Rendez-Vous is an album by synthesizer musician Jean Michel Jarre. It was released in 1986, and comprises six parts. As with many Jarre albums, the parts are simply named after the album, being First Rendez-Vous, Second Rendez-Vous and so on. The final part is, however, named Last Rendez-Vous (rather than Sixth), and has come to be known more commonly as Ron's Piece.

The Ron in question is the astronaut Ron McNair, who was intended to play the saxophone part in space, making the Last Rendez-Vous the first piece of commercial music to be recorded in space. Ron, along with the rest of the crew, was killed on the 28th of January, 1986 as the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded just over a minute into its flight. Ron's Piece featured regularly in Jarre's concerts of the Rendez-Vous period, and was always accompanied by a dedication from Jarre to his lost friend.

Rendez-Vous has a heavy baroque feel to it; the main part of the music is reminiscent of an organ piece, perhaps a little like Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. The bassline is heavy and dramatic, and electronic choirs (replaced with real choirs in live performance) add to the bombastic, dramatic feel of the music. The second side (this was back when albums had second sides!) began with the usual short, more poppy piece - in this case the Fourth Rendez-Vous. Singles were released, and the track popped up regularly on 8 and 16 bit computer demo pieces, in the same way that Magnetic Fields 2 did.

The album notes list an impressive set of instruments, and when listening to the album it's clear that a lot of it was recorded live. The custom-designed Matrisequencer is in there, along with a whole stack of Moogs, an ARP, the Eminent and Emulator - everything you'd expect and more. The Laser Harp, too, made a debut with this album; it's listed in the liner notes as an instrument, but since the actual laser harp is little more than a trigger, it's doubtful whether it was used to record the album. But you never know. Certainly, the laser harp made an excellent concert showpiece, and the Third Rendez-Vous is always performed live using this. Jarre is an excellent showman, and drawing on heavy gloves and a pair of shades before advancing on a glittering array of lasers never fails to impress.

The album was rather successful, reaching number nine in the UK charts. Concerts accompanied the album, including the ones in Houston and Lyon which were combined to make a live video release, as well as a live album.

Tracklist

1 First Rendez-Vous
2 Second Rendez-Vous
3 Third Rendez-Vous
4 Fourth Rendez-Vous
5 Fifth Rendez-Vous
6 Last Rendez-Vous (Ron's Piece)

Run-time: 35:06