Téo & Téa
Encyclopedia
Téo & Téa is a conceptual album
by French
composer
and artist
Jean Michel Jarre
, published by Warner Music in late March 2007. The album was released in the U.S.
three weeks later, on 16 April 2007. It is Jarre's thirteenth studio album
.
The album tells, in musical form, a metaphorical love story of fictional cartoon characters Téo and Téa, two lookalike creatures (one male, one female) who meet, fall in love and spend one day together. They are seen in the computer-animated
video clip
accompanying the title track.
The album was launched, in physical form, as an edition containing just the CD and also as a "De Luxe Edition" containing the CD bundled with a DVD
. The DVD features the same tracks mixed for 5.1 sound
, as well as the video clip for the title track in high-definition
, viewable on personal computer
s.
Téo & Téa is of a more simplistic and playful nature than Jarre's previous albums and, like 2000's Métamorphoses, is dance
-oriented.
of Téo & Téa started in January 2007, two months prior to the album's launch, with video teasers on YouTube
, a CD single
for clubs
and radio stations, pages on Myspace
, T-shirt
s featuring three different motifs on Spreadshirt
, and a DVD single
released to clubs and TV stations
. In all these cases the name of Jean Michel Jarre was not mentioned or associated with the music. A promotional audio CD of the album was released to the press in February 2007, this time mentioning Jarre's name. On 20 March 2007, an official companion website was launched.
The iTunes
release of the album includes some exclusive bonuses: the videos "Making of (English)" – 8:35 and "Making of (French)" – 11:30; pre-orders also included the tracks "Téo & Téa — 6:00 AM Special" and "Jean Michel Jarre's Track-by-Track Commentary" (English
and French
versions).
French hypermarket chain Carrefour
included an exclusive 32-page booklet with the album.
have been released, the first, "Téo & Téa", as a promotional for clubs and radio stations in February 2007 and then in a general release. The second, "Vintage", was released in digital download format only, in July 2007, including two remix
es by ATB
.
MC-808
, a Groovebox
of which the album makes quite heavy use. Starting from 19 June 2007, there was a debate amongst fans at several internet forum
s regarding Jarre's participation in creating them, or that he might have copied them in the album with too much ease. Usage of these patterns is not illegal, as expressed in the user manual on page 13.
Jarre's management Aero Productions responded on the matter on 28 June 2007 with a statement to the administrator of the then Jarre's "official" web forum, who posted the following message on:
However, the original statement from Jarre and Aero Productions has not been made public, nor has it been explicitly stated that Jarre is the sole creator of the patterns.
Jarre was credited with a patch on another model of Roland that was released in the same year, the Roland SH-201
, but Jarre's name does not appear on Roland's list of patch creators for the MC-808, Tim Hüfken (credited as "artistic collaborator" in the booklet of Téo & Téa) appears instead. On the other hand, Jarre himself is credited in the booklet of Téo & Téa for "drums programming" on the Roland MC-808.
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
by French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
, published by Warner Music in late March 2007. The album was released in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
three weeks later, on 16 April 2007. It is Jarre's thirteenth studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
.
The album tells, in musical form, a metaphorical love story of fictional cartoon characters Téo and Téa, two lookalike creatures (one male, one female) who meet, fall in love and spend one day together. They are seen in the computer-animated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
video clip
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
accompanying the title track.
The album was launched, in physical form, as an edition containing just the CD and also as a "De Luxe Edition" containing the CD bundled with a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. The DVD features the same tracks mixed for 5.1 sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
, as well as the video clip for the title track in high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
, viewable on personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s.
Téo & Téa is of a more simplistic and playful nature than Jarre's previous albums and, like 2000's Métamorphoses, is dance
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
-oriented.
Chart positions
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| French Albums Chart | 8 |
| Swiss Album Chart | 45 |
| UK Album Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
103 |
Pre-launch campaign
The launch marketing campaignMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
of Téo & Téa started in January 2007, two months prior to the album's launch, with video teasers on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, a CD single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
for clubs
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
and radio stations, pages on Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s featuring three different motifs on Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt
Spreadshirt is a German company offering an online platform for private individuals and commercial organizations to design, buy and sell creative and personalized apparel.-History:...
, and a DVD single
DVD single
A DVD single is a music single in the form of a DVD. The format was introduced in the late 1990s/early 2000s as a replacement for the VHS single...
released to clubs and TV stations
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
. In all these cases the name of Jean Michel Jarre was not mentioned or associated with the music. A promotional audio CD of the album was released to the press in February 2007, this time mentioning Jarre's name. On 20 March 2007, an official companion website was launched.
Track listing
- "Fresh News" – 2:42
- "Téo & Téa" – 3:27
- "Beautiful Agony" – 4:38
- "Touch to Remember" – 6:07
- "OK, Do It Fast" – 3:23
- "Partners in Crime 1" – 3:38
- "Partners in Crime 2" – 3:33
- "Chatterbox" – 2:14
- "In the Mood for You" – 4:18
- "Gossip" – 2:09
- "Vintage" – 3:04
- "Melancholic Rodeo" – 3:46
- "Téo & Téa 4:00 AM" – 7:06
Special editions
A promotional CD single, including the track "Téo & Téa", and a promotional DVD single including the video clip for the same track, were released to clubs and radio stations in February 2007, without reference to composer or artist. A promotional audio CD of the album was released to the press in February 2007.The iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
release of the album includes some exclusive bonuses: the videos "Making of (English)" – 8:35 and "Making of (French)" – 11:30; pre-orders also included the tracks "Téo & Téa — 6:00 AM Special" and "Jean Michel Jarre's Track-by-Track Commentary" (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
versions).
