Space of Freedom (Solidarnosc)

It was carried out by radio and television engineers, and French musical instrument designer Michel Geiss. Geiss, who at that time worked as a maintenance technician at Barclay studios [ fr ] , [31] 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. Jarre recorded Oxygène between August and November , using the makeshift recording studio in his apartment. Jarre used various other synthesizers and electronic instruments to create the tracks of "symphonic electronic music" on Oxygène. Some of the drum sounds on the album were produced using adhesive tape 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 ". The cover art features a skull inside a dismembered Earth and is an adaptation of a 30 x 40 cm watercolor, [6] [14] also named Oxygène , by the French painter Michel Granger.

The album title was taken from the artwork because he considered that he "perfectly adheres to the spirit of the songs". But I've always been interested in that, not necessarily in a political way but in a poetic, surrealistic way. 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. 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. Oxygène was turned down by several record companies [41] such as Island Records founded by Chris Blackwell [33] —who later considered that he made two mistakes in his life, among them rejecting Oxygène and Elton John 's first album, Empty Sky —.

Vivaldi Tribute

Oxygène was released on 5 December , [20] [42] and the first pressing of 50, 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, [6] [40] and also as an example of "state-of-the-art sound". In early , 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 Paris by Night [ fr ] , which contained the hit single " Où sont les femmes? The album was released in June and topped the charts. After another album with Christophe entitled La dolce vita [ fr ] 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 , the album was released internationally by Polydor Records , [45] and by April, it had sold 70, copies in France. He is quite exceptional and we're sure that by he will be recognised worldwide.

Jarre also received nearly 25 gold records worldwide. In the United States it sold over , copies in Los Angeles alone, [45] and by the end of , it sold , copies nationwide. Later, Francis created a label called Disques Dreyfus. Reaction to the album upon its release in the UK in its release was largely negative: the British music press, more interested in the developing UK punk scene, was oriented towards guitar-based music and hostile to most electronic music. The German spacers [Tangerine] Dream , Schulze et al mapped this part of the electronic galaxy aeons ago The album's [ Explore its prime influences instead. Considering the album as a French version of Mike Oldfield work, Music Week said: "Unfortunately, Jarre has produced a work that is ponderous in its self-conscious musicality — he definitely wears his art on his sleeve. Unlike Oldfield, he never stands back and laughs at his own creation. It is heavy throughout, and his influences continually jog the elbow — particularly the lugubrious touches of Mahler and the almost continuous Bach underpinning.

Karl Dallas of Melody Maker was kinder towards the album, saying that "the first time I heard this album I hated it It seemed so bland, so undemanding, so uneventful. I've got to admit it repays further listening, and that it is not quite the electronic Muzak I had written it off as initially. Personally, it still does not impress me as much as either, except at a technical level. It seems to lack heart, the sense of passionate involvement in the act of music-making which makes Edgar Froese 's work almost a musical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting. It is almost too accomplished, too formally precise. The most positive review came from Robin Smith of Record Mirror , in which he stated that, "It's pretty tough to communicate warmth through such music and the end product is usually stilted but Jean Michael Jarre has laid down a variety of forms joined together by cohesive lines. Retrospective reviews regard the album as a major work in the development of electronic music.

Phil Alexander of Mojo listed it as one of Jarre's three key albums and wrote that was "his conscious attempt to unite the worlds of avant-garde, electronic, classical and progressive music. Jim Brenholts from AllMusic stated that it "is one of the original e-music albums" and that it "has withstood the test of time and the evolution of digital electronica. Jarre's techniques and ability provide the rest. The information about the recognitions attributed to Oxygène was taken from Acclaimed Music. Welsh music writer, Mark Jenkins commented that the album "achieved a dynamic compromise between imaginative sound textures and accessible melodies that for one reason or another had been denied to earlier synthesizer artists. Oxygène was "one of the biggest catalysts to widespread use of the synthesizer in the s" [76] and influenced electronic artists like Moby , who collaborated with Jarre on his album, Electronica 1: The Time Machine. Personnel listed in the album's liner notes.

Adapted from the liner notes of the remastered version. Oxygène at Discogs list of releases. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. For other uses, see Oxygene. Jean-Michel Jarre. Electronic ambient synth-pop [1] space music [2] new-age [3] electropop [4]. Problems playing this file? See media help. Ambient Music Guide. Archived from the original on 9 December Retrieved 11 June Future Pub. Retrieved 18 September Backbeat UK. ISBN The Daily Telegraph. London, England. Retrieved 14 March Electro Shock! Backbeat Books. Retrieved 23 August Making the Steamroller Fly TV documentary. The Guardian. Retrieved 25 September Retrieved 25 August Fairlight Jarre. Retrieved 24 August Retrieved 26 December Archived from the original on 19 October Retrieved 15 September New Directions In Music. Retrieved 3 July Lifo in Greek. Retrieved 13 August Retrieved 20 September The Vinyl Factory.

Retrieved 5 September Critique Film in French. Retrieved 21 August France Musique in French. SynthFest France in French. Michel Granger in French. Retrieved 22 December The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 28 September Record Business. Billboard : Retrieved 30 October Official Charts Company. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved 12 July Retrieved 27 September Making the Steamroller Fly TV documentary. Retrieved 18 September — via World Radio History. Retrieved 17 October Retrieved 25 August Record Mirror. Melody Maker. The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 9 September The Bulletin. Retrieved 9 October Retrieved 18 February Retro Gamer. Imagine Publishing. Dancing Astronaut. Retrieved 3 September Le Monde.

Space of Freedom (Solidarnosc) - Jean-Michel Jarre

Australian Chart Book — illustrated ed. St Ives, N. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 September — via WorldRadioHistory. Phononet GmbH. UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 22 May GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 14 June Music Week. Music Canada.

About This Artist

Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 24 May — via Google Books. Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Enter Equinoxe in the "Artiest of titel" box. British Phonographic Industry. Million selling records from the s to the s : an illustrated directory. Arco Pub. Over , copies of "Equinoxe" were sold in Britain, the remainder of the huge sales spread around other countries, possibly three to four million. Jarremix Odyssey Through O 2 Authority control MusicBrainz release group.