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Jean-Michel JarreBellsOxygene IV
Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents, and trained on the piano. From an early age he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including those of street performers, jazz musicians, and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979 Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events, and he is now perhaps as well known as a performer as a musician. Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million albums
and singles.[1] He was the first Western musician to be allowed
to perform in the People's Republic of China, and holds the world
record for the largest-ever audience at an outdoor event. Jean Michel Jarre was born on 24 August 1948 in Lyon, the son of composer Maurice Jarre and French Resistance member and concentration camp survivor France Pejot.[2][3][4] The two separated when Jarre was five years old; his father moved to the United States, while his mother remained in the suburbs of Paris to look after their son.[5] Jarre did not meet his father again until he was eighteen.[3] Jarre's Grandfather, André Jarre, was an oboe player, engineer and inventor, who also designed an early audio mixer used at Radio Lyon. He also gave Jean Michel his first record player.[6] For the first eight years of his life, Jarre spent six months of each year at his grandparent's flat along the Cours de Verdun, in the Perrache district of Lyon. Jarre has cited the street performers he watched from his window there as an influence on his art (traces of this can be found on his album Équinoxe, particularly "Équinoxe Part 8").[3][7] Jarre struggled with his classical piano studies,
although he later changed teacher and began work on his scales.[8]
A more general interest in musical instruments was sparked by the
discovery at the Saint-Ouen flea market of a Boris Vian Trumpet
Violin. He often accompanied his mother to Le Chat Qui Pêche (The
Fishing Cat), a friend's Paris jazz club, where saxophonists Archie
Shepp and John Coltrane, and trumpet players Don Cherry and Chet
Baker were regular performers. Jarre cites these early experiences
of Jazz as introducing him to the idea that music may be "descriptive, without lyrics".[3][9] He was also influenced by the work of French artist Pierre Soulages,
whose exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
he attended. Soulages' paintings used multiple textured layers,
and Jarre realised that "for the first time in music, you could act as a painter with frequencies and
sounds."[3] He was also influenced by more traditional music; in a 2004 interview for
The Guardian, he spoke of the effect that a performance of Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring had upon him: —Jean Michel Jarre[10] As a young man he funded his lifestyle by painting, exhibiting some of his works at the Lyon Gallery – L'Œil écoute. He also played in a band called Mystère IV (Mystery 4). While he studied at the Lycée Michelet his mother arranged for him to take lessons in harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Jeannine Rueff of the Conservatoire de Paris.[8][9] In 1967 he played guitar in a band called The Dustbins. Jarre experimented by mixing several instruments, including the electric guitar and the flute, with tape effects and other sounds. The band appears in the film Des garçons et des filles.[3] In 1968 he began to experiment with tape loops,
radios and other electronic devices. Joining the Groupe de Recherches
Musicales (GRM) in 1969,[8][11] then under the direction of Pierre
Schaeffer, "father" of musique concrète, proved hugely influential.[12] Schaeffer's view was that "music isn't made of notes, it's made of sounds".[13] Jarre was introduced to the Moog modular synthesizer,[14][15] and he spent
time working at the studio of influential German composer Karlheinz
Stockhausen in Cologne.[14][16] In the kitchen of his flat on Rue de la Trémoille, near the Champs-Élysées in Paris, he set up a small recording studio, which included EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesisers, and two linked Revox tape machines.[17] For a 1969 exposition at the Maison de la Culture
(Cultural House) in Reims Jarre wrote the five-minute song "Happiness Is a Sad Song", but his first commercial release came in 1969 with La Cage/Erosmachine, a mixture
of harmony, tape effects and synthesisers.[17] In 1971 he was commissioned by choreographer Norbert Schmucki to perform a ballet at the Palais Garnier, named AOR (in Hebrew, "light")[18][19]). Jarre also composed music for ballet, theatre, advertisements and television programs,[8] as well as music and lyrics for artists like Patrick Juvet and Christophe.[3] He composed the soundtrack for Les Granges Brûlées[20] and in 1972 wrote music for the International Festival of Magic.[21] That year he released his first solo album, Deserted Palace,[17] and from 1973–74 wrote music for Françoise Hardy and Gérard Lenorman. He also directed Christophe's Olympia show.[21] Jarre first achieved international stardom with
his 1976 solo album, Oxygène.[12][13] It comprises six numbered
synthesiser tracks that make strong use of melody, rather than
rhythm or dissonance. Recorded at his home studio on a Scully eight-track
recorder, on a small budget, Oxygène was composed with such instruments
as the Eminent 310 (with an Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phaser
on its string pads), the Korg Minipops drum machine, and liberal
