The Twelve Dreams Of The Sun

Jean-Michel Jarre had no particular plans for the Millennium New Year's Eve.

Then, in November 1997, came the terrorist attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor, in which 62 people were killed, most of them foreign tourists. The attack struck at the heart of an industry Egypt depended on. UNESCO, wanting to support a country that is home to some of the world's most precious cultural heritage, asked Jarre to travel to Egypt as its Goodwill Ambassador and use his profile to draw international media attention back to Egyptian tourism.

During his visit, conversations with the Egyptian government turned to how the country could project a positive, modern image to the world. Out of those discussions came an invitation: to conceive and perform a concert welcoming the new Millennium at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza, the last surviving wonder of the ancient world.

The result was The Twelve Dreams of the Sun, inspired by the ancient Egyptian belief that the sun travels through twelve hours of night before being reborn at dawn. Jarre designed the show together with stage designer Mark Fisher and director Christian Bourret, and it took over a year to plan and organise. The concert began on 31 December 1999 and continued through the night into 1 January 2000, in front of an audience of 120,000. It was split into two parts, a Main Concert and a Sunrise Concert.

The evening also served as the live premiere of Jarre's new album Metamorphoses, a blend of techno, trance and world music in which singer Natacha Atlas brought Eastern vocals into dialogue with Western electronics.

Nature, however, had its own plans. Jarre's team had prepared giant projections for the faces of the Great Pyramid, but a thick blanket of fog made the pyramids almost invisible, and most of the projections had to be abandoned. Parts of the concert were nonetheless broadcast live on television around the world.