Oxygène

''Oxygène'' (, en, Oxygen) is the third studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre. It was first released in France in December 1976 by Disques Motors, and distributed internationally in 1977 by Polydor Records. Jarre recorded the album in a makeshift studio that he set up in his apartment in Paris, using a variety of analog and digital synthesizers, and other electronic instruments and effects.

French sound engineer, Michel Geiss helped Jarre in the purchase, recording and programming of some instruments used on the album. His musical style was influenced by the musique concrète, developed by Pierre Schaeffer, who mentored Jarre and taught him how to create music from pre-recorded sounds and not from notes. It was supported by two singles, "Oxygène (Part II)" and "Oxygène (Part IV)". Following the international success of the latter, the album became Jarre's breakthrough, reaching number one on the French Albums Charts. "Oxygène (Part IV)" was inspired by the track "Popcorn" by German-American electronic composer Gershon Kingsley.

On its international release it received negative reviews from ''NME'' writer Angus MacKinnon, and ''Music Week'', who, comparing it to work of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Mike Oldfield, described it as a "another interminable cosmic cruise" and "heavy throughout". ''Melody Maker'' writer, Karl Dallas wrote that "it repays further listening" but added that "seems to lack heart" and which is "too formally precise." Other critics such as Record Mirror's Robin Smith, and Record World were more favorable and stated that Jarre established "a variety of forms joined together by cohesive lines" and they described it as "an unusually melodic theme".

The album "led the synthesizer revolution of the Seventies" and has been described as "an infectious combination of bouncy, bubbling analog sequences and memorable hook lines". Musicians such as Brian Canham of Pseudo Echo considered the album a major influence. In 1978, it would be followed by ''Équinoxe'' and in 1979, Jarre held an open-air concert at the Place de la Concorde, causing the sales of both albums to increase, reaching worldwide figures of 15 million copies. It currently sold an estimated 18 million copies and is one of the best-selling French, electronic and instrumental albums in history.

Background

In 1967 Jarre travelled to London to sell his electric guitar and amplifier to be able to buy his first synthesizer, an EMS VCS 3 (one of the first units of the instrument), which he used on many of his subsequent albums. He also played guitar in a band called ''The Dustbins'' and mixed instruments including the electric guitar and the flute with tape effects and other sounds. Jarre spent since 1968 working with early analogue synthesizers and tape loops, and in 1969 he joined the ''Groupe de Recherches Musicales'' (), founded and led by Pierre Schaeffer, who developed musique concrete, a type of music composition that is mainly based on the use of pre-recorded sounds over the musical notes, also originated the concept of sampling. That same year he mixed the harmony, synthesizers and tape effects to record his debut single "La Cage/Erosmachine". In 1971, he left the institution and dedicated himself to design Triangle's electronic sound effects, also he went to the Pathé-Marconi record company to release it. Jarre had also done production work for some rock artists, earning enough to set up a small makeshift recording studio in the kitchen of his apartment on Rue de la Trémoille, near the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Initially it included a very basic equipment consisting of a few guitar pedals, a Farfisa organ, the EMS VCS 3, and an EMS Synthi AKS, these last two were linked to two Revox B77 tape machines.

One of Schaeffer's former students and artistic director of Disques Motors, Hélène Dreyfus convinced her husband, Francis Dreyfus, to hire Jean-Michel as an employee of his record label. Initially Francis offered Jarre a job as a copyright administrator, however he opted to sign an exclusive songwriting and recording contract. In 1972, the American synth-pop band Hot Butter released a successful version of Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn". Jarre in that same year released his respective cover version under the pseudonyms Pop Corn Orchestra and Jammie Jeferson. It although unsuccessful, the track would serve as an inspiration for his most successful single, "Oxygène (Part IV)".

Their first two albums as well as their previous single were recorded on the label, Disques Motors, however they were not published there. Jarre released on Sam Fox Productions his debut experimental album ''Deserted Palace'' intended to be used in films and on television. It was created using the VCS 3 and RMI Keyboard Computer. In 1973 he composed the soundtrack for the French drama film ''Les Granges Brûlées'' (English: The Burned Barns). In its beginnings in the label, he was mainly dedicated to writing music and lyrics for other artists inside and outside the label from 1972 to 1975. The royalties received by Jean-Michel during his collaborations with Françoise Hardy, Gérard Lenorman and Patrick Juvet allowed him to purchase the ARP 2600, used in several of his collaborations with the French singer Christophe and solo works.

In 1974, Jarre attended a conference on the analog synthesizer and the ARP 2600 at the TDF center in Issy-les-Moulineaux. It was carried out by radio and television engineers, and French musical instrument designer Michel Geiss. Later, Jarre contacts Geiss by phone to invite him to his private apartment, Geiss accepted and visited Jean-Michel's makeshift studio, where he had the ARP 2600, the Eminent 310 Unique, the VCS 3 and more. Shortly after meeting, Jarre and Geiss started working together during the recording of Jarre's next album. Geiss, who at that time worked as a maintenance technician at , advised Jarre on the purchase of instruments such as the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer at the Piano Center's music fair, and was in charge of the programming and recording of some of them. Later, Jarre managed to finance the purchase of different products like a Scully 8-track recorder and a mixture of Ampex 256 and 3M tape. In that same year, he composed the opening jingle for the A4 autoroute (also known as ''autoroute de l'Est''), some media such as ''The Telegraph'' pointed out the rumors of the possible original incarnation of "Oxygène (Part IV)" in the jingle.

