Water for Life

Last updated

"Water for Life" was a concert given by French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre on the night of December 16, 2006 amidst the dunes of the Sahara desert at Merzouga, Morocco. The concert was held under the auspice of UNESCO as 2006 had been designated the International Year of Deserts and Desertification by the United Nations General Assembly.

Contents

The free 2h25m concert, sponsored by the Kingdom of Morocco, was attended by an estimated 10-15,000 spectators. It was filmed in high-definition TV and broadcast live by the public Moroccan TV station (channels RTM1 and TVM International) and by Almaghribya TV. A one-hour edit was produced for sale to TV stations.

A souvenir 172-page hardback book entitled "The Making of Water for Life" was published in 2007 which documented how the concert was staged in detail. [1]

Stage

The stage featured a collection of nine 4-by-10-metre vertical screens (similar to those in the 1993 Europe in Concert tour), described as "doors to the desert". On them were projected images - static and animated -, as in a typical Jarre concert. Behind the stage, the desert dunes were lit, and fireworks were shot behind and around the stage.

Two general rehearsals were held, on the previous night and on the evening of the day of the concert, complete with fireworks. Like Jarre's previous concert, Space of Freedom, they were filmed to get additional coverage for a post-live edit; the rehearsals were also filmed to prevent any bad weather during the live concert preventing its release on video, as had happened before with The Twelve Dreams of the Sun (1999–2000) and Aero - Tribute to the Wind (2002).

During rehearsals, a balloon with an internal projector was placed on center stage, but it did not appear in the concert itself.

Track listing

  1. "Intro Saturée" - 3'50
  2. "Suite for Flute"
  3. "Oxygene 2"
  4. "Miss Moon"
  5. "Oxygene 7"
  6. "Space of Freedom" (originally "March 23")
  7. "Chronologie 6"
  8. "Millions of Stars"
  9. "Oxygene 4"
  10. "Education" (originally "Revolution, Revolutions", with new lyrics)
  11. "Gagarin" (originally Hey Gagarin)
  12. "Light My Sky" (originally "Tout Est Bleu", with new lyrics)
  13. "Oxygene 12"
  14. "Chronologie 2"
  15. "C'est la Vie"
  16. "Theremin Memories"
  17. "Souvenir of China"
  18. "UNESCO Theme" (originally "Eldorado")
  19. "Rendez-Vous 4"
  20. "Rendez-Vous 2"

"Intro Saturée" was premiered at this concert, loosely based on "Melancholic Rodeo", a track from his then forthcoming Téo & Téa album. Of all the retitled tracks and new lyrics (from their original recordings), only the lyrics for "Education" were premiered at this concert. "Suite for Flute" had been previously performed as the intro of "Oxygene 2".

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Michel Jarre</span> French composer, performer and record producer (born 1948)

Jean-Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays, large projections and fireworks.

<i>Oxygène</i> 1976 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Oxygène is the third studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre. It was first released in France in December 1976 by Disques Motors, and distributed internationally in 1977 by Polydor Records. Jarre recorded the album in a makeshift studio that he set up in his apartment in Paris, using a variety of analog and digital synthesizers, and other electronic instruments and effects.

<i>Équinoxe</i> 1978 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Équinoxe is the fourth studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released in December 1978 on the Dreyfus record label, licensed to Polydor Records for its worldwide distribution in 1979. The album featured two singles: "Équinoxe Part 4" and "Équinoxe Part 5", the latter having more success reaching No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart. It reached number 11 on the UK Album Chart and number 126 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

<i>Oxygène 7–13</i> 1997 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Oxygène 7–13 is the twelfth studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released by Disques Dreyfus on 17 February 1997. It is the sequel to his 1976 album Oxygène released two decades before and used the same synthesizers. The album is dedicated to Jarre's former mentor, experimental musician Pierre Schaeffer. The album cover art was created by long-time collaborator Michel Granger. The CD cover used lenticular printing to make the illusion of moving stars in the background.

