Jean Michel Jarre (he dropped the hyphen Jean-Michel in 1991!) first began his interest with electronic music experimentation in 1968, and in January 1969, he joined the Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM), under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète. Here he was introduced to synthesizers including and the Moog.
Around this period Jarre also studies for a few months with the much influential Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne.
But it was in 1977 when he first found commercial success with the release of Oxygen that most people remember him for.
Since then, Jarre has continued to record commercially successful albums, play to massive sell-out concerts all over the world; and because of this, has not been seen as such a cool innovator of early electronica with the likes of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can and the like.
However, his concerts are amazing events, and his latest European Tour takes in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and with a show at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 March. The live shows will be a recreation of his ground-breaking 1977 album Oxygene, performed on the original analogue instruments. For those who can’t make it, a high-definition stereoscopic 3D film of the keyboard wizard performing the piece is available.
Click here to see an excerpt of Jean Michel Jarre performing Oxygene 4 live in China on 10th October 2004
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