Recording

Jarre recorded ''Oxygène'' between August and November 1976, using the makeshift recording studio in his apartment. For the album he mixed the characteristic elements of experimental and pop music. Jarre recovered in the Ferber studio his old Mellotron that had few functional keys to write the first piece of music for the album, "Oxygène (Part II)". During the recording of the album Jarre used a Revox tape to delay the sound coming out of a speaker in order to achieve a "huge sense of space". This liberal use of echo was used on the various sound effects generated by the EMS VCS 3 synthesiser.

A reverb effect was made through the VCS 3, plus Jean-Michel used a AKG stereo reverb and a EMT plate reverb which was meters long live and eight different stereo echoes. In the EMS Synthi AKS were played some little beep sounds used in the album, and the waves sound used in "Oxygène (Part II)", the album also used "evocations of chirping birds".

Jarre used various other synthesizers and electronic instruments to create the tracks of "symphonic electronic music" on ''Oxygène''. The sounds of the Farfisa organ were totally modified. Geiss programmed specific sounds in the ARP 2600, among them the main sound of "Oxygène (Part IV)" and the "breathing" waves sound in "Oxygène (Part VI)". The Eminent 310 organ as well as the VCS 3 went through a phase pedal for guitars Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phaser in order to provide the string pads used on the album. The RMI Harmonic Synthesizer and RMI Keyboard Computer were used on "Oxygène (Part IV)", "Oxygène (Part V)" and "Oxygène (Part VI)"; The sequence of "Oxygène (Part V)" was created with Keyboard Computer.

Some of the drum sounds on the album were produced using scotch to play two presets on a Korg Mini-Pops 7 drum machine simultaneously – "Oxygène (Part IV)" mixed the "rock" and " slow rock" presets, while "Oxygène (Part VI)" mixed " rhumba" and "bossa nova". "Oxygène (Part II)" instead used only the " swing" preset. The album was mixed by sound engineer Jean-Pierre Janiaud and his assistant Patrick Foulon at the Gang studio, it also was mastered at Translab studio.

Artwork

The cover art features a skull inside a dismembered Earth and is an adaptation of a 30 x 40 cm watercolor, also named ''Oxygène'', by the French painter Michel Granger. A picture of the painting was first published in 1972 in the magazine ''Pilote'', and in 1976 the artwork was displayed at the Marquet Gallery, in rue Bonaparte in Paris. Jean-Michel visited this gallery and bought it, then Granger received a phone call from the gallery director to inform him that Jarre wanted to see him in person. On 15 September 1976, Jarre met with Granger so that he could modify the background of the watercolor and adapt it to the square shape of an LP record.

The album title was taken from the artwork because he considered that he "perfectly adheres to the spirit of the songs". Jarre said: "30 years ago there weren't so many people thinking about the planet. But I've always been interested in that, not necessarily in a political way but in a poetic, surrealistic way." Jarre also told the English newspaper ''The Guardian'' that "in a way, I wanted to link everything to nature and environmental issues". Granger stated that "''Oxygène'' was part of a series about the damage being done to our planet. It was a pretty violent image for a record cover." He added, "That picture is the best known of all my work. It's my Mona Lisa. But I don't feel like it belongs to me any more. It belongs to anyone who loves the music of Jean-Michel Jarre."

Release

''Oxygène'' was turned down by several record companies such as Island Records founded by Chris Blackwell—who later considered that he made two mistakes in his life, among them rejecting ''Oxygène'' and Elton John's first album, ''Empty Sky''—. Jean-Michel decided to meet once again with Francis, the head of the Disques Motors label to see if he could release the album, to which he immediately agreed saying: "Right, well we have a world success...".

''Oxygène'' was released on 5 December 1976, and the first pressing of 50,000 copies were given away to a limited number of hi-fi shops vendors. They used a few copies of the album to showcase its stereo sound qualities to their customers, and also as an example of "state-of-the-art sound". These copies were also promoted through clubs and discos. In addition, Jean-Michel and Francis did a promotional poster campaign in Paris.

In early 1977, Jarre together with long-time collaborator Juvet decided to put together the same team from the album ''Mort ou vif'' and set about writing the album ', which contained the hit single "". The album was released in June and topped the charts. After another album with Christophe entitled ' in the same year, Jarre decided to stop writing music and lyrics for other artists and preferred to dedicate himself entirely to his solo musical career.

In 1977, the album was released internationally by Polydor Records, and by April, it had sold 70,000 copies in France. "Oxygène (Part IV)" was Jarre's breakthrough single worldwide, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart. This success led to the album reaching number one on the French Albums Charts, number two on the UK Albums and number seventy-eight on the US '' Billboard Top LPs & Tape''. "Oxygène (Part II)" was edited to about 3 minutes to be released in France as a single.

"Oxygène (Part IV)" began to play on the most important radio stations in his native country and Great Britain. Europe 1 used it as the theme of two of his regular programs, ''Hit Parade'' directed by Jean-Loup Lafont and basketball show ''Basket sur Europe 1'' in the credit titles. The radio station also dedicated an hour and a half program in Jean-Michel's studio, and played the entire album, bringing his music to millions of people. It was played on Dutch radio and television throughout the two days in 1977 that South Moluccan terrorists held. The BBC
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