to Frank Sinatra in 360°. There will be exceptions. But that’s like trying to colorize black and white movies. Might as well leave them in black and white.
The metaverse that greatly influenced Oxymoron is it worrying or exciting?
All techno requires reflection on ethics, regulations, intellectual property, but it’s very, very interesting! The first virtual element remains the book. With the metaverse, we project ourselves with our digital twin. This is a godsend for creators who will invent parallel worlds. It’s time to understand that the metaverse is a mode of expression in itself, like the emergence of cinema with the Lumière Brothers, and people moving around on a screen.
The metaverse also has a social dimension with sharing: geographically isolated people can connect and share an exhibition, a play, a concert. So yes, the Metaverse is indeed a godsend! I think artists, young artists, and young creators are very lucky to experience this disruptive moment.
What is your ideal equipment today?
He can have different faces. I have mid-range KEF speakers which I really like. Bluetooth speakers have come a long way. You can listen to music in very good conditions with files in lossless (uncompressed) on Apple Music, Qobuz or Tidal. Switching from MP3 to AAC, which is borderline higher than CD quality, is easy. And then there are headphones, a world where there is food and drink!
Are you more of a true wireless headset or earphone?
To mix, to work, I prefer wired headphones that avoid any latency. But I also really like Bluetooth headsets, or earphones, like Apple’s AirPods Pro, or Bose’s EarBuds, which I think are the best on the market. I’m a bit less of a fan of the AirPod Max headset which pumps out too much bass and is a little too heavy.
Staying avant-garde in music, what does it mean in 2022?
It’s not asking the question. Being your own filter, bringing the specificities of what you do. Whatever the technology, what matters is the result. Technology allows us to reinvent ourselves and better say what we want to express. Advice for beginners: choose a technology and stick to it for six months to a year, without being stunned by the laws of the market! And through this technology, to extirpate what we have deep inside. Ultimately, that’s what makes an artist unique.
Are analog synthesizers still part of your panoply?
Of course ! Nothing replaces anything. A violin remains a violin permanently. These synthesizers have a different color, leg, way of sounding and interface. We don’t do the same thing with them, as with software and a mouse. We react to touch, to touch.
The eternal return of vinyl, a lasting phenomenon?
Yes, it is permanent. We are animals of flesh and blood. Do you know that more than 30% of vinyls are bought without being listened to? The reason ? We listen to music at the same time streaming, but that makes her abstract and disembodied. We need tangible, tactile, organic!
Are Jean-Michel Jarre’s mega-concerts a thing of the past?
With the Covid, we have changed the paradigm. The stadiums remain indoor concerts, in an enclosed space. Very large concerts outside, for security or ecological reasons, are not in the news. That doesn’t mean I won’t make it again. In the meantime, I’m interested in exploring these concerts in immersive sound in the metaverse, where I created Oxyville, an imaginary city. We will be able to attend, I hope in 2023, concerts that I will give at the same time in the real world.
* November 5 and 6, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Congress Palace de Paris, 2, place de la porte Maillot 75017 Paris.
** November 5 and 6, afternoon.