release date: May 20, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Jean-Michel Jarre
label: Disques Dreyfus - nationality: France
Tracklist: 1. "Oxygène 7 (Part 1, 2, 3)" - 2. "Oxygène 8" - 3. "Oxygène 9 (Part 1, 2, 3)" - 4. "Oxygène 10" - 5. "Oxygène 11" - 6. "Oxygène 12" - 7. "Oxygène 13"
12th studio album release by Jean-Michel Jarre is a return to his masterpiece from 1976, Oxygène, and an album that continues where the '76 album ended - a premise you should think could only fail.
In my mind, this is nontheless a rather underrated album of the 1990s. Jarre has always belonged to the 1970s in one sense or the other - it was with his Oxygène and Equinoxe became internationally renowned, and everything that followed somehow pointed back to his starting point. And then all the following musical styles with synthpop and electronic had his name and legacy of the 70s written all over. I have, however, only paid him little interest since his albums of the 70s. Occasionally, I heard some of his music, and I saw his extravagant live performances on tv, but I always turned his new-found music down - that is, his music of the 80s and onwards; 'cause this new chapter is actually more than just fine. It's not only because it sounds much alike his original and highly praised first chapter but because it's an updated musical journey that makes use of the former as foundation and then explores musical landscapes on new terms of shape, sound, and style. This is not pop loops and form but experimental progressive electronic. I cannot help but think, this is the sequel he could and should have made instead of making commercial pop albums in the 1980s and I'm glad that I found this 'cause it's a very recommendable album.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