<i>Rendez-vous Houston</i>

Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert was a live performance by musician Jean Michel Jarre amidst the skyscrapers of downtown Houston on the evening of April 5, 1986, coinciding with the release of the Rendez-Vous album. The concert celebrated the 150th anniversary of Houston, Texas and NASA's 25th anniversary. For a period of time, it held a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest outdoor "rock concert" in history, with a estimated of 1.5 million in attendance is the second entry of Jarre in the book. Rendez-vous Houston also celebrated the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which had happened only two and a half months earlier. One of Jarre's friends, astronaut Ron McNair, had been killed in the disaster. Ron was originally going to play the saxophone from space during the track "Last Rendez-Vous"; his substitute for the concert was Houston native Kirk Whalum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris La Défense – Une Ville En Concert</span> 1990 concert by Jean-Michel Jarre

Paris La Défense – Une Ville En Concert was a concert held by musician Jean-Michel Jarre on the district of La Défense in Paris on Bastille Day, 14 July, 1990. About 2.5 million people standing in front of the pyramidal stage all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe witnessed this event, setting a new Guinness Book of Records entry for Jarre. The concert was funded by the Mairie de Paris, the Ministry of Culture and a small cluster of high-profile Parisian business concerns. Later, a concert video as well as a photobook of the event were released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Destination Docklands</span> 1988 Jean-Michel Jarre concerts in London

Destination Docklands was an event consisting of two concerts by musician Jean-Michel Jarre on the Royal Victoria Docks, Docklands, London, on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 October 1988, to coincide with the release of Jarre's new album Revolutions. The concerts were attended by 100,000 people on each night.

<i>Rendez-Vous</i> (Jean-Michel Jarre album) 1986 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Rendez-vous is the eighth studio album by electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre released on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor, in 1986. The album art was created by long-time collaborator Michel Granger.

<i>Chronologie</i> 1993 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Chronologie is the eleventh studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, and was released on Disques Dreyfus with license to Polydor in 1993. Chronologie peaked at Number 11 in the UK charts and the album cover art was created by long-time collaborator Michel Granger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space of Freedom</span> 2005 concert by Jean Michel Jarre in Poland

Space of Freedom was a concert performed by French musician Jean Michel Jarre in Poland, at the Gdańsk Shipyard, on August 26, 2005, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity trade union's foundation. Jarre was invited by Lech Wałęsa to hold this concert, which was watched by an audience of more than 170,000 people who bought tickets, as well as many others who observed the event from outside the shipyard, in high buildings such as Zieleniak and the hills of Góra Gradowa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser harp</span>

A laser harp is an electronic musical user interface and laser lighting display. It projects several laser beams played by the musician by blocking them to produce sounds, visually reminiscent of a harp. It was popularised by Jean-Michel Jarre, and has been a high-profile feature of almost all his concerts since 1981.

<i>Hong Kong</i> (album) 1994 live album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Hong Kong is a live album by Jean-Michel Jarre, and released in 1994 on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor. Even though the album is called Hong Kong and has pictures of the event on its booklet, most of the tracks are from the Europe in Concert venues, except for "Souvenir of China" which is a special mix consisting of the Paris la Defense version and the actual track played in Hong Kong. Also, "Fishing Junks at Sunset" was recorded from the Hong Kong concert rehearsals. Some of the tracks already featured on the VHS release of the Barcelona concert the year before.

The Concerts in China was a concert tour by Jean Michel Jarre in 1981. It marked the opening of post-Mao Zedong China to live Western music. Five concerts were held in the two biggest cities on October 21 and 22 in Beijing, and on October 26, 27 and 29 in Shanghai. The five concerts were filmed and recorded for later commercial releases.

Francis Rimbert is a French musician and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Michel Jarre discography</span>

Jean-Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, synthpop, ambient and new-age genres, and an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.

<i>Live from Gdańsk</i> (Koncert w Stoczni) 2005 live album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Live From Gdańsk is a live album by Jean-Michel Jarre, released in 2005, exclusively in Poland. It contains selected songs performed during Jarre's Space of Freedom concert in Gdańsk, Poland, on 26 August 2005, commemorating twenty-five years of the Solidarity movement.

<i>Essentials & Rarities</i> 2011 compilation album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Essentials & Rarities is a compilation album by Jean-Michel Jarre, released in 2011. The double CD set consists of two distinctive CDs: Essentials, which is a compilation of Jarre's most famous work, and Rarities, which compiles tracks made before his ground-breaking album Oxygène.

<i>Jarre Live</i> 1989 live album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Jarre Live, later re-released as Destination Docklands: The London Concert, is a live album by Jean-Michel Jarre, released on 2 October 1989 on Disques Dreyfus. It was recorded during Jarre's Destination Docklands concerts of 1988, which consisted of two London concerts in England; this was the first time the docklands district of London and the river Thames became the scenery for a concert.

<i>Planet Jarre: 50 Years of Music</i> 2018 compilation album by Jean-Michel Jarre

Planet Jarre: 50 Years of Music is a compilation album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released on 14 September 2018 to commemorate Jarre's 50 years in the music business.

References

  1. Publisher idesine's website

Sources