About InDoors

As you all know, I have always taken great pleasure in designing shows…For me, the visual aspect of the concerts is an extension of my music, a most important dimension to the live performance.

The day I decided to take my music outdoors, it was because I was convinced that electronic music could really resonate quite amazingly outside the confines of a traditional concert-hall, which is quite difficult to achieve with classical, non-electronic instruments.

But by bringing hoards of keyboards, computers, and desks on-stage, which are not the most dynamic of tools, I then wanted to create the visual layer of my music, to give the notes and sounds life, colour and character.

I imagined using the surrounding architecture and night sky as a blank canvas, and paint the music with light in the form of beams, lasers or pyrotechnics… This became a signature for me and brought me to magnificent landscapes around the globe. These city-scale, outdoor concerts are huge machines, that require so much work and detail, like a one-off, land-art, architectural project, tailored to a unique landmark.

After the success of the very special Oxygene Tour in 2008, I imagined creating a concert performance based on some of my own favourite pieces through time and which I revisit for this World Tour and perform live with over 70 instruments on-stage.

This specially conceived concert performance for Arenas would also enable me to finally tour the world with a unique concept that I could carry with me and adjust every evening to best fit the host venue : quite the reverse to what I had being doing over the years ! But I took the restrictions of the Arena venue as an incentive to deliver something very different to what they host regularly. As I was working on this new project, I realised that I could exploit most of my artistic obsessions in a more optimal way, in a closed venue, than being on the big, city-scale. In the Arena, you can be anywhere the music and your imagination takes you, there are no landmark references: I finally have an opportunity to immerse the audience in sound, lights and lasers : more than proximity, I can encapsulate the audience in a hypnotic way.

I designed the stage-set to be as open and wide as allowed, to offer a panorama and a vista that only the venue limits ; this meant that I did not want any sound stacks hanging each side of the stage, breaking the sight-line…that was a challenge ! I wanted to escape from the traditional set of any stage performance to date, I wanted to clear the space, to open the horizon, where all lights and effects would not be obstructed by the sound stacks.

You will be surprised to see on arrival in the venue, that the PA system has effectively disappeared…I have worked with the best systems engineers, the French company call L-Acoustics, and you are about to experience a revolutionary sound, coming live from behind the stage !

The sound stacks are behind the backdrop, at the back of the stage, which itself is made of a special gauze that lets the sound permeate. This is the first time in a live concert that the sound is invisible ; the fact that it is behind the stage, concealed, and of a unique quality, gives an overall even, powerful, warm and wide sound – pure magic.

Amongst the array of analogue synthesizers, also some digital, and other stuff, I have revamped my Laser Harp and am really looking forward to revealing it in the Arena where it will take its rightful place for you to enjoy close-up.

Anyway, I put a lot of energy, and had a lot of fun with the crew, into making this stage production a special trip for all of you (and me too!) who come to experience it ; my invitation to you, is to let go, open your senses and ENJOY !

Love,

JMJ