King of mega-concerts, finally, tours America

New York: Electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, who has performed some of history’s largest concerts over a four-decade career, is finally touring the United States. And he at last feels at home.

The French artist, who sees music as a form of “emotional counterforce” in a turbulent era, plays on Saturday at Radio City Music Hall in his first full-fledged concert in New York.

He recalls fantasising about playing at the venue from his first trip to New York.

But he traces a reluctance towards the United States to his father, Maurice Jarre, a giant of Hollywood music who scored music for classic films like Lawrence of Arabia.

“I had a difficult relationship with my father,” said Jarre. Jarre’s father split with his mother when he was a child, the youthful 68-year-old told AFP in New York.

“He lived in the United States for 60 years, in Los Angeles, and it was difficult for me to go to California because I always thought it was my father’s territory,” he said.

“Probably psychologically this is the real reason why I didn’t tour here early.”

With his father’s death in 2009, that issue is gone. Jarre closes his North America tour in Los Angeles on May 27.

“I have the feeling that coming here is a continuation of what he was doing,” Jarre said.

“I feel, in a strange way, a bit at home now,” he added.

Jarre, who was the first Western musician in China after the Cultural Revolution, had played only one previous concert in North America — a massive city-wide light and music show in Houston in 1986 to celebrate the NASA space programme and the state of Texas.

Emotional balance through music
A committed pro-European and critic of President Donald Trump, Jarre, whose 1976 album “Oxygene” was a defining work in electronic music, believes that music “can bring a sort of oxygen, no pun intended, and serve as an emotional counterforce”.

On his recent two-volume “Electronica” series of collaborations, Jarre recorded a track with US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden whom he credits with opening a welcome debate on technology’s role in society.

“It’s very important, at this moment that the United States is going through an identity crisis, to remember that this country was founded on an act of resistance that was considered treason at the time by the king,” Jarre said.

“Traitors one day could become heroes the next and people like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are part of a counterforce that is important to protect,” he said.

Jarre celebrated the election of the young centrist Emmanuel Macron as French president, saying “We can for once be proud of France.”

“We got it right — and not extreme right,” he said with a chuckle.

Jarre said he could hear the subconscious effect of the November 2015 attacks in Paris on “Oxygene 3,” the third part of his trilogy which he released last year, as he noticed “chaotic interruptions” when he listened back.

“We all had the feeling in Paris, in France, that you go outside and anything can happen. You can meet the love of your life at the corner of your street, but you can also die from terrorism,” he said.

“It’s not like being in a kind of war atmosphere all the time. It’s the reverse — it’s like peace, but suddenly you have just an element of chaos happening.”

Ready for AI ‘revolution’
Four decades into Jarre’s career, electronic music — particularly pop-driven dance music — tops charts and festival lineups.

The mainstreaming of electronica is no surprise to Jarre, who said he always knew that electronic music “wasn’t a genre in itself, but another approach to musical composition.”

Looking ahead, Jarre said the future was artificial intelligence. He dismissed the dangers, recalling that before the advent of train travel some feared that riding at fast speeds would blow up passengers’ hearts.

“I think the great revolution is ahead of us,” he said.

“The moment will come in a generation or two, and I don’t think we need to be afraid, when machines or robots are capable of creating music, films, stories and books. And our role will need to be rethought.”