Zoolook
Encyclopedia
Zoolook is the fourth overall mainstream studio album
by Jean Michel Jarre
, and released on Disques Dreyfus
in 1984. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling
. It is considered by many fans as one of Jarre's most experimental albums to date. Much of the music is built up from singing
and speech
in 25 different language
s, along with synthesizer
s, as well as more traditional instruments. Much of the tone of the album appears to be influenced by elements of musique concrète
and by his time as a student of Pierre Schaeffer
.
Parts of the album were reworkings of material that had already appeared as sections of the album Music for Supermarkets
, released the previous year. The track "Moon Machine" was recorded for this album but not included; it later appeared on a flexidisc in Keyboard Magazine
(March 1986 issue), the 12-inch release of "Fourth Rendez-Vous" (1986), and the much later Images
compilation album (1991).
The voices heard on this album were based on recordings of speech and singing in numerous languages: Aboriginal
, Afghan, Arabic
, Balinese
, Buhndi, Chinese
, Dutch
(Ethnicolor II - 3:15), English
, Eskimo, French
, German
, Hungarian
, Indian, Japanese
, Malagasy
, Malayan
, Pygmy, Polish
, Quechua
, Russian
, Sioux
, Spanish
, Swedish
, Tibetan
and Turkish
.
Zoolook is one of the first Compact Discs labeled as DDD
: Digitally recorded, mixed and mastered.
Some later Polydor CD (823 763-2, Barcode 042282376329, Made in W. Germany by PDO) issues contain remixes of the originally released versions of "Zoolook" and "Zoolookologie" (by François Kevorkian
), and reverse the positions of these two tracks in the running order. The original versions were re-instated for the remasters that appeared in the late 1990s after Jarre's move to Sony.
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...
by 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...
, and released on Disques Dreyfus
Disques Dreyfus
Disques Dreyfus is a record label which is currently home to artists such as Klement Julienne. Jean Michel Jarre was part of the label for more than 20 years.Francis Dreyfus founded Disque Dreyfus in 1985...
in 1984. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
. It is considered by many fans as one of Jarre's most experimental albums to date. Much of the music is built up from singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and speech
Speech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
in 25 different language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s, along with synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, as well as more traditional instruments. Much of the tone of the album appears to be influenced by elements of musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
and by his time as a student of Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
.
Parts of the album were reworkings of material that had already appeared as sections of the album Music for Supermarkets
Music for Supermarkets
Music for Supermarkets is a 1983 album of instrumental electronic music by Jean-Michel Jarre. It is notable for having only a single copy pressed, and the subsequent, deliberate destruction of its master plates, effectively making the copy unique.- Production :In 1983, Jean Michel Jarre was asked...
, released the previous year. The track "Moon Machine" was recorded for this album but not included; it later appeared on a flexidisc in Keyboard Magazine
Keyboard Magazine
Keyboard Magazine is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, including those not strictly pertaining to the...
(March 1986 issue), the 12-inch release of "Fourth Rendez-Vous" (1986), and the much later Images
Images - The Best of Jean Michel Jarre
Images – The Best of Jean Michel Jarre is a compilation album by Jean Michel Jarre originally released in 1991.Unlike previous Jean Michel Jarre compilation albums this album isn't just a collection of separate tracks...
compilation album (1991).
The voices heard on this album were based on recordings of speech and singing in numerous languages: Aboriginal
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
, Afghan, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Balinese
Balinese language
Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java...
, Buhndi, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
(Ethnicolor II - 3:15), 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...
, Eskimo, 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...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, Indian, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Malagasy
Malagasy language
Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
, Malayan
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
, Pygmy, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Sioux
Sioux language
Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit and Ojibwe.-Regional variation:...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
.
Zoolook is one of the first Compact Discs labeled as DDD
SPARS Code
SPARS is an acronym for the Society of Professional Audio Recording Services. The SPARS code is a three-letter code that appears on some Compact Disc recordings telling the consumer whether analog or digital equipment was used in producing the recording...
: Digitally recorded, mixed and mastered.