French hypermarket chain Carrefour
Carrefour
Carrefour S.A. is an international hypermarket chain headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world...
included an exclusive 32-page booklet with the album.
Singles
Two singlesSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
have been released, the first, "Téo & Téa", as a promotional for clubs and radio stations in February 2007 and then in a general release. The second, "Vintage", was released in digital download format only, in July 2007, including two remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es by ATB
ATB
ATB may refer to:*The US Reorder tone is often referred to as an ATB, for All Trunks Busy*Active Time Battle system is a feature of role-playing games*Mountain bike is an off-road bicycle...
.
Personnel
- Jean Michel Jarre – keyboards, synthesizers and drum programming: KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
Radias, Moog VoyagerMinimoog VoyagerThe Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a successor to that instrument.-Design:Like the original...
, Roland MC-808Roland MC-808The Roland MC-808 is Roland's latest Groovebox, announced at the Winter NAMM in 2006. It is the successor to the late Roland MC-303, Roland MC-307, Roland MC-505 and Roland MC-909. Though cheaper than the Roland MC-909, it has a number of features the Roland MC-909 lacked including double the...
, Roland Fantom-XRoland Fantom-XThe Fantom-X is a music workstation/synthesizer produced by Roland Corporation. It was introduced in 2004 as an upgrade from the Fantom S series. The Fantom-X competes with the Korg Triton/Triton Extreme, the Yamaha Motif ES and other similar large-scope keyboards such as the discontinued Alesis...
-8, Roland V-Synth, Access VirusAccess VirusThe Access Virus is a virtual analog synthesizer made by the German company Access Music GmbH. It was first produced in 1997 and has since been upgraded frequently, with the company releasing new models about every two years. Early models include the Virus A, Virus B, and Virus C series, each...
, SH-201, Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
HD3; vocals (VocoderVocoderA vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
-filtered) on "In the Mood for You" - Claude Samard – string arrangements, guitars, programming, Cubase, Digital PerformerDigital PerformerDigital Performer is a full-featured Digital Audio Workstation/Sequencer software package published by Mark of the Unicorn of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Apple Macintosh platform.-Ancestry:...
, Halion strings, AbsynthAbsynthAbsynth is a commercial, proprietary software synthesizer originally written by Brian Clevenger, and developed by Native Instruments GmbH. It combines a range of traditional synthesis techniques and modern to create complex sounds and timbres...
, Lag guitars, Pro Tools HD3 - Francis RimbertFrancis RimbertFrancis Rimbert is a French musician and composer.- Biography :Francis Rimbert started playing classical piano when he was 5 years old. At the conservatory, he studied harmony, counterpoint, the fugue and orchestral leading...
– keyboards and synthesizers: Roland Fantom-X-8, V-Synth, Pro Tools Digi002 - Tim Hüfken – Groove Box special programming and artistic collaboration: Groove Box MC-808 and Sonar Sequencer
- Bertrand Lajaudie – additional programming
- Anne Parillaud-JarreAnne ParillaudAnne Parillaud is a French actress, who has appeared in 30 films since 1977.She is best known internationally for her role as Nikita in the movie of the same name.-Biography:...
– additional vocals on "Beautiful Agony"
Attribution of preset patches
Téo & Téa features patches of drum patterns found on the RolandRoland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
MC-808
Roland MC-808
The Roland MC-808 is Roland's latest Groovebox, announced at the Winter NAMM in 2006. It is the successor to the late Roland MC-303, Roland MC-307, Roland MC-505 and Roland MC-909. Though cheaper than the Roland MC-909, it has a number of features the Roland MC-909 lacked including double the...
, a Groovebox
Groovebox
The term Groovebox was originally used by Roland corporation to refer to its MC-303, but the term has since entered general use. It refers to a self-contained instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music with a high degree of user control facilitating improvisation.A groovebox...
of which the album makes quite heavy use. Starting from 19 June 2007, there was a debate amongst fans at several internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s regarding Jarre's participation in creating them, or that he might have copied them in the album with too much ease. Usage of these patterns is not illegal, as expressed in the user manual on page 13.
Jarre's management Aero Productions responded on the matter on 28 June 2007 with a statement to the administrator of the then Jarre's "official" web forum, who posted the following message on:
"Jean Michel Jarre explained that he entered into a partnership with Roland Japan last year, to collaborate with and contribute to demos, patterns and presets for their future products. Jean Michel Jarre explained that the Roland MC808 was one of these products, therefore it is not surprising that certain elements of his new TÉO & TÉA album appear on the Roland MC-808, or any other recent Roland product for that matter."
However, the original statement from Jarre and Aero Productions has not been made public, nor has it been explicitly stated that Jarre is the sole creator of the patterns.
Jarre was credited with a patch on another model of Roland that was released in the same year, the Roland SH-201
Roland SH-201
The Roland SH-201 is an analog modeling synthesizer introduced in 2006 by the Roland Corporation. The SH-201 is equipped with two analogue modeling oscillators , a multi-mode filter, ring modulator, and it allows routing an external audio signal into its own dedicated filter. The input signal can...
, but Jarre's name does not appear on Roland's list of patch creators for the MC-808, Tim Hüfken (credited as "artistic collaborator" in the booklet of Téo & Téa) appears instead. On the other hand, Jarre himself is credited in the booklet of Téo & Téa for "drums programming" on the Roland MC-808.
Comment by Jarre on the album
In an interview by French Trax magazine in 2010, Jean Michel Jarre said Téo & Téa had been a mistake in his career:External links
- Téo & Téa at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Téo & Téa at JarreUK