JARRE in GDANSK (POLAND) : Aug 26th 2005 "the SPACE OF FREEDOM CONCERT


Freedom for Central and Eastern Europe started in August 1980, when Lech Walesa jumped over the shipyard wall and together with thousands of other desperate workers called Solidarnosc into being. Without the August Settlements there would have been no chance for Poland to become a democratic country. Without Solidarnosc the Berlin Wall would have never fall down and it would still have been the Eastern border of the European Union.

This crucial anniversary reminded everybody how significantly that August 1980 changed the world.

To celebrate that anniversary, Jean Michel was invited to perform what could well be his best concert to date, as a lot of fans and friends said afterwards.
JM was in a great shape, looked very happy and enthusiastic. He was a very good ambassador and took good care of introducing most of his songs with comments related to Solidarnosc, Pope John Paul 2, Freedom, Lech Walesa, Poland etc....

The concert took place in the Gdansk shipyards in an outstanding industrial environement, in the middle of huge cranes, wharehouses still in activity where workers are still buiding enormous metallic parts, which, once assembled will become tankers, liners sailing all the seas and oceans.

Christian Bourret the artistic director, JM and all the "visual" team knew it was the ideal place for a great Jarre show, so they used all the natural elements as a support to their imagination.

The other component which made this concert unique was the Polish people who participated equally to create a very moving human experience.

Lech Walesa and a lot of actors of those historical events were present (either on stage as Mr Walesa and the Mayor of Gdansk, or in the crowd), and 25 years later we could see tears in the eyes , both on stage and among the 120 000 spectators.

As for the Beijing concert of October 2004, I was in charge to work on some new arrangements and to add orchestral parts on old songs which, for some, were deeply revisited. JM also wished to have some new rythm programming on some songs that hadn't been played for ten years.

The song "Mury" originally written by Catalan poet singer Luis Llach, then adapted during the Solidarnosc events by the late great Polish singer Jacek Kaczmarski was the most tricky to arrange since it was a 6/8 waltz rythm in its original version.
It had to be transformed so that it could fit the Jarre sound while still remaining its emotional content : all the people in the audience knew that song which was a kind of anthem of Solidarnosc in the 80's.

Other songs i worked on were : Chrono 2, Light my sky, L'emigrant, March 23, Revolution industrielle : all those needed new orchestral arrangements.
Oxygene 12, Revolution and Chrono 2 needed some new rythm loops and bass.
Francis Rimbert played the bass parts.

The concert was a very intense and moving experience. It was a real Jarre show, with all the ingredients. The way people reacted to "Mury" was extraordinary. I think that the DVD will give a good idea of what we felt from the stage when seeing 120 000 people singing and waving their arms in rythm.

As in Beijing Francis Rimbert and Patrick Rondat where here, as well as Patrick Pelarmourgues and Julien Vouillon, the trusty stage engineers. Alain Courrieux, Christophe Dupin and Philippe Barguirdjian were in charge of the cristal clear sound. The collaboration with the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academic Choir of the University of Gdansk was great. Great musicians , very well conducted by Michal Nesterovitz and Marcin Tomczak.

We also did some recordings in Gdansk. The Choir sessions took place in the well equiped Radio Gdansk studios with Pro Tools.
The Orchestra parts were recorded in a great sounding place which was also part of the Solidarnosc history using the TVP mobile truck studio facilities : St Brigitt's Church which acoustic sound reminded us of the famous Abbey Road studio, with its great sounding natural reverb.

Stephan Reichart was the french engineer (as for the Beijing sessions in 2004) and Benjamin Caillaud took care of all the ProTools editing.

Jean Michel and us were all very happy with the results : the musicians were very good, the conductors were very involved in the project and highly qualified, the equipement fitted our needs and it worked, everybody had a very professional and positive attitude.

Dorota Wojciechowska was my polish partner for all the preparation phase, gathering all the infos for all the participants by mail, phone and sms that she dispatched to musicians, choir and orchestra managers, radio Gdansk and TVP studio engineers and managers...

A JM JARRE show is a huge entreprise and each time a real challenge. Music is an important part of it but it's not everything : laser shows, lights, Fx, video, fireworks, and the local natural environment ....are important as well.

So communication was very important between all the actors of that big show, many weeks before the event. I made an intensive use of my ftp site so that all the people who needed them could have an online way to download the latest versions of the songs i was working on, wherever they were in France or in Poland.

JM, Rodolphe Lejeune, Romain and Alain Bilowus, the boss of CPM, (the production company) were at the center of all that network.

A cd and DVD of that great show will surely be released soon.

I'm still in touch with a couple of good polish friends i made there , and thanks to that musical/cultural encounter with JM Jarre and Solidarnosc in the city of Gdansk we all had the feeling that the good relationships between France and Poland have been reinforced.

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