Jean Michel Jarre, musician

On the 12th of May, 1993, I attended a press conference at the Odeon cinema in London’s Leicester Square held by the French musician Jean Michel Jarre in connection with his new album "Chronologie" and a concert tour, which was being sponsored by the Swiss watch company Swatch.

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CBL: If you were being sponsored by someone other than Swatch – say McDonalds – would you have still called the album Chronolgie?

JMJ: The reason I called it Chronolgie is because of the stages of life... As for working with Pepsi and McDonalds I leave that to Michael Jackson. I was also very interested in the work being done by Swatch involved with youth and street culture, for example, the use of Keith Haring...

CBL: So you drew them in, not the other way round?

JMJ: Well, they wanted to do it too.

[A gap during which other journalists asked some questions]

CBL: Being from a rock magazine, I would like to ask you what you think of some of the multi-media rock concerts of bands like U2 with their ZOO TV shows, or Pink Floyd in the past?

JMJ: I think it is good that they are trying to escape from the traditional clichés of rock, visually, by exploring the use of video, and in their music as well. They are trying to subvert the idea of the one point of focus... The rave, this is a format that I am wanting to explore. I feel close to the rave movement - where the experience is not focused on one person...

CBL: So, is your show going to be coming at the audience from different angles?

JMJ: We had the old ideas of a concert, and in the 60s we tried to have the happenings all around. We are not fish: We do not have eyes, one here (points) and one here (points). We have to respect this human vision which looks to the front, but people need to be released from the fixed point.