Équinoxe by Jean-Michel Jarre

Electronic Music Review by Richard Rathe

Jean-Michel Jarre, 1978

IMO Équinoxe is one of the best original synthesized orchestral pieces out there. His preceding album Oxygène (produced and recorded at home!) is also good, similar in form—but Équinoxe remains my favorite.

I made myself a Suite of parts 5 thru 7 for regular listening. Part 5 is linked below. It begins with a roll of thunder and does not let go! The tempo slackens a bit in part 6 (theme & variations), and part 7 is a sort of cool down. Highly recommended!

Imagine Bach channeled by Philip Glass via Wendy Carlos!

As prelude and postlude, part 1 evokes Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra & Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and part 8 incorporates a folk melody (as does Copland's Appalachian Spring).

Biography of Jarre (…in 1979, Jarre performed [Équinoxe] to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde…

Complete Work in Eight Parts