use of echo on the various sound effects generated by the VCS3
synthesiser.[12][13] —Jean Michel Jarre[13] Oxygène initially proved difficult to sell. Jarre
was turned down by several record companies until a fellow student
of Schaeffer, Hélène Dreyfus (at the time her husband Francis's
artistic director), persuaded her husband to publish the album
on his label, Disques Motors.[3] The first pressing of 50,000 copies
was promoted through hi-fi shops, clubs and discos,[13][22] and
by April 1977 the album had sold 70,000 copies in France. When
interviewed in Billboard magazine Dreyfus's director Stanislas
Witold said "In a sense we're putting most of our bets on Jean Michel Jarre. He is quite exceptional
and we're sure that by 1980 he will be recognised worldwide."[23] Oxygène has since sold an estimated 12 million copies, and is the best-selling
French record of all time.[8] It reached number 2 in the UK, number
65 in Canada, and broke the top 100 in the US.[15][24] The album
contains his most recognisable single, "Oxygène IV",[12][25]'which reached number 4 in the UK single charts.[15] Jarre's follow-up album, Équinoxe, was released
in 1978. It was composed with sequencers, particularly on the bass,
and features a more baroque and classical style than Oxygène, with
more emphasis on melodic development.[26] Although not as commercially
successful as Oxygène its release was followed in 1979 by a large
open-air concert at the Place de la Concorde, on Bastille Day.[3][25]
The free outdoor event set a new world record for the largest number
of spectators ever at an open-air concert, and drew more than 1
million spectators. It was also watched by a television audience
of over 100 million.[8][27][28] The event's success was not fully
anticipated; the crowds were so large that Jarre's wife, Charlotte
Rampling, found it difficult to access the venue. Although it was
not the first time that Jarre had performed in concert (he had
already played at the Paris Opera Ballet), the 40 minute-long event,
which used projections of light, images and fireworks, served as
a blueprint for Jarre's future concerts.[3][8] The event helped to boost his popularity, as between 14 July and 31 August
1979 he sold a further 800,000 records.[29] It also served as Jarre's
introduction to Francis Rimbert – brought together by Michel Geiss,
Jarre used Rimbert's sythesizer setup for the performance. Today
Rimbert works for Jarre on a full-time basis.[30] By the time that Magnetic Fields (French version: Les Chants Magnétiques)[31] was released on 20 May 1981, Oxygène and Équinoxe had achieved global sales of about 6 million units; in its first two months Magnetic Fields sold a reported 200,000 units in France alone.[32] The sounds used are primarily those of the Fairlight CMI, which gave Jarre the chance to continue his earlier sonic experimentation, using digital technology to make the collection and processing of sounds much easier. Jarre and Peter Gabriel were among the first artists to take delivery of the Fairlight platform and make heavy use of it.[33] The album's release coincided with Jarre's first foreign tour. In 1981 the British Embassy in Beijing gave Radio Beijing[34] copies of Oxygène and Équinoxe, which became the first pieces of foreign music to be played on Chinese national radio in decades. Jarre was then invited by the republic to perform The Concerts in China, the first western musician to perform a concert there. The performances were scheduled to run from 18 October to 5 November 1981.[32] The first, in Beijing, was at first attended mostly by officials. Before the concert began technicians realised that not enough power was available to supply the stage and auditorium, and so Chinese officials solved the problem by cutting power to the surrounding districts, for the duration of the performance.[35] The stadium was almost full when the concert started, but nearly half the audience left before the end, as Beijing's buses stopped running at about 10 o'clock.[36] To boost the audience attendance for the second night, Jarre and his production team purchased some of the concert tickets and gave them to children on the streets (Jarre originally intended for the concerts to be free, but the Chinese authorities charged between £0.20 and £0.50 per ticket).[35] The concert was notable for the lack of audience involvement during the performance; the Chinese were apparently nonplussed by both the music and the light show, and applause was muted. The second venue in Shanghai was a different matter – Jarre actively encouraged audience participation by stepping into the crowd, which became much more exuberant than that in Beijing.[3] The concerts were released as a double-disc LP in 1982,[25] and featured the Laser harp, one of Jarre's signature electronic instruments.[37] On 5 July 1983 Jarre auctioned the only existing
vinyl print of his newest album, Music For Supermarkets (French
version: Musique pour Supermarché),[14] created for a planned performance
at the "Supermarché" art exhibition. Jarre allowed Radio Luxembourg to broadcast the album, uninterrupted,
in its entirety, before selling it at auction, at the Hôtel Drouot
in Paris. The sale raised about 70,000 francs, and Jarre promised
to burn the original tapes in the presence of a bailiff.[38] Despite their destruction, much of the music on
these tapes was reworked into his 1984 album Zoolook.[39] It combines
analogue synthesis with ethnic and vocal music, and makes heavy
