This is an outstanding compilation of two mega-concerts made by this french musician and his band.

It comprises most of his best earlier songs and includes compositions made exclusively for the Houston City 250th anniversary and the 25th of the NASA.

The Opera of Lyon orchestra sounds powerful and accurate conducted by Jarre himself. And the choir gives that celestial taste to some of the tracks, particularly the brilliant and quasi-Wagnerian Rendez-vous II.

Portions of radio and TV media describing the previous moments of the concert were included, just as in ¨The Concerts in China¨ some years before. That seems to be Mr. Jarre's trademark on live recordings.

Certainly this audio-only recording do not transmit the heart and soul of what that concerts were -I wish there would be a DVD release of them- but at least we have an extraordinary sample of the splendorous music those nights sounded.

For starters, I too was at this concert in Houston and I think 1.5 million was a grotesque understatement because it doesn't include the people watching from the free way or the park miles away (where I was) listening to the music on FM radio. I, like others, am really dissappointed in the fact that 2 of the pieces that I would most expect to be from Houston (Rendez-Vous 6 and 4) were from Lyon. I know Jarre is a perfectionist and the drummer got a little ahead of the band for Rendez-Vous 4 in Houston. That's probably why he chose the Lyon performance, but the Houston performance had so much more energy and soul.

An unfortunate side-note. The video for this was shot by a local crew using NTSC video. The only video version of this concert that was released was converted to the European PAL system. The master tapes are missing (or reused as TV stations tend to do) so if you ever wanted an NTSC copy, it would have to be dubbed from a PAL VHS tape which had already been heavily degraded by the conversion/dubbing process. This is why there will likely never be a DVD of it. It's very unfortunate IMHO. As good as this CD is, much of the impact, particularly on the more texture based tunes, comes from the visuals which we don't have.

The concert in Houston which I and 1.5 million of my closest friends attended was truly an awe-inspiring experience. This recording does not do justice to that magical evening when major highways shut down as people simply parked their cars on the Interstates to see and hear the awesome spectacular.

Why, oh why, did JMJ decide to use these ridiculous interviews of Houstonians conducted by local television stations as part of this recording??? I've never understood it. The excerpts from the Channel 13 (KTRH) news just aggrivate me as much as they also cause me to remember how one of the largest cities in the US came to a stop.

The most moving portion of the Houston show was the dedication of the Rendez-vous sections to be played by Ron McNair, one of the 7 astronauts killed after the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. To hear the version from Lyon left me a little empty.

All this being said, I do recommend this CD. As with most of Jarre's live material, the studio versions have their advantages and drawbacks, but Houston-Lyon does give a feel for what amazing things JMJ can do outside the studio.

If I'm Lyon, I'm Dyin', but I'm just as surprised as some of the other long-time Jarre fans who have noticed that this particular live CD is NOT a shining example of the man's wonderful artistry; it's a jumbled, mixed bag, more of a souvenir of the Concert(s) than an evocative aural event -- the most jarring (sorry, bad pun) disconnect is the Houston local news soundbite samples sprinkled throughout, not adding any value to the music. I may be alone here, but the choir is also an odd misstep.

I've listened to Jarre since a girlfriend once gave me a vinyl copy of a just-that-year released "Oxygene" (ahh, memories, thank you Margaret!), and I'm still listening, loving to listen to his recent work as well, such as "Metamorphoses", "Oxygene 7-13" (brilliant "sequel" to the original!), and even "Teo & Tea" (!Wha?!)

I was fortunate to buy my "Houston Lyon" copy used, so I'm not terribly disappointed, but I want to point other inquisitive listeners to the wonderful "Concerts in China" (get the separate two discs, the yellow cover and the blue cover) for live Jarre listening. Also, please give notice the sublime and playfully experimental "Zoolook," which I feel has always been ignored by listeners.

I bought this one for my parents' umpteenth wedding anniversary, and the notion of Jarre playing live was entirely new to them--and to me, really. Is this the next best thing to having been in the live audience? Quite possibly. To my mind it conveys a lot of the frenetic energy and power of the live shows. This is a good bet if you're working on a Jarre collection.