Last January 15, in the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Internacional Year of Astronomy was inaugurated by the Director General of UNESCO Mr. M. Koichiro Matsuura who stated in his speech that “Jean Michel Jarre has accepted to be the Ambassador for this International Year of Astronomy and he is going to perform an outdoor concert in Canary Islands next July as part of the events of this Internacional Year of Astronomy”.

This announcement made by the Director General of UNESCO was in total contradiction with what Dr. Garik Israelian said us some weeks ago, so Fairlight Jarre decided to contact again with Dr. Israelian yesterday to know the true about the real progress of the event. So, Garik said us that “I were with Jean Michel in Paris during the inauguration. We are almost everyday in contact with Brian (May) too. There are MANY supporters of this event. Jarre is also doing as much as he can for this event, but we all know that it’s no easy. Next week we’ve got series of meetings in Madrid with politicians, Ministers and important and powerful enterprises. We have found also an astronomer, friend of mine, who is working in the Parlament; is a good guy and he is going to help us very much. Like you see, here we are fighting for the concert. We are very happy with the format of the concert and with more things about the event. We’ll see what happens, but I’m still optimistic”.

Also today the canarian press has stated that the british singer and drummer Phil Collins could join Jean Michel Jarre and Brian May on stage at the “Concert of the Stars” (working title for the event) next July during the inauguration of the GTC as one of the main events of the International Year of Astronomy. This is what Francisco Sánchez, Director of the Institute of Astrophisics of Canary Islands, said to Cadena SER radio station yesterday. 

So, the things remains more or less the same that in December, and, spite of the words of the Director General of UNESCO and spite of the informations in canary press, we have to still be very cautious about this event. They continue in the quest to obtain money (public or private) for the event, and today we still don’t know if this concert will go ahead or not. Thank you very much to Dr. Garik Israelian for his kindness and infinite patience. We will keeping you informed.

Like we told you some time ago, our aim in Fairlight Jarre was to establish a regular contact with the organization of the Canary Islands concert project that, as you kow, is intended to be staged in 2009. Heading the organization is Dr. Garik Israelian who, again with his kindness, has attended Fairlight Jarre  once more telling us the very last news about de Canary Islands concert project; so, Dr. Israelian told us that “sadly we still have not information about the funding for the concert. I have a meeting with JMJ three weeks ago in Moscow and we talked a lot about the project in Canary Islands. For him this is the project of his life (and, of course, for me and for Brian May too). We are very very excited about this project. We’ve got plans and ideas that will make this project thousand times bigger than the concerts at the Pyramids, Houston or Moscow… I already said to you this, but this concert will be the biggest ever staged in the history of this planet. I have reunited all the scientific community around this project and we are to record the concert in HD (from an international station, making then a direct broadcast from space using different devices). We are fighting with the limits of our imagination and this is what is so exciting for us.

Sadly, the politicians on Canary Islands said to us that there is a crisis and that they have not enough money (although this concert’s budget will be two times lower than the concerts in the Pyramids or in Moscow in 1997, for instance). Let me please say again that this event will be an historical one. Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are intending to be there too. For the first time, Astronomy and music will have a real union via this project in which I have been working for seven years. And now, a “crisis”… But, what is a “crisis”? I think that they are creating a lot of hysteria about this issue, but this “crisis” doesn’t affect to soccer or comunications… We have to look for other solutions if the politicians do not endorse the project”.

So here you are the last news about this project. Like ever, we are going to keep you updated with the latest news about this project as soon as we have any information. Thankyou very much, Dr. Garik Israelian, for your kindness.

Probably Fairlight Jarre was, in an interview done with Francis Rimbert after the Madrid concert of the “Oxygene in Concert” tour, one of the first sites to know about the plans of Jean Michel Jarre about making a new tour for next year 2009.

In the past Milan and Rome concerts of the current second leg of the “Oxygene in Concert” tour, some members of the team of jarre.it, the italian Jarre fan website, could speak with Rimbert about this forthcoming project for 2009.

As far as we know, the concept for this project is the same that this current tour, so the new 2009 tour is intended to be “indoor”, but with more visual effects. Also it will be a sort of “best of” spanning all the hits of Jean Michel Jarre’s career, but all the arrangements of the songs, including the more simphonic tracks like Rendez Vous 2, will be done in an absolutely electronic way.

Please note that this new 2009 tour is nothing but a project. As you know, and according with experiences in the past, we have to be very cautious with all these projects, but we let you know any new informations about this project when we know something more.

Like most of you know, Jean Michel Jarre and Brian May are planning to make a concert in Canary Islands to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, in 2009.

This collaboration started in the backstage of the Jean Michel Jarre concert in London at the Royal Albert Hall, when Dr. Brian May (from Queen) and his friend Dr. Garik Israelian went to greet Jarre after the show. Then May and Israelian, the real organizer of the project, proposed Jarre to collaborate in this concert-project.

Jarre, delighted with this idea, visited many times Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, the place where is intended to stage the event, and keeps permanent contact with both Dr. May and Dr. Israelian.

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Institute of Astrophisics of Canary Islands) published a press note about this event, and some newspapers talked about the concert, so it seems that the negotiations are going in the right way.

In the past few days, Fairlight Jarre were in contact with some members of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Dr. Israelian among them, and in his own words “we still have to wait until we know if we have enough money to make the concert happen. If the politicians and some enterprises put money in, we can say that this concert will be the greatest ever staged in this planet. It will be one of the strongest events in the history of Spain (and in the history of the world). I’ve been working in this from 2001/2002 and it has been a lot of work. We have to wait for some weeks to see what happen with all this”.

Fairlight Jarre will try to keep you informed about all issues of this eagerly awaited event. We would like to thank to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and, specially, to Dr. Garik Israelian and D. Luis Martínez Sáez for their attention and kindness.