Equinoxe
	Produced by Jean-Michel Jarre
	Released on December 1978
	UK CHART POSITION #11 . . . US CHART POSITION #126
	Find it at GEMM
PD-1-6175 cover [high resolution photo]

D ining on a desert moon, with the taking of toast and tea, this is the Jarre of space jam I would bring with me. As much as I enjoyed Oxygene (OK, so it didn’t exactly take my breath away), it’s Equinoxe where Jarre settles into his own element. Slices of Tangerine Dream’s creepiness, Vangelis’ romance and Klaus Schulze’s rhythmic re-casting of a seemingly solid foundation are slipped into the sandwich, but the concoction is clearly in the hands of the French composer. His warmth, sense of humor, appreciation for clarity and simplicity all conspire to make Equinoxe his most compelling cosmic ballet. The work is again split into parts, ostensibly following the sun on its course over the planet, witnessed from a remote location in the quiet aether. Pieces of Equinoxe can be counted among the composer’s most memorable moments: kindling his romance with the cosmos on Part 1, the burbling that closes Part 3 and leads the listener into the fascinating world of Part 4, the effusion of energy on Part 5, and the heroic Part 8. Where some of the devices in Oxygene seemed artificial, drawing the listener back down to earth with mundane gimmickry, Equinoxe chooses its effects with efficacy and eloquence: bubbling magma, clouds of loosely aggregated matter skimming by at light speed, and shafts of light piercing an interminable darkness are carefully introduced and cleanly disposed before becoming overexposed. Though Jarre had added a few polyphonic synthesizers to his arsenal since Oxygene, it’s not merely a broader lexicon of sounds but a better grasp of the electronic language that comes to light on Equinoxe. Granted, Equinoxe isn’t a departure from Oxygene’s formula so much as a new-and-improved version of that formula; the pieces are still divided into a rhythmic foundation and a melodic tier on top, and his hallmark humorous interlude appears a little early at the close of Part 7 (this piece was later billed as “The Band in the Rain” when performed for Les Concerts En Chine). Perhaps Equinoxe isn’t a Polaris in the pantheon of luminous space rock epics (a place I’ll accord to Phaedra), but certainly it stands a work of Sirius merit.

PD-1-6175 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. EQUINOXE PART 1    2:15
2. EQUINOXE PART 2    5:10
3. EQUINOXE PART 3    5:35
4. EQUINOXE PART 4    7:30
5. EQUINOXE PART 5    3:50
6. EQUINOXE PART 6    3:30
7. EQUINOXE PART 7    8:10
8. EQUINOXE PART 8    5:00
   
   Composed by Jean-Michel Jarre

CREDITS

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE -- 2600 ARP synthesizer, AKS synthesizer, VCS 3 synthesizer, Yamaha polyphonic synthesizer, Oberheim polyphonic synthesizer, RMI harmonic synthesizer, RMI keyboard computer, ELKA 707, Korg polyphonic ensemble, Eminent, Mellotron, ARP sequencer, Oberheim digital sequencer, Matrisequencer 250, rhythmicomputer, Vocoder E.M.S.
Michael Geiss -- special thanks for his help and development of new instruments
Jean-Pierre Janiaud -- mixing engineer
Michael Granger -- front cover

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