Équinoxe was the second major-label album release by French musician Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus (with license to Polydor) in late 1978.
The album reflects a day in the life of a human being, from morning to night. Parts 1 to 4 (i.e. side A) and tracks 5 to 8 (side B) segué smoothly from one to the next.
Jarre had developed his sound, employing more dynamic and rhythmic elements, particularly a greater use of sequencing on basslines. Much of this was achieved using custom equipment developed by his collaborator Michel Geiss.
The release was followed by a concert on the Place de la Concorde, Paris on July 14, 1979. The concert attracted 1 million people, becoming Jarre's first entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest crowd for an outdoor concert.
Two singles were released from the album, "Équinoxe Part 5" first, and then "Équinoxe Part 4". Part of "Équinoxe Part 8" has been played live with different arrangements, including a version for an acoustic street organ, under the title of "Band in the Rain".
The album reached #11 in the UK charts and #126 in the US charts.
During the 1980s, "Équinoxe Part 4" was used in the opening credits of the TVNZ documentary series Our World.Équinoxe was the second major-label album release by French musician Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus (with license to Polydor) in late 1978.
The album reflects a day in the life of a human being, from morning to night. Parts 1 to 4 (i.e. side A) and tracks 5 to 8 (side B) segué smoothly from one to the next.
Jarre had developed his sound, employing more dynamic and rhythmic elements, particularly a greater use of sequencing on basslines. Much of this was achieved using custom equipment developed by his collaborator Michel Geiss.
The release was followed by a concert on the Place de la Concorde, Paris on July 14, 1979. The concert attracted 1 million people, becoming Jarre's first entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest crowd for an outdoor concert.
Two singles were released from the album, "Équinoxe Part 5" first, and then "Équinoxe Part 4". Part of "Équinoxe Part 8" has been played live with different arrangements, including a version for an acoustic street organ, under the title of "Band in the Rain".
The album reached #11 in the UK charts and #126 in the US charts.
During the 1980s, "Équinoxe Part 4" was used in the opening credits of the TVNZ documentary series Our World.false2022-08-16 13:34:01Équinoxe9.619781978-12-011978-12-0139AmbientElectronicExperimentalSynth-Pop1115682113396dc408bf4-2e60-4e37-bb92-acee40c22b5686e2e2ad-6d1b-44fd-9463-b6683718a1cc277825f9-e05c-3b57-bc4b-c49755ea5823/media/data/media5/Music/Jean‐Michel Jarre/Équinoxe (1978)/folder.jpgJean‐Michel JarreAlbumArtistJean‐Michel JarreArtistJean‐Michel JarreJean‐Michel JarreJean-Michel André Jarre (French: [ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl ɑ̃dʁe ʒaʁ]; born 24 August 1948) 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.
Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. But his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales.
His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events.
As of 2004, Jarre had sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles. He was the first Western musician officially invited to perform in the People's Republic of China and holds the world record for the largest-ever audience at an outdoor event for his Moscow concert on 6 September 1997, which was attended by 3.5 million people.