Oxygene

Estranged son of famed composer Maurice Jarre, French synthesist Jean Michel Jarre studied at Pierre Schaeffer's GRM during the late '60s and early '70s. His earliest release was a 45, "La Cage" b/w "Eros", a mixture of electronics and tape collages - none of which should be surprising considering his pedigree. From there to the international success of Oxygene was quite a leap, especially considering Jarre had composed just few soundtracks in between utilizing his own burgeoning home studio. Of course this was no academic affair; his electronic styling here is akin to that of Vangelis, Synergy or even Tomita: "regular" music played with electronic instruments. In between the whooshes of sound he uses melody rather than rhythm or dissonance to hook the listener; in fact, "Part 2" borrows a motif that has more than a striking resemblance to the pop standard "Winter Wonderland"! Jarre uses a battery of keyboards and synthesizers to create an album that's entirely enjoyable, with the latter half even approaching the progressive. In fact, the album's sonic signature, one bound to those instruments, is perhaps its greatest triumph: it sounds fantastic. Yet it's a veritable statement nonetheless, predating the lighter instrumental new age music of the 1980s, and providing a career path of many others to follow. And Jarre's celebrity aside, the album is largely responsible for launching electronic music into the popular music mainstream. Not only was it a phenomenal success in his native France, but the album also reached No. 2 in the UK (with the single, "Oxygene Part 4" rose to No. 4), while breaking into the Top 100 in the US. In 1978, he released the me-too follow-up Equinoxe to similar success. Since then, he has made a habit of performing concerts on the grandest of scale, including some of the first from a Western artist in China. Jarre would release Oxygene 7-13 in 1997 and a rerecording of the original album for its 30th anniversary in 2007.