There is hardly any relevant sheet metal by the French synthesizer giant but his megalomaniacal live shows still regularly attract hundreds of thousands of people. Solidarnosc Live is the recording of the concert that Jarre gave in Gdansk, Poland in 2005, at the request of Lech Walesa, the former union leader, ex-president of Poland and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The purpose of the event was
… to commemorate the famous strike at the Lenin shipyard in August 1980. After long negotiations, the communist government then allowed an independent trade union and the right to strike for the first time. It would be the beginning of the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The famous shipyard has been converted by Jarre into a modern industrial setting with gigantic cranes and warehouses. In addition to music specially composed for the occasion, there is of course the classic over. The event was attended by 170,000 people, but it does not want to be really festive with the cold sounds that Jarre conjures from his computers and synthesizers. The economic situation in Poland, which is hardly better than 25 years ago, perhaps gives little reason to do so. (MS)more
