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TV 7

"Jean-Christian MICHEL's Music escapes all definition. On listening to him one plunges within it... It is magic, luminous sound. It speaks of the origin and the infinity. It is the alpha and the omega."

RECORD RETAILER

"New music craze sweeping France.

"A strange music phenomenon is sweeping across France. And the man at the top of the new craze is Jean-Christian MICHEL who plays the clarinet. But the twist is that he only performs in churches although there is no apparent religious connotation to his performances... And he is now one of France's major disc acts. His first album "Requiem" on the Riviera label is currently at the top of the french bestselling albums chart while his second "Aranjuez" has just enterted the chart..."

BILLBOARD - A whole page

International News Reports
MICHEL to get Int'l sendoff by Barclay...

"The young composer and clarinettist generates a new social phenomenon in France... Michel appared last month for a weekat the 13th century St Victor Abbey here. Each night, the 1,000 seatercurch was packed to capacity. Extra seats had to be placed around the altar...

A London visit for Michel this year is being negociated and he may also appear in Belfast Nothern Ireland... This year MICHEL is booked for church performances in Brussels, Genoa and Cologne, and in March will make a week of appearences in Paris...On this occasion CED will invite teams from London's BBC and ITV to see him perform"...

NOT THE LONDON NEWS REWIEW ( Feb.2005 on The Web )

Jean-Christian MICHEL : my interest piqued
I gave my brother a strangely annotated French LP for Christmas, covered in Baudelaire quotes. The artist: Jean-Christian MICHEL.

"At the age of ten, he who would later become a gynaecological surgeon chose the clarinet whilst undertaking a classical education at the conservatoire. It led him first towards Jazz with "all the expressiveness, which takes the audience by the guts and its swing with which it is so interesting to play".

HALLER KREISBLAT
BACH à la MICHEL ging mehr unter die Haut als ehrfurchtsgetränkte Originale
"Jean-Christian MICHEL brought us an evening of élan and dynamism, which not only excited the younger members of the audience, but also delighted the representatives of the older generation.
The packed church had never known such a triumph during " BACH Tage ".

"The unending applause threatened to raise the roof. The amazed audience demanded encore after encore... It was a demonstration in honour of BACH, completely extraordinary, electrifying and fascinating.... Whether it was arrangements of BACH or MICHEL's own works overflowing with imagination, the clarinettist treats the music with an infinite sensibility. J.S BACH would certainly have loved it... "

ILLUSTRATED EVENING ( Brussels )
"Music of Light" by Jean-Christian MICHEL : "the most original album of the year, which will not leave many people indifferent."

HAMBURGER ABENDSBLATT
Jean-Christian MICHEL : "Sprache des Herzens"... ( an article of one page ! )

MTV-AKTUEL
"Jean-Christian MICHEL : Musik, das ist wie Leben, Liebe,Tod"

DE TELEGRAAPH
"Klarinettist Jean-Christian in Amsterdam : God op de hitparade"

HAMBURGER ABENDSBLATT ( translated from the German )
"The French composer and clarinettist Jean-Christian MICHEL gave his concert to St Michael Kirche in front of more than 2000 people.

In truth the abundance of the applause was as unusual in this church as the mass of people who had crammed in, standing at the edges or sitting on the steps of the altar.

The clarinettist made his own way in the music which he endowed with a new character, by the conjugation of a jazz-influenced rhythm with harmonies directly inspired by the JS BACH's Sacred music : a meditative universe imprinted with purity and with the life-force.

The interpretations of J.S BACH, PLAY BACH or MICHEL's JAZZ BACH remain faithful to their subject and do not betray the spirit of Cantor of Leipzig. In most of the pieces a sort of solemnity resounds in every note, a sacred and traditional solemnity which transports us from the rigour of daily life to the frontiers of a blissful beauty.

One can only admire the magnificent sound of Jean-Christian MICHEL's clarinet : from a sweet sensitivity to the unreality almost imperceptibly played, MICHEL works its sounds, shakes them and vibrates them, whispers or cries them and has few equals in this art.

But MICHEL is also the composer of the "Vision d'Ezéchiel", an incredible musical intensity, during which, the audience can not refrain from keeping time… The deafening applause was unending in God's house.

