Équinoxe, released in 1978 through Dreyfus Records in France and Polydor Records globally, is the fourth studio album by French electronica musician Jean-Michel Jarre. The follow-up to the highly successful Oxygène, this album both continues and refines the spacey, ambient sound of its predecessor. Emphasis on dynamics and rhythms is considerably increased compared to Oxygène, basslines take up a much greater presence than before, and the airy soundscapes are traded out with more watery textures.
With Jarre's commercial potential having already been established by the success of Oxygène, Équinoxe marked Jarre's shift from the small-time label Motors Records to the newly-established and larger-scale Dreyfus Records, onto whom he would remain signed all the way into 2002. Combined with his newfound clout as a successful artist, the move to a bigger label gave Jarre the opportunity to make use of a much wider array of synthesizers and sequencers, including custom-built equipment developed by collaborator Michael Geiss. With this, the scale of Jarre's work would take a major leap upwards from Oxygène and would only continue to grow with each successive album.
Compared to its predecessor, Équinoxe performed much lower from a commercial standpoint, peaking at No. 11 on the UK Albums chart and at No. 126 on the Billboard 200, missing the French Albums chart entirely. That said, it wasn't a total flop; it was later certified gold in the UK, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, and became the 55th best-selling album of 1978 in Britain. For its fortieth anniversary in 2018, the album received a sequel in the form of Équinoxe Infinity.
Équinoxe was supported by two singles: "Équinoxe Part 5" and "Équinoxe Part 4".
Tracklist
Side A- "Équinoxe Part 1" (2:33)
- "Équinoxe Part 2" (5:01)
- "Équinoxe Part 3" (5:11)
- "Équinoxe Part 4" (6:52)
Side B
- "Équinoxe Part 5" (3:54)
- "Équinoxe Part 6" (3:15)
- "Équinoxe Part 7" (7:24)
- "Équinoxe Part 8" (5:02)
Meet these tropes in the rain tonight:
- Ambient: Side A and the latter half of Part 8 both delve just as much into this genre as Oxygène previously did.
- Concept Album: Coming after an album about air and the environment, this record focuses primarily on the water and seasons. Water-themed sounds prominently feature throughout the record, from the wave-like warbles throughout side A to the thunderclaps that open Part 5 to the rainfall that opens Part 8, with this first section of the final track being appropriately titled "Band in the Rain" in concert, and the structure of the album mimics the passage of spring, summer, fall, and winter with its marked differences in both tempo and tone from track to track.
- Design Student's Orgasm: Like its predecessor, this album's cover sports an elaborate painting by Michel Granger.
- Distinct Double Album: A single-disc variant: side A is a more atmospheric, ambient-oriented suite in line with Oxygène, while side B's suite consists mostly of proto-Synth-Pop.
- Epic Rocking: Part 7 clocks in at, somewhat appropriately, 7 and a half minutes. Part 4, meanwhile, falls just short of the 7-minute mark.
- Evolving Music:
- Part 7 has been cut off before the long ambient ending ever since 1986 (Rendez-vous Houston). From 1995 (Concert pour la tolérance) to the mid-2000s, another chunk was cut out (it came back with reinforcement a few years ago), and a filter modulation was added to the bass.
- The first half of Part 8, also known as "Band in the Rain", has been played on a barrel organ on stage ever since 1993 (Europe In Concert).
- Ever since the release of Electronica Part 1, Jarre has mashed up Part 4 with "Glory", his collab with M83, at concerts, and Part 7 crosses over into the Gesaffelstein collab "Conquistador".
- Fading into the Next Song: Done liberally throughout the album, to the point where the only distinct break is between the two sides of the record.
- New Sound Album: Rhythm and dynamics become more prominent, especially on the album's downright danceable second side, and the music is given a more "watery" feel to it.
- The Not-Remix: Part 5 was given this treatment just in time for its CD release, with some parts of the track re-recorded and the rest simply remixed, to a degree where it doesn't sound dramatically different from the original, but still nonetheless has some noticeable deviations. In particular, the string sound playing along with the leads was eliminated entirely, the hi-hat now plays over the entire piece save for the first two bars, and some of the effect sounds were redone. This version, which was also included on later cassette copies, has become better-known than the LP mix with the passage of time, to the point where many folks who snag an LP copy are left puzzled by how different Part 5 sounds there.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: Part 5 was reduced to a few seconds of this on Aero.
- One-Word Title: The album and individual tracks are all called "Équinoxe."
- Organ Grinder: The first part of Part 8 (also known as "Band in the Rain") is commonly played on a barrel organ in live concerts.
- Performance Anxiety: Invoked by the album cover, depicting a sea of anonymous "Watchers" gazing upon a performer on the stage with binoculars, as seen through the point of view of the performer.
- Performance Video: The video clip
of "Equinoxe 4" mostly shows Jarre in his studio. While he didn't record the music itself on camera, he does mime in sync with the music at least when he plays the keys. It has got more distraction from the music-making than "Oxygène 4", namely close-ups on the machines, some video animations on a screen in the background and a wind-up toy robot. - Repurposed Pop Song: Just like pieces of Oxygène were used for Gallipoli, pieces of Equinoxe make up the soundtrack of The Hamburg Syndrome.
- Siamese Twin Songs: Each half of the album acts as a single, unified suite, to the point where it becomes difficult to separate any one track without losing a good deal of context behind it.
- Signature Style: Along with Oxygène, Équinoxe is credited with codifying this trope for Jarre; even after he shifted away from the sound, the template these two albums established would remain in place for a significant chunk of his work.
- Song Style Shift: Part 8 opens with an Organ Grinder tune punctuated by the occasional synth hit, only to Fade Out halfway through and fade back in as an ambient piece more in-line with side A.
- Stylistic Suck: "Band In The Rain" was made to sound as if it was played on a then-common electronic home organ. It probably helped that Jarre did have a few electronic organs at his disposal.
- Synth-Pop: Parts 5 through 7 are early precursors to the genre, being groovy, danceable synth pieces tucked within an otherwise ambient-oriented album. The synth-pop scene had already been developing for some time before Équinoxe released, but compared to the likes of the statuesque Kraftwerk and the mock-Oriental debut album of Yellow Magic Orchestra (who would move away from the image on proceeding records), it more vividly showcased the more freeform and fast-paced elements of the genre that would come to greater prominence in the 1980's.
- Title by Number: Each track on the album is differentiated as a numbered "part" of the whole album.
- Unplugged Version: Live performances of the "Band in the Rain" portion of Part 5 are typically played on an actual barrel organ rather than a synthesizer imitating one.
