Íker Jiménez is a very famous spanish journalist, hosting very successful TV and radio shows, writer and… fan of Jean Michel Jarre. He has just released a double CD album (“Cuarto Milenio”) containing, among others, three JMJ tracks. Íker, very kindly, has given this moving interview to Fairlight Jarre.
– Do you remember when was the first time you listened to Jean Michel Jarre?
Perfectly. It is a beautiful story, at least for me. From my childhood I remembered the notes of Oxygene 4 in a recurring dream. I saw, floating, or maybe in a watchtower, watching from the heights the most emblematic square in my hometown Vitoria. In short, such are the dreams. Surely all this was the result of the hearing, almost unconscious, in a television report of the time. I could hum the melody perfectly, but not related to any musician. In a test at school, and at 17, a friend of mine, French, heard me from behind the desk singing the sounds of Oxygene 4. You know that that song was composed by a French artist who my father adores? Said my friend. I was shocked. I thought that was the soundtrack of a childhood dream, returning every so often. At first I said no, you are kidding. That was the line of my dream! I borrowed the CD and the cover impressed me. The world beneath looming, the skull. One of the biggest thrills of my life was the precise moment, I’m seeing, which I first heard and “real” Oxygene. A few months later, a twist of fate, I began my first radio program in a little town, with the music. At the station I look forward to three Jarre CDs. That was my luggage. It did not take more.
– When did you fell in love with the music of Jean Michel Jarre?
At that time. I went with a friend to a small local radio station. There I understood that Jarre’s music fit like a glove in the stories we had. Stories, mysteries and not a few cosmic travels. Jarre sounds generated a kind of “expansion of consciousness.” It’s hard to explain but you feel it. I remember that every Sunday afternoon we went there by hitchhiking. Our parents did not know anything. It was like an adventure. Every time we put the CDs, and some vinyl, and Equinoxe, was like a spaceship about to take off. Everything was transformed. Jarre was prompting the magic! I still keep some recordings as a treasure. Twenty years have passed and I now remember it as if I were watching the red Light right now.
– Being a fan of Jean Michel Jarre we will imagine that you have many of his albums, but do follow their current jobs? Do you have all his albums?
I think I have all Jarre albums. I have a colleague and fellow fan that it is a die hard fan. This is Nacho Ares. Sometimes he brings me “rare” things that I already are beyond my control. I really do not know much about music. I limit myself to feel and to enjoy it. Nacho brings me some things with devotion, wiping his hand on top. What he does when he sees ancient Egyptian pieces. The last thing he gave me is a vinyl, small, with pre-Oxygene music.
– What was the first JMJ album you bought?
The first was Oxygene. I heard hundreds of times. It became the soundtrack of my life. And, somehow, nothing and no one has taken that privilege. For example, I have written nine books and hundreds of articles, almost always been accompanied by his music. Music singular. I believe in it as a means of inspiration. As a way to transform everyday reality. And more than 50% of cases Jarre’s first records were the “companion” of my Works and travels. Not bad.
– What about your favorite JMJ track?
There are many. Oxygene 4, as I already mentioned, iIs the theme with which “I saw the light.” Oxygene 2 and 6 also seem to me something sensational. With the thrilling notes of part 2 I still get goosebumps when I put in the SER. The songs are linked to very powerful research and adventures. Oxygene 1 is, for me, the cosmic background, dust of stars, the Infinite Universe. The first four tracks of Equinoxe seem tremendous to me. Right now, as I´m answering, I’m listening to it here in my den, surrounded by thousands and thousands of books. The first track of Rendez Vous gives me goosebumps. The same is for rarest pieces like Arpegiator, or Magnetic Fields 4 or Waiting For Cousteau and his “long piece,” another memorable background. Like Globbe Trotter. Also Mury. And I like almost everything of Aero and Oxygene 7-13. And I left many out of the list. Sure.
– Do you have been accompanied by the music of Jean Michel Jarre in your travels? Is there any JMJ track linked with your investigations?
Of course. Recently, making the contents of booklet and the music of the Cuarto Milenio CD, I remembered loto f things. Jarre´s music has supported me by mountains, volcanoes, tunnels, caves with prehistoric paintings, by roads on four continents. I can not imagine a research trip without Jarre. The latter, made a couple of weeks ago a very interesting case occurred in the plains of Burgos, I took the CD with the 22 songs. It sounded like heaven. There are three Jarre tracks. And when that tracks sounde, the travel, the thrill of uncertainty and research takes on a meaning very exciting for me.