The spectators demanded encore after encore by cheering and by stamping their feet and clapping their hands in rhythm : MICHEL and his performers complied with a good and cheerful grace in spite of the obvious fatigue. Such brilliance explains the fascination exercised by Jean-Christian MICHEL on his public …"

PRESS FROM FRANCE

LE FIGARO MAGAZINE
"Jean-Christian MICHEL is fascinated by the mysteries of the universe, science and consciousness... he seeks to transform into vibrations of cosmic energies: Some of his pieces express dreams, others spring with an exultant joy"

PARIS-MATCH - Philippe Bouvard
"The silences seem more like allusions than pauses. His look seems to come from another world: Le Grand Meaulnes ought to have been watching."

LE PARISIEN LIBÉRÉ
"He lives and expresses himself through his music. One could even say that he communicates with it to better restore us to the force of light and emotion that he shares with us throughout his recital. At the conclusion of the concert the audience wonders whether they have been dreaming"…

FRANCE SOIR
..."The talent of a quartet in one performer."

ICI PARIS
"Twenty thousand spectators invaded the quays of l'Isle Saint Louis to hear clarinettist Jean-Christian MICHEL..."

LE PROGRÈS
"A music encompassing the past and the future synthesized in current rhythms..."

LA VIE
"His music communicates an inexpressible fervour and arouses emotion and thought."

LA PROVENCE
"From the first he knows how to establish a climate which touches the heart and does not let go. His inimitable clarinet sound gives birth to strange dreams... A music difficult to describe although it is beautiful and harmonious... The long ovations which punctuated his concert were more than deserved."

LE QUOTIDIEN DU MÉDECIN
"Jean-Christian MICHEL's music bewitches the senses and the spirit as if by magic"

LE DAUPHINE LIBERÉ
"A successful musical alchemy... An uncommon talent... The arrangements are very up to date, using the ultramodern technology of Computer Assisted Music ... But Jean-Christian MICHEL has not denied the spirit of the music which made him famous and brought him great success. He has preserved the authenticity of it, the soul could one say and enriched it."

L'EST RÉPUBLICAIN
"This composer of immense talent has written a music which is as difficult to describe as it is beautiful and harmonious."

NICE MATIN
"Jean-Christian MICHEL: "The impact comes from a simple and frank melodic line supported by popular and solid harmonies. The group has power and sensitivity without saccharine sweetness. The musical form is that of chorals and fugues, decorated with variations which splash, run and stream …"

LE JOURNAL DU CENTRE
"Jean-Christian MICHEL towers in the shadows of Vezelay's nave, searching for infinity even beyond the walls of the building, sending his music towards space. The shadow of this new presaging archangel envelops the pillars of the nave and the transept. The music streams, bounces, and cascades sound whose every inspiration unceasingly remind us that the interpreter's resources of power are unlimited..."

OUEST FRANCE
"A moved audience ardently followed the concert given by the clarinettist Jean-Christian MICHEL."

SOME TITLES OF RECENT PRESS REPORTS

JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : THE CLARINET ON THE SUMMIT. JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL COMPOSER BEYOND TIME - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL: 15.000 PEOPLE APPLAUD HIM IN PARIS - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL WINNER OF THE HIMALAYAS - JAZZ AND SACRED MUSIC WITH JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL TRIUMPHS* - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL'S STRANGE AND RARE TALENT - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : TWO TONES ABOVE - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL IN LASER-LIGHT - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL PASSES HIS BACH - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL BOOSTES THE ARANJUEZ's CONCERTO - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL BEWITCHES SAINT-LAURENT - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : AN ENCHANTER - CLARINETTIST JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : DAZZLING! - "BACH by MICHEL" WENT UNDER THE SKIN MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL SACRED ELIXIR - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL's SWING - THE ENCHANTED CLARINET WITH JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : A JOURNEY TOWARDS ANOTHER DIMENSION - A PRODIGIOUS ARTIST : JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL - JAZZ AND CLASSICAL WITH JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL AND THE CATHEDRAL : A DIVINE ALLIANCE - CONCERTS IN CHURCHES : JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL FILLED THE ROOM - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL AND HIS NEW MUSICAL UNIVERSE - A MUSICAL JOURNEY IN SPACE WITH JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL'S UNUSUAL MUSIC HAS SPELLBOUND THE PUBLIC - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL : A SUCCESSFUL MUSICAL ALCHEMY - JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL: A MAGNIFICENT DELIGHT...THE JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL PHENOMENON.

* The original French version "JEAN-CHRISTIAN MICHEL FAIT UN BACH -TABAC" employs a play on words "BACH-tabac" in place of "bar-tabac" ( a small bar which sells cigarettes ) and is based on a popular French expression for achieving a enormous success "Faire un tabac".

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