release date: Dec. 1976
format: vinyl (1977 Scandinavia) / cd
[album rate: 5 / 5] [4,82]
producer: Jean Michel Jarre
label: Polydor Records - nationality: France
Tracklist: 1. "Oxygène (Part I)" - 2. "Oxygène (Part II)" - 3. "Oxygène (Part III)" - 4. "Oxygène (Part IV)" - 5. "Oxygène (Part V)" 6. "Oxygène (Part VI)"
3rd studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre, originally released on Disques Dreyfus, is the French avantgardist's surreal yet sublime masterpiece, which is a corner stone for all electronic music. I was just a little more than 10 years old when the album came out, but I remember it 'cause my older brother bought the album a few years later and he played it a lot. This is from a time when I first became aware of the many different qualities of various types of music. At the age of 14 I visited London for the first time, and today, more than 30 years later, I still recall many of the album titles that I brought back home from that trip, and this was just one of them. Jarre was ahead of his time, and it was like looking into the future when listening to his music. I still listened to ABBA and Boney M, so this was something quite different. The album is still fascinating as a modern classic, and it has probably inspired many electronic artists in the present time of the release but also in the many new shapes of electronic eras since then.
The album is the only album by Jarre to be enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[allmusic.com 5 / 5 stars]
1976 Favourite releases: 1. Jean-Michel Jarre Oxygène - 2. Ramones Ramones - 3. Ennio Morricone Novecento (OST)
