Oxygene 3

[Vortifex]

..

[himalaya]

Jarre is a diamond in Neil's electronic music record collection.

[Equinoxe1978]

BTW, JMJ will be on the new Gorillaz album, and it is being produced at JMJ's Paris studio.

Also, Electronica Volume 1 has earned a Best Dance/Electronic album Grammy Nomination (his first since Rendez-Vous). Well done Sir.

[murnau]

I'll listen to Oxygene 3 some more, and maybe it will grow on me.

Has anyone else listened to it? If so, what are your thoughts?

So i listen Oxygene 3 the last days and i must say that it is by far the weakest of the three. Especially the first track and the second.. Jesus..

TBH the other tracks aren't much better (whatever that means but i simply don't like the sounds and certain parts of all tracks - it just don't work). I think JMJ has lost much of his creativity and only god know why.

Of course there is here and there a moment where you hear that this is JMJ but honestly it is just a little and after such a long time..

I read that the record company wanted the 3rd album (right for Christmas) and that JMJ just had a track left and thought this could be perfect for Oxygene3. Well, what to say.

[HunterKiller]

Interesting, didn't know about Jarre and his lack of contact with his father...more kudos to JMJ then for relying on his own resources, whether financial (to secure all those instruments) or tutelage (Maurice Jarre also used synths so must have known a lot that he could've thought to Jarre).

A funny story is that during that time, when Jean-Michel has his Oxygene success, his father said: Oh I know all about synthesizers, I've been using them for years, even before my son.

Lol.

Needless to say, both father and son composed some of my favourite music ever.

[HunterKiller]

The slap bass on Zoolook immediately comes to mind; it's Totally 80s (tm). And the quasi-vocal "ah" sounds that come in at about 3:45 in "Diva." There is some brilliant and unique sounding stuff going on with that album, but a lot of it is also very obviously 80s pop.

Yeah....

But I love it. 80's just so happened to have given the world some of the best music ever. Not so much the last 15 years.

On the earlier albums, string machines are everywhere. Korg Minipops. That "singing" lead sounds in Oxygene Pt 1 that sounds like pure Tomita.

That "singing" lead sound in Oxygene Pt 1, Oxygene Pt 3, Equinoxe 2, Equinoxe 4, Equinoxe 7, Magnetic Fields 1, and Oxygene 9 is Jarre's attempt at the old school theremin sound, reminiscent of 50's sci-fi. But for Jarre it also has French connections, the French used to call that sound "arlette" in old French music. The third thing about it, is that according to his own words, for him it is representational of a female opera singer, a soprano, but one which is abstract, not a real human voice, allowing us to interpret the sound according to our own understanding - at least within the context of Oxygene Pt 3.

Vangelis also used that sound, a year before Jarre, in the "Movement 3" from Heaven and Hell Part 1. Quite effectively too!

And a lot of the composition and overall sound design is pretty easily placed in the 70s-80s, though not quite as much as Fast or Carlos from that time. It all has more of an orchestral approach than most more recent electronic music.

All of these I prefer to the current, more or less.
And the orchestral approach actually suits him. It's difficult to do good ambient. And as far as other styles are concerned, Jarre is not great at them, at all!

For me it's a perfect fit - his early albums, because I love orchestral acoustic music anyway. Here it's just done tastefully with synthesizers, in a very "organic" way. The choice of timbres too were more towards the organic/acoustic, less synthy. Sound-wise, I think all these combine to form a timeless feeling.

I'm not saying dated is bad

Lol for 99.99% of people that's EXACTLY what "dated" means.

I do not think it is dated. I actually think it is timeless. Even though something may be wrapped in a more primitive way of expressing it, if the thing itself speaks of something which we find timeless, then the means of transmission themselves, attain this timeless status.

[HunterKiller]

I'll listen to Oxygene 3 some more, and maybe it will grow on me.

Has anyone else listened to it? If so, what are your thoughts?

So i listen Oxygene 3 the last days and i must say that it is by far the weakest of the three. Especially the first track and the second.. Jesus..

TBH the other tracks aren't much better (whatever that means but i simply don't like the sounds and certain parts of all tracks - it just don't work). I think JMJ has lost much of his creativity and only god know why.

Of course there is here and there a moment where you hear that this is JMJ but honestly it is just a little and after such a long time..

I read that the record company wanted the 3rd album (right for Christmas) and that JMJ just had a track left and thought this could be perfect for Oxygene3. Well, what to say.

My full review is too harsh to post. I really pissed some Jarre fans off. But I was being honest and completely respectful.

[murnau]

What's cool is that I'm pretty sure that he used that plugin aka One ping only in Track 19 (at 03:37)..

[Aloysius]

I don't know if anybody else posted it already ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EqpNbtjjqU

Three minutes in and I'm enjoying it so far. Long way to go though.

[foosnark]

80's just so happened to have given the world some of the best music ever. Not so much the last 15 years.

As far as pop goes I will agree with that 100%, and you can probably make that 25 years

[Opax]

My full review is too harsh to post. I really pissed some Jarre fans off. But I was being honest and completely respectful.

I'd like to read it. Please feel free to share it with us here.

I gave Oxygene 3 another listen - I don't like it. I stand the comments I made in my first post. I am really disappointed. I firmly believe that JMJ made a mistake in abandoning the tone and feel of the previous two installments.

There have been a lot of good comments in this thread.

I have to say that I think every JMJ album, up to and including Oxygene 7-13 (now Oxygene 2), is innovative, mainly due to new technology he had at his disposal at the time. I especially like the fusion of the older analogue synths and some of the then current digital hardware synths available to him at the time of recording Oxygene 7-13.

Yes, the Fairlight is all over Zoolook. The Synthex is all over Rendez-Vous. The Roland D-50 is all over Revolutions. However, from a compositional point of view, and the choice of timbres used for each album, I think it's fair to say that each album is very good in their own unique way. JMJ is a very good example of the history and progression of music technology and synthesizers, and in that sense he is seen as a pioneer.

A lot of people have mixed feelings over Waiting for Cousteau. I have to admit I have only sat through and listened to the title track 2 or 3 times. It doesn't do anything for me. However, the three Calypso pieces are very interesting in their own right.