First edition (1984)
- "Ethnicolor" – 11:47
- "Diva" – 7:20
- "Zoolook" – 3:59
- "Wooloomooloo" – 3:18
- "Zoolookologie" – 4:15
- "Blah-Blah Cafe" – 3:25
- "Ethnicolor II" – 3:55
Second edition (1985)
(with remixed versions of "Zoolook" and "Zoolookologie")- "Ethnicolor" – 11:40
- "Diva" – 7:33
- "Zoolookologie (Remix)" – 3:45
- "Wooloomooloo" – 3:18
- "Zoolook (Remix)" – 3:51
- "Blah-Blah Cafe" – 3:21
- "Ethnicolor II" – 3:52
Some later Polydor CD (823 763-2, Barcode 042282376329, Made in W. Germany by PDO) issues contain remixes of the originally released versions of "Zoolook" and "Zoolookologie" (by François Kevorkian
François Kevorkian
François Kevorkian, alias François K, is a French DJ of Armenian origin, remixer, producer and record label owner. Having started his career in renowned clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54, the New York City resident is widely considered as one of the forefathers of house...
), and reverse the positions of these two tracks in the running order. The original versions were re-instated for the remasters that appeared in the late 1990s after Jarre's move to Sony.
Personnel
- Jean Michel JarreJean Michel JarreJean 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...
– keyboardsSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, Fairlight CMIFairlight CMIThe Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia... - Laurie AndersonLaurie AndersonLaura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Adrian BelewAdrian BelewAdrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, effects - Yogi Horton – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Marcus MillerMarcus MillerMarcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Frédéric RousseauFrederic RousseauFrederic Rousseau is a Belgian molecular biologist and researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Together with Joost Schymkowitz he is group leader at the VIB Switch Laboratory, Vrije Universiteit Brussel...
– additional keyboardsSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones... - Ira Siegel – additional guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s
Equipment
- Linn LM-1Linn LM-1The LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc., was the first drum machine to use digital samples of acoustic drums. Conceived and designed by Roger Linn, it was also one of the first programmable drum machines...
- Linn LinnDrumLinnDrumThe LinnDrum is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics. It was released in 1982 as a successor to the Linn LM-1. The LinnDrum has 15 drum sounds sampled from real drums, a sequencer for programming rhythm patterns and five trigger inputs....
- SimmonsSimmons (electronic drum company)Simmons was a pioneering British manufacturer of electronic drums that supplied electronic kits from 1980 to 1994. The drums' distinctive, electronic sound can be found on countless albums from the 1980s....
SDS V - Eminent 310U
- Garfield Electronics Doctor Click
- E-mu EmulatorE-mu EmulatorThe Emulator is the name given to a series of disk-based digital sampling keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1982 until 1990. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary musicians, due to its relatively low price and its size,...
- Fairlight CMIFairlight CMIThe Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
-II - ARP 2600ARP 2600The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer, designed by Alan R. Pearlman , and manufactured by his company, ARP Instruments, Inc...
- EMS Synthi AKSEMS Synthi AKSThe EMS Synthi A, first available in May 1971, and then in March 1972 a version of it with a built-in keyboard and sequencer, the EMS Synthi AKS, a portable modular analog synthesiser made by EMS of England. Most notable for its patch pin matrix, its functions and internal design are similar to the...
- MoogMoog synthesizerMoog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
55 - Oberheim OB-XaOberheim OB-XaThe Oberheim OB-Xa was Oberheim's overhaul of their first compact synthesizer, the OB-X. The OB-Xa was released in 1980, a year after the OB-X was released. Instead of discrete circuits for oscillators and filters, the OB-Xa switched to Curtis integrated circuits...
- Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
- Yamaha DX7Yamaha DX7The Yamaha DX7 is an FM Digital Synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1986. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer. Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially Pop music from the 1980s...
- EMSElectronic Music Studios (London) LtdElectronic Music Studios Ltd. is a synthesizer company formed in 1969 by Dr. Peter Zinovieff, Tristram Cary and David Cockerell....
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...
1000
External links
- Zoolook 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...
- Zoolook at JarreUK