Laser Harp - Use in Jean-Michel Jarre Concerts

Use in Jean-Michel Jarre Concerts

The laser harp is one of the most famous instruments used by Jean Michel Jarre in his concerts. The instrument is used in almost every concert with the exception of Aero and the Oxygene 30th Anniversary Tour. It is almost always used in the third part of Second Rendez-Vous, but has also been used for tracks including Third Rendez-Vous, Chronologie 3, Calypso 2, and Oxygene 7. The characteristic sound of the laser harp in Jarre's performances is generated by a factory preset on the Elka Synthex synthesizer.

The first laser harp that Jarre used for The Concerts In China tour, has been made by Denis Carnus, a french engineer living in South Of France who has been working a lot with Bernard Szajner. On the LP the track was simply titled Laser Harp (or Harpe Laser in its original French).

A different laser-harp have been used by JM Jarre in the Houston, Lyon, and London concerts: this one was built by Philippe Guerre.

The laser harp for the Defense concert has been built by Claude Lifante.

After that, JM Jarre used a laser-harp built by Yan Terrien for the software and Philippe Langet for the hardware. This harp has been used by JM Jarre during fifteen years, supported by two technicians: Denis Benoit ans Laurent de La Casinière.

Some people suspect the laser harp, as well as some other custom instruments, is a fake; careful inspection of concert footage of Jarre playing the harp occasionally indicates that striking the same beam produces different notes, suggesting that the harp is simply designed to trigger the next correct note irrespective of which beam is broken. However, this method is unreliable, as videos are invariably edited before release. As an example, in the live recording of the Paris La Défense concert as broadcast on the Europe 2 radio station, it can be clearly heard that the laser harp is malfunctioning, and in fact after a while gets replaced by a different synthesizer. In the video release, no trace is left of this malfunction. Also the harp is fitted with foot pedals for selecting scales, making it quite plausible that the same beam can trigger different notes.

During Jarre's 2009 In-doors Arena Tour, he commented on his blog that he "should make a few intentional mistakes for people to really understand that it is live". Later the same day, at a concert in Helsinki, the harp "suddenly froze in Rendez Vous 2 for unknown reasons".