It’s funny, I don´t hear anything on the radio or TV or read anything. Never. I like being me, with my success and my many mistakes. It is an anomaly, especially on TV. And I give a lot of trouble to my team, so unexpected. But the contrast happens with the music. Every Saturday, for hours, I lisen hundreds of music, choosing, putting them in order to Milenio 3 radio show. I give a vital imporance to the music, Because it tell us things. It give us amplified sensations. It helps us to think and internalize. Or it give us excitement about the epic adventure. It is not a mere ornament. For me it’s own language. When words and music “connect” a small miracle occurs. And these are the miracles I seek, with varying degrees of success, every weekend through the waves.
– Have you attended a live concert of JMJ?
No. I’ve been close to buying tickets for some concerts. I remember one in Spain for about eighteen years from, what it was cancelled, I think. If I see Jarre, with all its art, its visual concept, live, I could die!!. I am a person who admires artists, geniuses. Those who show a bit of our smallness as human. But that encourage and motivate us to learn. Jarre is for me a reference in this regard. Self-improvement, experimentation and artistic sensibility.
– We assume you have seen many of his shows on video, but what is your favorite?
It’s funny, I was very excited to see this experiment, almost Pettit committee, almost bare of paraphernalia, seeing how it sounded with old equipment Oxygene. Both front and back of Jarre’s Oxygene and Equinoxe have something … different. Special. It is essentially cosmic music!
– The double-disc compilation that was just released, Cuarto Milenio, includes tracks of JMJ and the booklet contains a prologue written by him and also an interview with him by yourself, how did that meeting with JMJ? When and where was it?
Everything happened in a space capsule orbiting around a distant planet. I would have liked to find me in that case! And Jarre and I with the sideral suits of Equinoxe back!
It was very special to ask a few things to JMJ. It have been very unexpected answers. The truth is that everything has been wrapped in an aura of mystery. Some things, best not to be revealed. His belief in extraterrestrial life and a thousand things, I have a lot of attention. Jarre could not think otherwise. So I said to myself. I would have liked to have more time to send him a thousand questions. There will be more opportunities. I have to say that my friends and Bernardo Rivavelarde Nacho Ares have been able to draw a lot more contact with him. In that respect I envy them.
– Could you tell us what the music of JMJ means to you?
Jarre, as explained in the booklet, of about 80 pages, because this issue is not trivial and deserves involvement on my part to explain some things, has been a sidekick. He has enhanced mythical and unforgettable moments. Findings, difficulties, desire for improvement. I have been a boy with dreams. And I’ve been to those dreams. Without thinking for a moment to take shortcuts that lead to other paths. With eleven years and I did some videos, with a Betamax camera, which resemble, in essence to Cuarto Milenio. That is the truth. Therefore, I decided to live a life counter to the politically correct, of course. A road is not easy to navigate. But I was and I am full of enthusiasm. And Jarre is the soundtrack of it. Of this enthusiasm so personal. His music has made me extremely happy. A thousand times on routes around the world, I opened the door, in solitude, in the open field, and have left his music sound. For me there is a connection between the future and the ancestral in Jarre’s music. The musical composition itself – as he says in the CD- is a mystery. A mystery as he spin the tunes. As they grow independently. The process of artistic creation as something that makes us unique. Jarre, his music, for me it’s excitement, travel, surprise, mystery, stars, question marks, infinite. I feel it, like every masterpiece, as the exciting beat of life.
For that reason I like to be surrounded with those things. For that reason now it’s sounding here Equinoxe 6.
– Did you know about our website, Fairlight Jarre? If so, what do you think of it? Have you ever entered into our Forum, even anonymously?
Yes, I browsed through the web and I congratulate you. For example looking for specific information on albums. It is not easy the work that you do. This onlycan be understood from within. This is a great work, the work that you are doing. I think this is the first web to find information Jarre in which I entered many years ago, and I said in that moment “Here there are people who feel what are doing.” And in the end that’s all that matters, you know? Believe in what you do. In your work. Be lonely or misunderstood. Jarre did so in 1976. And so do many, including you, in the little challenges of life. I admire those who do things with enthusiasm. And I like your site by this reason.
Thank you for your attention and your kindness Iker. We wish you a continue success on radio and television and, of course, with the Cuarto Milenio CD. Cosmic hugs, my friend!
Same here. It is a project that I have been envolved with to the fullest. I selected personally each song, writing pages about each of them. And I assure you, the project has no outstanding financial compensation. But I think is a good gift if it comes to good hands, to open-minded and unconventiona handsl. I have been involved because I only know to do things like that. I love that one guy, somewhere, felt all these emotions that I felt myself with those songs. Maybe this music will help him get excited, an impulse to achieve his goals.
There’s no money to pay for it. Hopefully we will achieve that goal.