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| Friday, June 10, 2011 - Two CD Set from Jean Michel Jarre | In one way Jean Michel Jarre, an artist who has been a household name for more than three decades, sold over 80 million records and played to the largest concert audience in history (on several occasions) clearly needs no introduction. And yet in some ways he most certainly does as this instant recognition and ubiquity can sometimes mask his originality, artistic quality and profound influence.
'Essentials & Rarities' is a double album showcasing the best of the work that we know, coupled with the best of the 'pre-fame' work that led up to it. In doing so it provides an ideal opportunity to rediscover both the music and the man, reconsidering what we thought we knew about both and regrounding them in a more balanced historical and contemporary perspective.
The album is Jean Michel's tribute to Francis Dreyfus, the iconic French producer and founder of Dreyfus Music, one of France's biggest independent Jazz and French Music labels, who died last year. It was Dreyfus who first 'discovered' Jean Michel and released his breakthrough album 'Oxygène' in 1976 and the two would forge a successful collaboration spanning the next quarter of a century.
'Essentials' is Jean Michel's personal selection of tracks from this period and not only covers the giant albums 'Oxygène', 'Équinoxe', 'Magnetic Fields' and 'Zoolook' but does so using a completely new remastering process, going back to the original analogue tapes to reveal new levels of detail and clarity.
'Rarities' reveals the hitherto unknown Jarre, covering material recorded prior to the emergence of 'Oxygène', some while still a student under Pierre Schaeffer the father of Musique Concrète and director of the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicale). In these early pieces one can hear Jean Michel's style growing in embryo, his twin concerns for abstract sound and pop melody which when ultimately fused would lead to the pioneering and enormously successful works we associate with him.
Indeed such was the completeness of this success that we sometimes forget what a profound influence he was and remains on successive waves of electronic musicians. The lineage from Stockhausen to Kraftwerk to Berlin techno / minimal for example is well known and acknowledged and yet the equivalent from Schaeffer to Jarre to Daft Punk / Justice / Vitalic remains largely unrecognized. Hopefully this album, which provides future as well as historical context in the form of two Vitalic remixes of his debut 1971 single release 'La Cage' / 'Erosmachine' will begin the process of changing that.
The 2 CD Boxset will be released on 11July 2011, on Disques Dreyfus. |
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