Aero

by

Jean Michel Jarre

Edit

In my ten-plus years of involvement with an innovative radio station I have heard lots of electronic/atmospheric/creative music (partly because I feature this kind of music on a show I do). Before I go into technical details about this album, let me reassure you that when you get the technology right, AERO is one of the most impressive efforts a human being has made in exploring the possibilities of sound and music.

It's important to continue my review with reassurance that this DVD/CD combo plays on BOTH of my U.S.-purchased U.S. manufactured Zenith DVD players (based in Illinois). One of them automatically switches to the PAL format when I put the DVD in it; the other one has a switch in the back that allows me to choose PAL vs. NTSC (the U.S. coding system).

Now that we have that cleared out of the way let me continue. The DVD gives you three different options of sound modes to choose from; you can select DTS (my recommendation), Dolby Digital (which I don't like very much), and Stereo (which keeps things easy if you don't have a surround sound 5.1 channel system hooked up).

Now, unless you have your technology backwards, if you choose the DTS format on a 5.1 Surround Sound system this DVD will blow you away. Hands down, this is the best quality album I've heard. So if you're having trouble you may have an old DVD player which doesn't support PAL formated DVDs or you don't have a surround sound system that has DTS capacity; note that if you have a non-PAL supportive TV then you won't get the visuals right either. The scanning of PAL vs. NTSC are at different rates; but you can choose from the menu to listen and turn OFF the video. The visual accompaniment is interesting, BUT NOT AT ALL IMPORTANT TO THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE OF HEARING THIS WORK.

I believe it would be worth it to invest in a nice DTS surround system with a DVD player that supports PAL formated discs before butchering this album for not living up to standards. It surpasses standards as far as I'm concerned because I've yet to hear anything that even works at this advanced standard that Jarre is setting.

Now for the audio: It is as advertised; no other album that I have has the ability to immerse me in the sound quite like this DVD does. Five speakers are used to give you depth and perspective versus the usual two; so music revolves around you and moves back and forth from speaker to speaker. Imagine seeing Star Wars in the theatre; so if a space ship flies overhead on the screen you hear the sound come from the back of the theatre and move to the front (where you are looking/the screen). This album takes that concept and applies it to music. That's the jist of it. Chronologie 6 sounds unbelievable; so do the new Aerology/Aerozone tracks and all the other works; I mean there is not a weak track.

This is a new direction in sound; I commend Jarre for doing this; it's easy to complain and knock the album down because it's hard to figure it out; but believe me, when you figure it out it does not disappoint. I have other DVD-audio material and it does not compare to the quality of this album.

Thanks for always pushing the envelope Jean Michel. Just know that there are those of us around the world that appreciate it very much! Looking forward to the next great album.