Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene: 30th Anniversary Edition

Adore a Jarre

By 1977, Walter Carlos had paved the way, Tangerine Dream had catered to the connoisseur and Kraftwerk had had the huge hit, but it was Jean Michel Jarre who really brought the synthesizer into living rooms throughout the world with Oxygene, his six-part sculptured piece of sound, a critique on the state of the planet.

What set him apart from the Tomitas and the Vangelises (at least at this stage) was his unabashed love of melody, undoubtedly garnered from his father, composer Maurice Jarre. Virtually everything here could be played by an orchestra and sounds, unsurprisingly, like the soundtrack to a film. Ultimately denigrated for its ubiquity (for example, there’s now a machine on Southend seafront that plays the big hit Oxygene (Part IV) on a loop), Oxygene set Jarre on course for a lucrative career. Although never fashionable, his influence could certainly be heard throughout the next generation of dance musicians.

This remaster is accompanied by a 2D or 3D hi-def DVD recording in Stereoscopic, which gives you the impression of being there right next to Jarre and his cronies as they play aging machines, live from Beaucoup- Nouillant-Sur-Synth. This version has four new tracks, and is moderately, though not mind-blowingly, cosmic.

EMI | 5141372 (CD+2-DVD)

Reviewed by Daryl Easlea
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