Essentials
My dear friend Francis Dreyfus, publisher and founding president of Francis Dreyfus Music, passed away in 2010.
I wished to pay tribute to him in compiling some excerpts of my albums which were released on his label between 1976 - release of Oxygene, and 2001 - release of Sessions 2000.
The choice of tracks is a personal recollection of great moments shared together in the studio, travelling, or on the occasion of my concerts somewhere in the world ; these tracks represent our special path of music and friendship...
My music would most likely not have been the same without the presence of Francis, or Helene his wife, by my side over those years.
Rarities
For the very first time compiled, here is a selection of tracks I composed before the success of Oxygene.
At the age of 14/15 when I first started to play in a band, I very rapidly became interested in transforming the sounds of guitar, organ, flute…by manipulation, varying pitch, adding distortion, recording backwards, creating echo effects and such, on a small Grundig tape-recorder that was given by my grandfather, André Jarre.
When I entered the GRM (Musical Research Group), I realized that what I intuitively wanted to achieve was in fact a revolution initiated years before by a French composer, engineer and acoustician, Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer developed a genre of avant-garde music known as Musique Concrète, considering music not solely in terms of notes and traditional solfeggio, but in terms of sounds ; he was my master during three years…
Also influenced by my early study of classical harmony, I was interested in creating bridges between musique concrete, electronic, classical, pop…bringing together experimental sounds and melody.
The selection of tracks in Rarities illstrates a few examples of my work during this period.
1.Souvenir Of China03:59 (Jean Michel Jarre)
2.Oxygene 203:12 (Jean Michel Jarre)
3.Arpegiateur06:16 (Jean Michel Jarre)
4.Oxygene 404:14 (Jean Michel Jarre)
5.Equinoxe 406:42 (Jean Michel Jarre)
6.Calypso 202:28 (Jean Michel Jarre)
7.Zoolook03:52 (Jean Michel Jarre)
8.Magnetic Fields 105:20 (Jean Michel Jarre)
9.Magnetic Fields 204:02 (Jean Michel Jarre)
10.Equinoxe 503:55 (Jean Michel Jarre)
11.Industrial Revolution 202:22 (Jean Michel Jarre)
12.Rendez Vous 403:59 (Jean Michel Jarre)
13.Gloria, Lonely Boy05:30 (Jean Michel Jarre)
14.Oxygene 6 06:21 (Jean Michel Jarre)
15.Space Of Freedom (March 23)08:02 (Jean Michel Jarre)
1.Happiness Is a Sad Song (1968)05:53 (Jean Michel Jarre)
2.Hypnose (1970)03:29 (Jean Michel Jarre)
3.Erosmachine (1969)02:58 (Jean Michel Jarre)
4.La Cage (1969)03:23 (Jean Michel Jarre)
5.Chanson des granges brûlées / Song of The Burnt Barns (1973)02:45 (Jean Michel Jarre)
6.Windswept Canyon (1970)07:39 (Jean Michel Jarre)
7.The Abominable Snowman (1970)00:52 (Jean Michel Jarre)
8.Deserted Palace (1970)02:22 (Jean Michel Jarre)
9.Le pays de Rose / Roseland (1973)02:01 (Jean Michel Jarre)
10.Rain Forest Rap Session (1971)01:40 (Jean Michel Jarre)
11.Black Bird (1972)03:06 (Jean Michel Jarre)
12.Music Box Concerto (1971)02:41 (Jean Michel Jarre)
13.Iraqi Hitch-Hiker (1971)02:25 (Jean Michel Jarre)
14.Les granges brûlées / The Burnt Barns (1973)03:13 (Jean Michel Jarre)
15.La Cage (Vitalic RMX 2010)04:16 (Jean Michel Jarre)
16.Erosmachine (Vitalic RMX 2010)03:45 (Jean Michel Jarre)