Jean Michel Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer from Lyon, France. He is associated with ambient, electronic, electronica, instrumental, new age and progressive electronic music, and is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music.

Early life and training

Born in 1948, Jarre is the son of composer Maurice Jarre and France Jarre. His parents separate when he is five, and he grows up with his mother in the suburbs of Paris after his father moves to the United States. As a child he studies piano, although he finds the experience difficult. His wider interest in instruments develops after he discovers a trumpet violin by Boris Vian. He also spends time in Paris jazz clubs with his mother, which helps shape his idea that music can be descriptive without lyrics.

He studies the work of Pierre Soulages as a teenager and later says that it leads him to think of sound in painterly terms. He becomes a painter as well as a musician, and exhibits work at the Lyon gallery L'Oeil Ecoute. While at the Lycée Michelet, he takes lessons in harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Jeannine Rueff of the Conservatoire de Paris.

Early bands and electronic work

Jarre plays in several groups before his solo career develops, including Mystère IV, The Dustbins and the Groupe de recherches musicales under Pierre Schaeffer. In 1967 he plays guitar in The Dustbins, which appears in the film Des garçons et des filles. In 1968 he begins experimenting with tape loops, radios and other electronic devices. At GRM, Schaeffer's ideas about musique concrète have a strong influence on him. He also works in Karlheinz Stockhausen's studio in Cologne.

Back in Paris, he sets up a small home studio using EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesizers and two linked Revox tape machines. In 1969 he writes Happiness Is a Sad Song for an exposition in Reims, though it remains unreleased.

1970s breakthrough

His first commercial release is the 1971 single La Cage/Erosmachine, which combines harmony, tape effects and synthesizers. In the same period he also writes music for ballet, theatre, advertising and television, and provides music and lyrics for artists including Patrick Juvet and Christophe. He composes the ballet AOR for choreographer Norbert Schmucki at the Palais Garnier.

Jarre releases his debut album, Deserted Palace, in 1972, and also writes music for the International Festival of Magic and the soundtrack for Les Granges Brûlées. During 1973 and 1974 he writes for Françoise Hardy and Gérard Lenorman, and directs Christophe's Olympia show.

Oxygene appears in 1976 on Disques Motors, Francis Dreyfuss' label. It becomes a landmark electronic album, built around melody, layered keyboards and synthesizers rather than rhythm or dissonance. It uses instruments including the Eminent 310, Mellotron, Korg Minipops drum machine and VCS3, along with echo and phasing effects. The album sells widely, becomes the best-selling French record of all time, reaches number 2 in the UK album chart and produces his best-known single, Oxygene Part 4. Equinoxe follows in 1978, with a more baroque and classical feel and extensive sequencing.

Major concerts and world records

Jarre is known for large outdoor performances using lights, projections, lasers and fireworks. In 1979 he performs at Place de la Concorde in Paris on Bastille Day. The free concert draws more than one million spectators and sets a world record for an outdoor audience.

In 1982 he becomes the first western musician invited to play concerts in China. Those performances introduce the Laser Harp, which becomes one of his signature instruments, and are later issued as The Concerts in China.

In 1986 he performs in Houston at the invitation of the Houston Grand Opera and NASA. The concert draws more than 1.5 million people and features major projections and laser patterns across downtown buildings. That same year he performs for about one million people in Lyon during celebrations for Pope John Paul II's visit to his home city.

On Bastille Day 1990 he performs at La Défense in Paris to an estimated audience of about two million. In 1997 he performs at Moscow State University for around 3.5 million people, marking another large-scale outdoor concert record. Across these events he holds four Guinness World Records for concert audience size.

Albums and collaborations

Magnetic Fields appears in 1981 and makes strong use of the Fairlight CMI, which Jarre uses early alongside Peter Gabriel. In 1983 he releases Music for Supermarkets in a one-off form linked to an art exhibition. He auctions the only vinyl copy before allowing it to be broadcast, and says he will destroy the original tapes.

Zoolook follows in 1984 and combines analogue synthesis with ethnic and vocal material, using Fairlight sampling and speech in multiple languages. Guests on the album include Adrian Belew, Marcus Miller and Laurie Anderson. Rendez-Vous appears in 1986 and includes contributions linked to the Houston concert project; Ronald McNair is intended to play saxophone on “Last Rendez-Vous”, but after his death the piece is recorded by Kirk Whalum and retitled “Ron's Piece”.

Revolutions arrives in 1988 and spans symphonic industrial, Arabian-influenced, light guitar pop and ethnic electro-jazz. Waiting for Cousteau, released in 1990 and also known as En Attendant Cousteau, includes a 47-minute ambient piece and the single “Calypso”, which uses steel drums. Chronologie in 1993 reflects the techno scene and leads to his first large-scale tour, Europe In Concert, with performances across several European cities and at Versailles.

In 1994 he releases the live album Hong Kong, and in 1995 he issues his first remix album, JarreMix. Oxygene 7–13 follows in 1997 as a return to the analogue sound of the 1970s and is dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer, who dies in 1995. Odyssey Through O2 appears in 1998 as a second remix album.

Metamorphoses is released in 2000 and is his first vocal album. It is co-produced with Joachim Garraud and includes contributions from Laurie Anderson, Natacha Atlas and Sharon Corr. Interior Music is a non-commercial 2001 work for Bang & Olufsen. Sessions 2000 follows in 2002 as a more experimental set of synth-jazz pieces, and Geometry of Love is commissioned in 2003 as a soundtrack for Jean Roch's V.I.P. Room nightclub.

Later projects and recognition

Jarre returns to China in 2004 for performances at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square as part of the Year of France cultural exchange. The related release Jarre in China appears in 2005. In 2004 he also issues AERO, a CD and DVD package constructed in 5.1 surround sound, with re-recorded versions of earlier material and visuals featuring Anne Parillaud's eyes.

In 2006 he performs Water for Life in Morocco near the Erg Chebbi dunes. In 2007 he releases Teo & Tea, which moves away from his earlier reliance on virtual instruments and uses a simplified set of devices. That year he also presents Oxygene: Live in Your Living Room and a remastered Oxygene, and performs a series of Oxygene concerts in Paris.

In 2009 he is chosen as artistic director of the World Sky Race and serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the International Year of Astronomy. He is UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador from 1993, and in 1995 he receives the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. An asteroid, 4422 Jarre, is named after him. His recorded output is estimated at more than 80 million albums and singles.