J.M. Jarre
Real Name:
Jean Michel Jarre
Profile:
Jean Michel Jarre (August 24, 1948, Lyon, France) is a French composer of electronic music. Son of Maurice Jarre, a composer of film music, who has written the scores to such films as Lawrence Of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago, among many others. He is well-known for staging spectacular outdoor concerts of his music, which feature laser displays and fireworks, and three of which appeared in the Guinness Book of Records for their large audiences. One of his albums, Musique pour supermarchés had a print run on only a single copy, which was auctioned to raise money for French artists. In 1986 he worked with NASA; astronaut Ronald McNair was to play the saxophone part of Jarre's piece Rendez-Vous VI while in orbit on board the Space Shuttle Challenger. It was to have been the first piece of music recorded in space, for the album Rendez-Vous. After the Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986, the piece was recorded with a different saxophonist, retitled Ron's piece and the album dedicated to the seven Challenger astronauts. He is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
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Aliases:
1906, Electric Choo Choo Band, Foggy Joe, Jammie Jefferson, Jo Sherman, Pop Corn Orchestra, Superfly, The
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Jean-Michel Jarre
| A. Jarre
| J. Jarre
| J. M. Jarre
| J. Michel Jarre
| J.-M. Jarre
| J.M. Jarre
| J.M.Jarre
| Jarre
| Jarre, Jean Michel André
| Jean - Michel Jarre
| Jean Michael Jarre
| Jean Michel Jarré
| Jean Michel Jarre
| Jean-M.-Jarre
| Jean-Michael Jarré
| Jean-Michel-Jarre
| JM Jarre
| JMJ
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Reviews & Discussion
As a music collector, and lover of all things synth, Jarre is an included artist in my ever expanding music collection. As much as I like his work, I have to bring up the fact that when Jarres 'Oxygene part IV' charted in August 1977, Kraftwerks 'Autobahn' had already been doing the rounds for more than 2 years. If you want pioneering electro/synth then start from Germany before arriving at France.
While he's undoubtedly a massive commercial one-man force and the subject of intense adoration from a seriously geeky fanbase, the lack of consensus among the many self-appointed Harold Blooms of electronic music regarding Jarre's (non-)inclusion in the canon is striking and shows how one man's techno pioneer is another man's purveyor of insignificant housewife-friendly electronic schmaltz. But while Jarre's romanticism sometimes tip over into sentimental sappiness and ill-advised kitsch (like "Magnetic Fields Part 2"s unfortunate resemblance to Elton John's "Crocodile Rock"), and his infamous concerts were some of the most megalomaniac excesses ever conceived, his most inspired music is instrumental synth pop genius which has stood the test of time remarkably well. Post-80's Jarre is for the most part eminently avoidable, but from Oxygene and ca. a decade onwards, the Frenchman popularized electronic music with a lot more style and finesse than he's often accused of. And the break in "Equinoxe Part 5" is textbook proto-techno.
Jarre might have been a source of inspiration for a LOT of dance producers in the 80's and 90's (just take a listen at his track 'Arpeggiator', this is massive!!!), but his roots were far more in pop and new-age. He was a pioneer in the latter, and indeed you can go crazy from listening to his stuff...combine it with some Vangelis and you're in for a trip to the asylum...
When Jarre made his synthesizer stuff, we never said "trance" or something like that. "Oxygene" and "Equinox" is music in tradition of Mike Oldfield, only electronic. And there are no parts on these records (maybe except "Equinox 6") that have trance character. It was just simple pop music, electronic folk, not meant as electronic dance music. Nothing more. btw, some people said that listening to this music could make you crazy because the sounds were so clean! lol!
