Métamorphoses

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  • Artist: Alfredo Lagos/Giovani Venosta/Massimo Mariani
  • Rating: StarHalf Star
  • Release Date: July 27, 1999
  • Total Time: 44:43
  • Genre: New Age

Review

This album wears the subtitle "Electronic Adventures in Flamenco." The flamenco portion is provided by Alfredo Lagos, guitar virtuoso. His music is treated electronically by Giovani Venosta and Massimo Mariani. Lagos improvised a series of pieces following directions provided by the other two. These pieces are included on the CD. Some are solos, others for two guitars (overdubbed by Lagos). The "studies" and the "suite" showcase the guitar work treated by various electronic means made obvious by the track titles -- "Study About Distortion," for instance. That one and "Study About Rhythm" (which keeps only the percussive attack) contain interesting electro-acoustic transformations, but the other pieces are surprisingly one-track minded and simple. "Suite About Depth" has Lagos demonstrating five traditional forms (like the fandango and the buleria), while his sound is displaced, filtered, and echoed. In the end it seems quite pointless. Much better is the concluding piece "Study With Handclaps & Voice" -- just that. The way the handclaps have been multiplied and the guitar completely warped is exquisite and should have served as the basis of the album. That track apart, the best moments are found in the unaltered guitar performances. The work of Venosta and Mariani is surprisingly thin here when compared to earlier projects, especially their trio album Losing the Orthodox Path with Roberto Musci. ~ François Couture, Rovi

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Métamorphoses
Studio album by Jean Michel Jarre
Released Europe January 24, 2000 (2000-01-24)
United States May 25, 2004 (2004-05-25)
Recorded 1999
Genre Electronica, dance, breakbeat, downtempo, electro, ambient, world music
Length 60:09
Label Sony Music
Disques Dreyfus
Producer Jean Michel Jarre
Joachim Garraud
Jean Michel Jarre chronology
Odyssey Through O2
(1998)
Métamorphoses
(2000)
Interior Music
(2001)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars [1]

Métamorphoses is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Sony Music in 2000. It was released in the U.S. on Disques Dreyfus in 2004. It is his tenth overall studio album.

This album was, to fans, a surprising break from his previous works, as it makes extensive use of vocal elements, as well as house, techno, trance, dance-pop, breakbeat, and downtempo sounds. The vocal elements are not short, sampled pieces as highlighted in his album Zoolook, but longer, more integral parts of the work, and thus quite surprising for an artist known for his instrumental works. Métamorphoses is also Jarre's first album to contain actual songs with lyrics. Jarre's own voice is heard through a vocoder in many of the songs, but the album contains several other singers as well, mostly female singers. "Rendez-Vous à Paris" features Sharon Corr on violin. "Rendez-Vous à Paris" and "Bells" are the only largely instrumental tracks on the album; in the former only the track title is repeated in rhythm, the latter does not have intelligible lyrics. Although the album was generally not badly received by critics, and despite the collaborations and a number of single releases ("C'est la Vie" and "Tout Est Bleu"), Jarre did not achieve great mainstream success with this album.

Contents

Track listing

  1. "Je Me Souviens" – 4:25
  2. "C'est la Vie" – 7:11
  3. "Rendez-Vous à Paris" – 4:19
  4. "Hey Gagarin" – 6:20
  5. "Millions of Stars" – 5:41
  6. "Tout Est Bleu" – 6:01
  7. "Love Love Love" – 4:26
  8. "Bells" – 3:49
  9. "Miss Moon" – 6:08
  10. "Give Me a Sign" – 3:49
  11. "Gloria, Lonely Boy" – 5:31
  12. "Silhouette" – 2:29

Personnel

Additional information

  • It was originally planned that Kraftwerk would collaborate on the album, but this did not happen due to artistic disagreements.
  • A 6-track promo version of Métamorphoses exists with an extended version of "Hey Gagarin" (length 8:33).
  • A song initially planned for the album named "Crazy Saturday" was omitted from the album. It resurfaced a few months later and was renamed "Metamorphoses" and used in the "Global Tekno" art exhibition, part of the Festival d'Avignon. In 2006 the track finally got released on iTunes as part of Live Printemps de Bourges 2002. Again the track was renamed, this time to "Body Language".
  • The lead melody of the song "Je Me Souviens" re-appears in the title track of Jarre's AERO album, although it is altered slightly.

References

External links


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