OXYGÈNE

Jean Michel Jarre's 1976 "OXYGENE" certainly made a huge impact on all kind of audiences non-mainstream and highly mainstream, which could account for both admirers and detractors. I remember being in central Europe around its date of release, there were few places you would not see its cover art shown. Who would have ever thought that this release will set future trends and spawn the inevitable imitators in France (the so overrated here in PA Didier Bocquet) and worldwide.

Imprisioned in this Prog/Related sub genre for releasing a couple of quiet popish, cinematic and mellow first releases, his discography is, if not directly an offspring of the Berlin school tradition, Progressive/Electronic accurate, even more nowadays where PA's P/E criteria of inclusion has somewhat oppened up its creaky doors also to the US' West Coast school branches and even a bit furthermore.

The release, as such and when, had the attribute of picking up lots of loosen pieces the 70's Progressive Electronic musicians were overlooking or missing in favour of contemporary classical electronic heights (which by the way were rarely achieved and highly deviated with the upcoming 80's drum/boxes, gadgets and stylings).

By taking away these pretentions and keeping up with what new synth-technologies and his contemporaries had to offer at the time, when it was still mainstream unpolluted, J.M.J. started his own version of electronic Cosmic music.

His was friendly yet still intelligent. Structuring a formula of pulses transfixed into lineal riffs, rhythm patterns depicting melody lines and triggering movie like laser gun sounds flying around, he approached in his, song length, compositions the unexplored emotional imprint , therefore the cold impersonal electronic music concept became personal even passionate, a tad too much here and there, yet the great sections outstand by far the few, less than perfect ones.

****4 PA stars.