Jean-Michel Jarre Announces Brand New Studio Album OXYGENE 3

Jean-Michel Jarre is an artist like no other. Over the last 40 years he has composed, recorded and produced timeless and unique music that has inspired and enthralled listeners the world over. It all started four decades ago with the French release of his debut OXYGENE, the landmark-album that launched his career. With its international release in 1977, it turned into a multiplatinum selling record that not only helped to popularise Electronic Music massively, but also continues to be highly relevant in today's music scene.

Now, 40 years after the huge international impact of OXYGENE, and 20 years from its second volume OXYGENE 7-13, Jean-Michel Jarre is fulfilling a trilogy of albums with OXYGENE 3, containing seven newly composed and recorded pieces, consistently titled parts 14-20. His inspiration for the newly added parts on OXYGENE 3 was not to go back in time, but to add a sense of "now" to his iconic piece of work. Plunging into the environment of OXYGENE with its highly original dark, moody and at times quite upbeat musical language, Jarre references some of the music from his entire body of work on OXYGENE 3. It's a state-of-the-art recording, embracing both classic and modern ways of music production.

"I don't necessarily like anniversaries that much...But when I was recording Electronica, two years ago, I did a piece of music (today Oxygene 19) that made me think about what Oxygene could be if I was composing it today. Then I took the 40th anniversary of the first album as a deadline to push myself to see if I could compose this new chapter in six weeks, just like I did for the first one: probably to avoid thinking too much about, whether it was a good idea or not, and also to record everything in one go... The idea was not to copy the first album, but rather keeping the dogma of embarking listeners on a journey from beginning to end with different chapters, all linked to each other.

"What made the first Oxygene so different at the time, is probably the minimalist aspect, and the fact that there are almost no drums, and I wanted to keep this approach, creating the groove mainly with the sequences and the structure of the melodies only. When I did the first Oxygene in the VINYL days, I had a structure in mind divided in 2 parts fitting the A&B sides of an album. This time I enjoyed doing the same: one side being darker, the other being brighter. So when I think of it today, Oxygene 3 has actually two sides...

"I did the first Oxygene on an 8 tracks tape recorder with very few instruments, with no other choice than being minimalist. I tried to keep this minimalist approach for Oxygene 3. Some moments are built around one or two elements like in the first volume."

Keeping in line with the OXYGENE-saga, the new album is further exploring the ambivalence between outer space and our vital living space. Therefore the album's artwork is of crucial significance. A take on Michel Granger's work for the first OXYGENE-album, Jean-Michel had a 3D-model of the skull created for the artwork of OXYGENE 3.

"40 years ago too, I discovered Michel Granger's visual universe and immediately felt a total adequacy with the music I was composing. Since then, the cover artwork became famous, like an ecological warning signal, dark and surreal, evoking both outer space and that of our vital living space: this image, for me, has become inseparable from the music. I wanted the Oxygene 3 visual to remain in that same vein, and hence to re-visit Michel Granger's original work, simply shifting «photographed-like» from another angle, which was exactly aligned with the approach I had to create this new chapter in music. To this end, I asked Michel Granger's permission to perform a 3D model of his creation in order to change the angle of the visual, which he amicably accepted." JMJ

Following the critically acclaimed and highly successful adventure ELETRONICA Volumes 1 & 2, which saw Jarre collaborate with 30 of music's most iconic artists, OXYGENE 3 is also bringing his body of work full circle. During his journeys for ELECTRONICA, he was once again ensured by his collaborators what enduring influence he had on them, with quite a few of them even claiming to surely not have fallen into electronic music if it wasn't for OXYGENE.

Having sold more than 80 million albums and staged some of the most spectacular, record-breaking events in modern history, Jean-Michel Jarre is about to embark on his highly anticipated ELECTRONICA-Tour, starting off on October 4th in Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena and visiting most of the Europe's biggest arenas before finishing off this first leg at Paris' Accorhotels Arena on December 12th. During the ELECTRONICA-shows, excerpts from OXYGENE 3 will be premiered, promises Jarre.

OXYGENE 3 will be available on CD, VINYL and in the Ultimate OXYGENE-Trilogy Box-Set, combining all three OXYGENE-albums on CD and Vinyl, with an attached coffee-table-book featuring rare photos and notes on the story of OXYGENE.

Jean-Michel Jarre ELECTRONICA Tour Dates

October 4 - Cardiff Motorpoint Arena - Cardiff, Wales

October 6 - Brighton Arena - Brighton, England

October 7 - 02 Arena - London, England

October 8 - Barclaycard Arena - Birmingham, England

October 10 - 3Arena - Dublin, Ireland

October 13 - First Direct Arena - Leeds, England

October 14 - The SSE Hydro - Glasgow, Scotland

October 16 - Festhall - Frankfurt, Germany

October 17 - Zénith - Strasbourg, France

October 19 - Barclaycard Arena - Hamburg, Germany

October 20 - Mercedes Benz Arena - Berlin, Germany

October 22 - Electricity Conference @ ISS Dome - Dusseldorf, Germany

October 23 - Palais 12 - Brussels, Belgium

October 26 - Falconer Theatre - Copenhagen, Denmark

October 28 - Spektrum - Oslo, Norway

October 29 - Hovet - Stockholm, Sweden

October 31 - Ice Hall - Helsinki, Finland

November 2 - Saku Arena - Tallinn, Estonia

November 3 - Kaunas Arena - Kaunas, Lithuania

November 5 - Atlas Arena - ?ódz, Poland

November 6 - Spodek - Katowice, Poland

November 8 - 02 Arena - Prague, Czech Republic

November 9 - Nepela Arena - Bratislava, Slovakia

November 10 - Papp Laszlo Sport Arena - Budapest, Hungary

November 11 - Polivalent Hall - Cluj, Romania

November 13 - Boris Trajkovski Arena - Skopje, Macedonia

November 15 - Arena Stožice - Ljubljana, Slovenia

November 17 - Stadthalle - Vienna, Austria

November 18 - Hallenstadion Zurich - Zurich, Switzerland

November 19 - Arena Nürnberg - Nuremberg, Germany

November 21 - Munsterlandhalle - Munster, Germany

November 22 - Heineken Music Hall - Amsterdam, Netherlands

November 24 - Halle Tony Garnier - Lyon, France

November 25 - Arena - Geneva, Switzerland

November 26 - Zénith - Dijon, France

November 28 - Zénith D'Auvergne - Clermont Ferrand, France

November 29 - Zénith Metropole - Nantes, France

December 12 - AccorHotels Arena - Paris, France