Jean-Michel Jarre

About

The sound

Jean-Michel Jarre is a French composer, producer and electronic performer whose work spans analogue synthesis, electroacoustic composition and immersive sound. He studied harmony and counterpoint in Paris and worked with Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales before developing his own approach to electronic recording. Oxygène, released in 1976, and Équinoxe, released in 1978, brought that approach to a broad audience through layered synthesizers, melody and sequenced rhythm. Later projects explored different tools and collaborators. Zoolook placed sampled voices within its musical language, while the Electronica albums brought together artists including Air, Moby, Tangerine Dream and Hans Zimmer. His work also includes music for film, the Amazonia exhibition soundtrack and the spatial-audio album Oxymore. Jarre’s performance practice combines music with architecture, lighting and visual design. Alongside large outdoor productions, he has developed virtual performances and immersive audiovisual works, extending the relationship between composition and technology that runs through his studio catalogue.