Oxygène Pt.4
By Jean-Michel Jarre
“The first thing that comes to my mind about French composer Jean-Michel Jarre is his approach to electronic music. It is deeply artistic. ”
You only need to hear him talk for 30 seconds, and you will realize it. This happens because of his intuition after attending an exhibition by French artist Pierre Soulages at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Jarre realized that what Soulages was doing with paint could be done with electronic instruments. In the mid-70s, a good knowledge of experimental music and synthesizers was starting to have them perceived as guitars and keyboards. Instruments to make music differently.
This historical period was perfect for this transition for synths and effects from obscure gears to musical instruments to be used for pop music and not only for experimental compositions.
Son of French composer Maurice Jarre, Jean-Michel grew up surrounded by music. A friend of his mother ran the modern jazz club Le Chat Qui Pêche (The Fishing Cat) in Paris, where saxophonists John Coltrane and trumpet player Chet Baker were regular performers.
In 1968 Jarre set up a small recording studio in the kitchen of his flat in Paris. His early equipment included his first synthesizer, an EMS VCS 3, and an EMS Synthi AKS linked to Revox tape machines. In 1969 he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète. Finally, he was introduced to the Moog modular synthesizer and, like many German Kosmishe Musik scene musicians, spent time working at the studio of influential German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne.
He spent the following years composing music for expositions, ballet, theatre, advertisements, and television programs. In 1973 he released his first two albums, Deserted Palace and Les Granges Brûlées, but his musical career changed in 1976 when he released his electronic masterpiece Oxygène.
Oxygène is Jarre's first album not intended for use as a soundtrack and was recorded with his gears in his kitchen studio with the addition of a Korg Mini Pops drum machine for beats. Despite an initial criticism by the British press, the album completely changed the perception of electronic music worldwide and became a huge success selling 12 million copies. It was probably the first time electronic music became a mainstream product in the way we could intend it now.
Jarre started touring worldwide and became the first Western musician officially invited to perform in China, an exceptional event at the time. Jarre is today known for his epic gigs, the first massive productions in terms of visual effects and locations, culminating with his show in Moscow on 6th September 1997. He played for the largest audience ever: 3.5 million people.
Oxygène consists of six tracks, numbered simply "Oxygène Part I" to "Part VI." The most famous track is Part 4. Its epic 5-note progression is composed in a one-night session using the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, an instrument introduced by Michel Geiss, a French sound engineer, instrument designer, and musician who was a long-time collaborator of Jarre.
