"Equinoxe Infinity" is the twentieth studio album by French musician and composer

Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the Electronic music, electronic, Ambient music, ambient and New-age music, new-age genres, and is known for organising out ...

, released on 16 November 2018 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. It is the sequel to his fourth studio release, ''

Équinoxe ''Équinoxe'' (, ) is the fourth studio album by French electronic music, electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released in December 1978 on the Disques Dreyfus, Dreyfus record label, licensed to Polydor Records for its worldwide d ...

'' (1978), released forty years prior.

Recording

Jarre used both analog and digital instruments for this album. At first he was going to use the analog instruments that he used in ''Équinoxe'', but then he changed his mind "because if I was once again the young guy I was when I began that LP 40 years ago, I would use the instruments available today." Among the instruments he used was the prototype of a small synthesizer that Jarre discovered on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

called the ''granular GR-1'' made by the company Tasty Chips Electronics. This instrument was used to process a child's voice giving him a surreal and technological look on the track "If the Wind Could Speak (movement 5)". Jarre explained that he intentionally shortened it to make a link to "Band In The Rain" (from Équinoxe Part 8) from the 1978 album.

Artwork

Jean-Michel asked an artist from Prague named Filip Hodas to make two covers based on

Michel Granger Michel Granger (; born 13 October 1946) is a French painter, sculptor and visual artist. His childhood took place in Arsenal County, a period that will strongly mark his artistic work. But encounters and successive travels took him to new horiz ...

's design, ''Le trac'' for the original álbum, one in green and blue to symbolize a peaceful and harmonious future, and another that reflects a more apocalyptic and dystopian world. "The album is the soundtrack to both these futures, with some parts sounding more uplifting and poppy and others more dark."

Critical reception

Aaron Badgley Aaron Badgley (born August 29, 1964) is a Canadian music journalist, music critic, radio host, podcaster, author, and biographer. As a music critic and journalist, he has written for All-Music Guide, ''The Fulcrum'', ''The Spill Magazine'', ' ...

of ''The Spill Magazine'' wrote that "What Jarre does on this album, which makes it so great, is to develop a somewhat retro sound. This is electronic music from the ‘70s, with a little technology from today, and it adds to the overall album."

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel specified in the album notes: *

– publication, composition, production and mixing * Stephane Gervais – production assistance * Patrick Pelamourgues – technical assistance * David Perreau – mastering * Filip Hodas – artwork (based in original by

) *

Peter Lindbergh Peter Lindbergh (born Peter Brodbeck; 23 November 1944 – 3 September 2019) was a German fashion photographer and film director. He had studied arts in Berlin and Krefeld, and exhibited his works before graduation. In 1971, he turned to phot ...

– portrait * Eric BDFCK Cornic – graphic design

Equipment

Adapted from liner notes: *

Yamaha CS-80 The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer introduced by Yamaha Corporation in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of ha ...

ARP 2600 The ARP 2600 is a subtractive synthesizer first produced by ARP Instruments in 1971. History Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Alan R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 as the successor to ...

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

EMS Synthi AKS The EMS Synthi A and the EMS Synthi AKS are portable modular analog synthesisers made by EMS of England. The Synthi A model debuted in May 1971, and then Synthi AKS model appeared in March 1972 a with a built-in keyboard and sequencer. The EMS S ...

Eminent 310 Unique The Eminent 310 Unique is a home electronic organ that was built and introduced in 1972 by the Dutch organ manufacturer Eminent, at the time based in Bodegraven, the Netherlands. It was the first organ to include a string section, making it the ...

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

Paraphonic 505 * Minipops *

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

* Korg PA-600 * Korg Polyphonic Ensemble P *

Korg MS-20 The Korg MS-20 is a patchable semi-modular monophonic analog synthesizer which Korg released in 1978 and which was in production until 1983. It was part of Korg's MS series of instruments, which also included the single oscillator MS-10, the ke ...

, GRI * Erica Synths Modular System * OPI * Modular Roland System 500 1 & 8 * Roland Boutiques * Clavia

Nord Lead The Nord Lead is a series of virtual analog subtractive synthesizers, manufactured by Clavia. Released in 1995, the original Nord Lead popularized the term "virtual analog synthesis". The phrase was coined by Clavia at the release of the Nord L ...

2 * Clavia

Nord Modular The Nord Modular series is a line of synthesizers produced by Clavia, a Swedish digital synthesizer manufacturer. The Nord Modular series, in common with their sister range the Nord Lead series, are analogue modelling synthesizers, producing soun ...

* Small Stone *

Electric Mistress Electro-Harmonix (also commonly referred to as EHX) is a New York City-based company that makes electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. It is best known for a series of g ...

* Big Sky & Capistan * Moog Sub 37 *

Moog Taurus The Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music. It was originally conceived as a part of the Constellation series of synthesizers. The initial Taurus I was manufactured from 1975 to 1981; a less pop ...

1 * Animoog *

Arturia Arturia is a French electronics company founded in 1999 and based in Grenoble, France. The company designs and manufactures audio interfaces and electronic musical instruments, including software synthesizers, drum machines, analog synthesizers, ...

Arp 2600 *

CS80 * Spectrasonics Omnisphere * NI Kontakt * NI Reaktor *

Synapse In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that allows a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or a target effector cell. Synapses can be classified as either chemical or electrical, depending o ...

Dune 2 *

The Legend * Spitfire Boom * NI Replica XT * u-he Satin *

ValhallaDSP ValhallaDSP is a digital audio signal processing software company that makes reverberator and delay plugins. History ValhallaDSP as a company was founded by Sean Costello, who handles coding. Kristin Costello handles graphics and marketing. ...

Digisequencer Michel Geiss is a French sound engineer, instrument designer and musician who was a long-time collaborator of Jean Michel Jarre. He has also collaborated with other famous French artists such as Marc Lavoine, Patrick Bruel or Laurent Voulzy. In 19 ...

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Equinoxe 2018 albums Jean-Michel Jarre albums Sequel albums Electronic albums by French artists