Oxygène

Released: 1976
Recorded: August 1976 – November 1976
Genre: Electronic, New Age, ambient
Length: 39:44
Label: Disques Dreyfus
Producer: Jean Michel Jarre
Professional reviews: * Allmusic 5/5 stars
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Oxygène is an album of instrumental electronic music composed, produced, and performed by the French composer Jean Michel Jarre. It was released in 1976 on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor. Jarre recorded the album in his home using a variety of analog synthesizers and other electronic instruments and effects. It became a bestseller and a highly influential development in electronic music, and has been described as the album that "led the synthesizer revolution of the Seventies."
History

Prior to 1976, Jarre had dabbled in a number of projects, including an unsuccessful synth album, advertising jingles and compositions for a ballet. His inspiration for Oxygène came from a painting by the artist Michel Granger that showed the Earth peeling to reveal a skull and obtained the artist's permission to use the image for his latest album.

Jarre composed Oxygène over a period of eight months using a number of analogue synthesizers and an eight-track recorder set up in the kitchen of his apartment. However, he found it difficult to get the record released, not least because it had "No singers, no proper titles, just 'I', 'II', 'III', 'IV', 'V' and 'VI'".
The album

Oxygène consists of six tracks, numbered simply Oxygène Part I to VI. Its sound has been described as "an infectious combination of bouncy, bubbling analog sequences and memorable hook lines."

Track listing

1. "Oxygène (Part I)" – 7:40
2. "Oxygène (Part II)" – 8:04
3. "Oxygène (Part III)" – 2:58
4. "Oxygène (Part IV)" – 4:07
5. "Oxygène (Part V)" – 10:31
6. "Oxygène (Part VI)" – 6:19