Équinoxe (, ) is the fourth studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released in December 1978 on the Dreyfus record label, licensed to Polydor Records for its worldwide distribution. The album featured two singles: "Équinoxe Part 4" and "Équinoxe Part 5", the latter having more success reaching No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart. It reached number 11 on the UK Album Chart and number 126 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Composition and recording The album was recorded from January to August 1978 in the makeshift recording studio set up in his apartment in Paris. The making of the album was done with a 16-track MCI tape. Jarre stated that although his previous album Oxygène was created without a concept in mind, Équinoxe was intended to represent a day in the life of a person, from waking up in the morning to sleeping at night. The aquatic, rain, storm and thunder sounds that play on various tracks were designed by French sound engineer Michel Geiss. Apart from using the ARP 2600, Jarre also used liberal echo whips in the various sound effects generated by the EMS VCS 3 synthesizer. Both the Eminent 310 Unique organ and the VCS 3 went through an Electro Harmonix Small Stone guitar phasing pedal in order to provide the string pads used on the album. The main sound of "Équinoxe Part 1" was created using Eminent's SUST string configuration. The album also used the Korg KR 55 drum machine. Jarre's musical ideas were initially recorded on a small cassette recorder, "as an audio scratch pad". Jarre considered discarding one of the recordings as he did not think that it was good enough, but Geiss convinced him to keep it, and the track later became "Équinoxe Part 7". Jarre also told Geiss that one of his wishes was to get a sequencer based on a matrix. Geiss designed the Matrisequencer 250, an 2x50 note instrument which "became one of the main instruments in Équinoxe." The Rhythmicomputer designed by Geiss also was used. The album was mixed at Gang Studio by Jean-Pierre Janiaud with assistance from Patrick Foulon. Artwork As with Oxygène, the cover art for Équinoxe used a painting by Michel Granger, in this case, Le trac (Stage Fright). Granger visited Jarre's private mansion in Croissy to present him with different paintings that would illustrate the album cover. Each of the