Oxygène (, ) 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. Jarre's musical style was influenced by musique concrète, developed by Pierre Schaeffer. The album 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. It was inspired by the track "Popcorn" by German-American electronic composer Gershon Kingsley.
Oxygène has been described as the album that "led the synthesizer revolution of the Seventies" and "an infectious combination of bouncy, bubbling analog sequences and memorable hook lines". The album influenced later artists such as Moby and Brian Canham of Pseudo Echo. In 1978, it would be followed by Equinoxe 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. As of 2016 it had 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 began working with early analogue synthesizers and tape loops in 1968, and in 1969 he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (), founded and led by Pierre Schaeffer, In 1971, he left the institution and dedicated himself to designing Triangle's electronic sound effects; he also 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. and an EMS Synthi AKS; these last two were linked to two Revox 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. Jarre in that same year released his respective cover version under the pseudonyms Pop Corn Orchestra and Jammie Jefferson. 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. 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, 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 possible original incarnation of "Oxygène (Part IV)" in the jingle. In the Ferber studio Jarre recovered his old Mellotron that had few functional keys to write the first piece of music for the album, "Oxygène (Part II)". as were the waves sound used in "Oxygène (Part II)". The sounds of the Farfisa organ were heavily 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 main sequence of "Oxygène (Part V)" was created with an RMI Keyboard Computer, "Oxygène (Part II)" instead used only the "swing" preset.
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." such as Island Records founded by Chris Blackwell, who later thought that he made two professional mistakes in his life: 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 in December 1976 in France, 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, 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 "Où sont les femmes?". 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. This success led to the album reaching number one on the French Albums Charts, The BBC used the album in a documentary, In Dublin, Ireland, a phone-a-disk system was used, whereby a phone call played about two minutes of the album along with an advertising message. On October 2, 1977, he was invited by host Jacques Martin to an episode of his Sunday program L'orchestre d'Antenne 2, in which the orchestra performed his single "Oxygene (Part IV)". Jarre also received nearly 25 gold records worldwide. In the United States it sold over 100,000 copies in Los Angeles alone, and by the end of 1977, it sold 300,000 copies nationwide.
Later, Francis created a label called Disques Dreyfus. Equinoxe was released in that label in 1978. In 1979, Jarre performed an open-air concert at the Place de la Concorde, this event caused the sales of both albums to increase, each sold around 1.5 million copies in France and were certified platinum in 1981; By 1981, the album had sold an estimated 15 million copies worldwide, electronic and instrumental albums in history.
Critical reception
Reaction to the album upon its release in the UK in 1977 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. Angus MacKinnon of the NME described the album as "another interminable cosmic cruise. The German spacers ([[Tangerine Dream|[Tangerine] Dream]], Schulze et al) mapped this part of the electronic galaxy aeons ago ... The album's [...] infuriatingly derivative. Explore its prime influences instead."
Considering the album as a French version of Mike Oldfield's 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." The magazine concluded by saying that "so some interest will be generated but the album is not really suited to our insular and musically antiintellectual Anglo-Saxon island."
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." He also stated that it "is not classical music" and that: "Though the track [referring to "Oxygène Part IV"] the discos are playing is, as you might expect, actually its least effective section musically, it has the same relationship to popular music as Tangerine Dream, say, or Oldfield. 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." He also described Jarre as a "French Mike Oldfield" by "possessing the same emotive powers." He concluded by saying side one "ends on ghost-like notes" while the side two "has a rushing opening like the breaking of a barrier." Record World magazine commented that it is "an unusually melodic theme" that "is carried over both sides with all instruments played by Jarre himself".
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 it was "his conscious attempt to unite the worlds of avant-garde, electronic, classical and progressive music." He said that its "dynamic, warm sound is intoxicating" and regarding "Oxygène (Part IV)", he finished saying it is "an unlikely UK Top 5 hit from what remains an elegant cornerstone of electronic music." The album was considered one of the most influential albums of 1976 by uDiscover Music, and was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. "Oxygène (Part I)" was considered by Billboard writer Lars Brandle as one of the electronic chillout tunes from back in the day.
Accolades
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Publication
!Country
!Accolade
!Year
!Rank
|-
|FNAC
|France
|The Ideal Discography: 823 Indispensables Albums
|2015
|style="text-align:center"|*
|-
|RoRoRo Rock-Lexicon
|Germany
|Most Recommended Albums
|2003
|style="text-align:center"|*
|-
|Giannis Petridis
|Greece
|2004 of the Best Albums of the Century
|2003
|style="text-align:center"|*
|-
|Panorama
|Norway
|The 30 Best Albums of the Year 1970-98
|1999
|style="text-align:center"|10
|-
|Robert Dimery
|United Kingdom
|1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
|2011
|style="text-align:center"|*
|-
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center; font-size:8pt" | (*) designates lists that are unordered.
|}
Legacy
Oxygène won the Grand Prix du Disque (English: Disc Grand Prize) award by L'Académie Charles Cros, and American magazine People chose Jarre as the "Personality of the Year". In 2007, a new version of the original album titled Oxygène: New Master Recording was released,
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". The album has been used for music therapy, meditation and births.
Oxygène has been described as "one of the biggest catalysts to widespread use of the synthesizer in the 1970s" and influenced electronic artists like Moby, who collaborated with Jarre on his 2015 album, Electronica 1: The Time Machine.
Track listing
All tracks are composed by Jean-Michel Jarre.
Side one
- "Oxygène (Part I)" – 7:39
- "Oxygène (Part II)" – 7:49
- "Oxygène (Part III)" – 3:16
Side two
- "Oxygène (Part IV)" – 4:14
- "Oxygène (Part V)" – 10:23
- "Oxygène (Part VI)" – 6:20
Personnel
Personnel listed in the album's liner notes.
- ARP 2600
- Eminent 310 Unique Organ
- EMS Synthi AKS
- EMS VCS 3
- Farfisa Professional Organ
- Korg Mini-Pops 7
- RMI Harmonic Synthesizer
- Geiss Rhytmi-computer
- Mellotron
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style=text-align:center"
|+ Chart performance for Oxygène
! Chart (1977)
! Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| align="center"| 29
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"|Finnish Charts (Suomen virallinen albumilista)
| align="center"| 12
|-
! scope="row"|French Albums (SNEP)
| align="center"|1
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)
| align="center" | 15
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)
| align="center" | 78
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style=text-align:center"
! Chart (2005)
! Peak<br />position
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style=text-align:center"
! Chart (2015)
! Peak<br />position
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style=text-align:center"
! Chart (2019)
! Peak<br />position
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1977 year-end chart performance for Oxygène
! scope="col" | Chart (1977)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Dutch Top 100)
| 38
|-
! scope="row" | UK Albums (OCC)
| 20
|}