Born on August 24: Jean-Michel Jarre, a breath of "Oxygen" in electronic music

Son of the composer Maurice Jarre, he was born in Lyon in 1948. The author of Oxygène is celebrating his 77th birthday...

When he was barely 5 years old, his father, Maurice, left home to pursue his dreams in the United States. Jean-Michel Jarre suffered from this absence for a long time. His father composed scores for numerous ballets and concertos but is most renowned for his dozens of film scores, including "The Longest Day," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago," "Is Paris Burning?", "The Damned," "Weekend at Zuydcoote," "The Road to India," and "Mad Max." Just that! Jean-Michel never managed to take an interest in the career of his late father, and probably even less so to admire him. At the risk of lapsing into cheap psychology, one can imagine, however, that he wanted to equal or even surpass the person he saw as responsible for his childhood sadness.

His mother, France, a former member of the Resistance during World War II, immediately understood his attraction to music. When he was still a kid and they had both just moved to Paris, she introduced him to jazz at the "Chat qui pêche" (The Fishing Cat), run by one of her friends. Jean-Michel, amazed, rubbed shoulders with legends such as Don Cherry and Chet Baker. The young man, curious and versatile, decided he wanted to learn music. He first acquired a classical foundation before learning contemporary music and even the electric guitar! The rock bands he played in, like Mystère IV, didn't leave lasting memories. But with one of them, the Dustbins, they appeared in Etienne Périer's film "Boys and Girls."

Constantly balancing mainstream accessibility with more austere exploration, he discovered the first synthesizers (the imposing Moog and VCS) at the very end of the 1960s, along with German precursors of the genre such as Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. The album "Oxygène," originally released in France in late 1976, follows this trend. Inspired by Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" released three years earlier, each track bears the same name with a number attached. Some, like "Oxygène Pt. 5," are inspired by classical music, others are atmospheric, like "Oxygène Pt. 6," and, against all odds, the album even contains a worldwide hit with "Oxygène Pt. 4." It's always difficult to accurately verify these kinds of figures, but "Oxygène" is very likely the best-selling French album outside of France.

Despite an incredible number of twists and turns, endless negotiations with the authorities, and a series of technical mishaps (which would merit an entire article), Jean-Michel Jarre was the first Western artist to perform in China in 1981. Four years before Wham! The French musician has always loved unusual venues and huge crowds. In France, he has performed at the Place de la Concorde (1979), the Palace of Versailles (2023), Mont St Michel (1993), on the banks of the Saône in his hometown of Lyon (1986), and of course, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (1995). He also holds the record for the concert with the most people: in Moscow in 1997. It was estimated that more than three million spectators were present! In May 2024, for a more intimate performance, he invited Brian May (guitarist of Queen) to join him for a unique experience in Bratislava. At 77, Jean-Michel Jarre still performs the splits with disconcerting ease. In the summer of 2025, he added a few more iconic venues to his list of accomplishments, notably playing in front of the Royal Palace in Brussels (Belgium), Piazza San Marco in Venice (Italy), and in Pompeii, like Pink Floyd.

To conclude this brief overview of a multifaceted career, did you know that he also wrote lyrics for Patrick Juvet, as well as for Christophe…

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Jean-Michel Jarre on the RTBf set in Liège (Belgium) in April 1989 for the release of the album "Revolutions"