NEW YEAR’S EVE – DECEMBER 31, 2020
NORTH AMERICA – 5:25pm EST/2:25pm PST
CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME 11:25pm
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CITY OF PARIS & UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF UNESCO
In partnership with the City of Paris and under the patronage of UNESCO, electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre is teaming with French VR startup VRrOOm to take us into the New Year with a live stream trailblazing concert-spectacular set in the virtual environment of the planetary landmark Notre-Dame de Paris. The unique visual world created by Jarre in VR will also be the official midnight news image coming from the City of Paris.
“Welcome to the Other Side”—set for Thursday, December 31–is a one-off exclusive, worldwide and open-to-all, free concert experience whose ambition, beyond celebrating the New Year in a futuristic and festive way, is to send a message of hope for 2021: a digital and virtual invitation from Paris, the City of Light, vibrant metropole of the Arts & of Culture and home to the most famous cathedral in the world. Notre-Dame has a unique place in the collective imagination, it is a symbol of the strength and of World Heritage that binds us together.
Jarre’s virtual concert-spectacular invites us all to ring in the New Year together and social virtual reality gives the possibility to party together, wherever we are, including all who are socially or geographically isolated.
The live stream experience on December 31 will be produced as a cutting-edge simultaneously-mixed-media creation. Welcome to other side of reality, welcome into the New Year, welcome to your own personal celebration, welcome to a global party, all via your own chosen dimension:
– In total immersion on the social VR platform VRchat, accessible either simply via PC, or in virtual reality for the audience equipped with VR headsets
– Live-streaming on Jarre’s & other social media platforms via any PC or Mac, smartphone or tablet
– Live audio broadcast on Radio France’s France Inter, French public radio
– Live TV broadcast by French BFM Paris news channel
Jean-Michel Jarre will perform live from a studio near the cathedral in Paris, while his avatar plays inside a virtual Notre-Dame. The 45-minute concert that Jarre will perform will be comprised of tracks from his recent GRAMMY-nominated opus Electronica, as well as new reworked versions of his classics, Oxygène and Equinoxe.
The audio of the concert will be released on January 1, 2021 at 12:15 am CET // December 31, 2020 in North America at 6:15pm EST/3:15pm PST on all music streaming platforms under the title WELCOME TO THE OTHER SIDE – LIVE.
Jarre, whose legendary concert-spectaculars have broken world records in attendees and took place at some of the globe’s most renowned landmarks throughout his outstanding career, have left their imprint on world-class entertainment.”Welcome to the Other Side” is an invitation to enter the other side of the mirror and to travel from the physical concert world into a virtual fantasy world.
Jarre’s visionary creativity in partnership with VRrOOm’s VR designers come together here to create a concert-spectacular that is nothing short of his benchmark outdoor performances and above all a milestone today in setting new standards for music entertainment tomorrow.
“Virtual reality is to the performing arts today what cinema was to the theatre in its early days, a kind of curiosity,“ shares Jean-Michel Jarre. “I believe that VR will become tomorrow, a mode of expression in its own right.”
Play it loud and watch it on a big screen!
Join & share the party December 31, 2020, 5:25pm EST/2:25 PST in North America:
YouTube /jeanmicheljarre
Facebook /jeanmicheljarre
VRChat hello.vrchat.com
VRrOOm vrroom.buzzCity of Paris paris.fr
UNESCO unesco.org
France Inter Radio franceinter.fr
BFMTV & BFM Paris www.bfmtv.com
Created by Jean-Michel Jarre
Designed by VRrOOm
Produced by the City of Paris
Under the patronage of UNESCO
In partnership with Radio France & BFM TV / BFM Paris
Executive Production: R2B
About JEAN-MICHEL JARRE:JEAN-MICHEL JARRE has been one of the pioneering forces throughout the electronic music scene over the last five decades, having originally made his name in the 1970s for his critically acclaimed album OXYGENE. OXYGENE was unmistakably a catalyst that set electronic music well on its way to becoming the behemoth that it is today, with JEAN-MICHEL’s music and follow through albums (Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields, Rendez-Vous, Chronology…) breaking down boundaries of composing and production paving the path for what has become today the most popular genre of music of all time. With over 80 million albums sold worldwide to date, musicians and contemporary DJs often refer to JARRE’s influence and innovation, not only for his music but also for his singular vision and creation of outdoor concerts experience. JEAN-MICHEL JARRE’s legendary concerts have attracted Guinness Record-breaking audiences, with his live shows, often, if not always, taking place in some of the most extraordinary settings worldwide. He was the first western musician ever to be invited to perform in post-Mao China, and has also played the likes of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, The Sahara Desert and The Eiffel Tower, in addition to perhaps his most famous performance ever, where he played to a record 3.5 million people in Moscow. All in all, JARRE has held Guinness World Records for the largest live audiences over the continents notwithstanding his memorable one-off city-scale concert in Houston in 1986 for NASA’s 25th Anniversary and in a moving commemoration of the Challenger Mission to which over 1.3 million people gathered to share this groundbreaking show at the foot of Houston’s skyline.
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE is synonymous with the legendary as he continues to break new ground with each piece of music and live performance.
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