OXYGENE

NOTES Solo performer: Jean-Michel Jarre (sythesizer, Farfisa organ, Mellotron). Recorded from August to November 1976. One of the pioneers of electronic music, Jean Michel Jarre has arguably done more to popularize the use of synthesizers than any other artist. Liberating synthesized sound from the esoteric preoccupations of academic composers, Jarre was among the first to explore the instrument's melodic and rhythmic possibilities--key innovations that went on to become significant influences for ambient electronica, synth pop, and techno. OXYGENE, released in 1977, pushed the young composer into the international spotlight, charting his meteoric rise from obscure film composer to stadium-packing superstar. Contrasting with the hard, clinical sound of his contemporaries, Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, OXYGENE is bathed in distinctive melodies and warm string pads (courtesy of vintage keyboards like the Synthi VCS3 and Eminent organ). On the now iconic space synth epic "Oxygene (Part IV)," a percolating drum machine patters away as sweeping synth melodies form dramatic arcs of counterpoint. Likely to be Jarre's best known composition, the track evokes vast unexplored spaceways and cosmic vistas like few songs can.