Born on August 24: Jean-Michel Jarre, electronic music's bubble of Oxygen

Son of composer Maurice Jarre, he was born in Lyon in 1948. The author of Oxygène is celebrating his 76th birthday…

When he was barely 5 years old, his father, Maurice, left the family home to pursue his dreams in the United States. Jean-Michel suffered from this absence for a long time. His father composed scores for numerous ballets and concertos but is especially renowned for his dozens of film scores including 'The Longest Day', 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'Doctor Zhivago', 'Is Paris Burning?', 'The Damned', 'Weekend at Zuydcoote', 'The Road to India' and 'Mad Max'. And not only! Jean-Michel was never interested in his deceased father's career and probably admired him even less. What we can imagine is that he wanted to be equal to or even surpass the person responsible, in his eyes, for his childhood sadness.

His mother, France, a former resistance fighter during the Second World War, immediately understood Jean-Michel's attraction to music. When he was still a child, and his mother had moved to Paris with him, she introduced him to jazz at the 'Chat qui pêche' that was run by one of her friends. Jean-Michel, amazed, rubbed shoulders with legends like Don Cherry and Chet Baker. Curious and a jack-of-all-trades, Jean-Michel decided that he wanted to learn music. He first acquired a foundation in classical music before moving on to contemporary music as well as learning how to play the electric guitar! The rock groups he participated in, such as Mystère IV, did not leave an unforgettable imprint behind. But with one of them, The Dustbins, made an appearance in the film 'Des garçons et des filles' by Etienne Périer.

Balancing between access to the general public and further research, he discovered the first synthesizers (imposing Moog and VCS) at the very end of the 60s, at the same time as the German precursors of the genre like Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk. The album "Oxygène", initially released in late 1976 in France, is part of this lineage. Inspired by Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' released three years earlier, each track has the same name with a number attached to it. Some, such as 'Oxygène Pt. 5', are inspired by classical music (Ravel's stainless 'Boléro'), others are atmospheric, such as 'Oxygène, Pt. 6' and, against all expectations, the album even consists of a worldwide hit with 'Oxygène Pt. 4'. It's always challenging to verify these kinds of figures precisely, but 'Oxygène' is very likely the best-selling French album outside of France.

Despite an incredible number of twists and turns, endless negotiations with authorities and a series of technical problems (which deserve another entire article), Jean-Michel Jarre was the first Western artist to perform in China in 1981. Four years before Wham! The French musician has always loved unusual places and huge crowds. In France, he has performed at the Place de la Concorde (1979), the Palais de Versailles (2023), Mont St Michel (1993), on the banks of the Saône in his hometown of Lyon (1986) and of course at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (1995). He also holds the record for the concert that attracted the most people: in Moscow in 1997. It is estimated that more than three million spectators were present! In May of this year, for a more intimate performance, he invited Brian May (guitarist of Queen) to join him for a unique experience in Bratislava. At 76, Jean-Michel Jarre still does the splits with disconcerting ease.

To conclude this quick overview of a spearheading career, did you know that he also wrote texts for Patrick Juvet but also for 'Paradis perdus' (1973) and 'Les mots bleus' (1974) by Christophe..?

Photo: Jean-Michel Jarre on the RTBf set in Liège (Belgium) in April 1989 for the release of the album "Revolutions" (© Etienne Tordoir)