use of the sampling capabilities of the Fairlight CMI. Zoolook
also features samples of words and speech in different languages
from around the globe, creating a diverse range of sounds and effects.[3]
Laurie Anderson provided the vocals for the track "Diva". With its rock music underpinnings, Zoolook resides amongst a handful of pop
and rock albums that make intensive and sometimes exhaustive use
of the Fairlight synthesiser. A long list of musicians, including
Adrian Belew and Marcus Miller, also made significant contributions.[40]
The album was somewhat less successful than Jarre's previous works,
reaching only no.47 in the UK album charts[25] and no.86 in Canada. —Jean Michel Jarre[41] In 1985 Jarre was invited by the musical director of the Houston Grand Opera in Texas to perform a concert to celebrate the city and state's 150th anniversary. Although he was busy with other projects and was initially unimpressed by the proposal, he later visited the city. He was immediately impressed by the visual grandeur of the city's skyline, and agreed to perform. That year also marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center,[27] and Jarre was contacted by NASA to integrate the anniversary into the concert.[3] The creation of Rendez-Vous took place over a
period of two months, and as with Zoolook, contains elements of
his 1983 album Musique pour Supermarché.[33] The three movements
of the score represent Houston's development from a rural economy,
to its role as a leader in space technology.[27] Baroque in style,
the album uses a mixture of French horns, trombones and violins,
and features heavy use of the Elka Synthex, notably so on "Third Rendez-Vous", a track Jarre often performs using a laser harp.[33] Jarre worked with several
Houston-based astronauts including Bruce McCandless II, and former
Jazz musician Ronald McNair, who was to have played the saxophone
on "Rendez-Vous VI", recorded in the weightless environment of space. McNair was to have performed
at the concert over a live link, but was killed in the Space Shuttle
Challenger disaster on 28 January 1986. Immediately following the
accident consideration was given to the cancellation of the concert,
but Jarre was contacted by McCandless and urged to proceed, and
to mark the event as a tribute to the crew of the Shuttle mission.
Following the Challenger disaster, the piece was recorded by Kirk
Whalum and retitled "Ron's Piece".[3] —Jean Michel Jarre[3] About 2,000 projectors displaying images onto buildings and giant screens up to 1,200 feet (370 m) high transformed the city's skyscrapers into spectacular backdrops, accompanied by an elaborate display of fireworks and lasers.[27] Rendez-vous Houston entered the Guinness Book of Records for its audience of over 1.5 million people, beating his earlier record in 1979. The concert featured large projections of photographic images and laser patterns onto the buildings of downtown Houston. The display was so impressive that passing vehicles blocked a nearby freeway, closing it for the duration of the concert.[42] "Ron's Piece" was performed by Kirk Whalum.[43] Several months later about one million people[44] watched him perform for a celebration of Pope John Paul II's visit to Jarre's home city of Lyon. The pope, viewing from Lyon Cathedral, began the concert with a good-night blessing (a recording of which appears on the album Cities In Concert — Houston/Lyon).[3] In 1988 Jarre released his ninth studio album,
Revolutions. The album spans several genres, including symphonic
industrial, Arabian inspired, light guitar pop and ethnic electro
jazz. A two hour concert, titled Destination Docklands, was planned
for 24 September 1988 at the Royal Victoria Dock in east London.[45]
The location, close to the heart of London, was chosen in part
for its desolate environment, but also because Jarre thought the
architecture and environment would be ideally suited to his music.
Plans to stage the concert began early in 1988, with Jarre meeting
local officials and members of the community. The floating stage
on which Jarre and his musicians would perform was built on top
of four large barges. Large purpose-built display screens were
constructed from scaffolding, and one of the buildings to be used
in the backdrop was painted white. Local children practised the
choral elements of the performance. During the transportation of
several large mirror balls commissioned for the event, one came loose and fell onto the roadside. On the same night a satellite (containing
radioactive material) was due to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
The sighting of the mirror ball led to a degree of confusion as
some people mistook it for the falling satellite. World War II
searchlights were to illuminate the sky and surrounding architecture,
along with thousands of coloured fireworks.[46] Newham Borough Council, which ran the docks, expressed their fears about the safety of the event, and delayed their decision on whether to allow the concert to proceed until 12 September[45] before eventually refusing the licence application. The local fire service were also concerned that in the event of a fire, they would be unable to gain access. Work continued on the site, and Jarre's team looked at other locations around the UK, but following improvements to both on and off-site safety Jarre eventually won conditional approval on 28 September to stage two separate performances from 8–9 October.[46][47] Along with thousands in the surrounding streets
and parks, 200,000 people watched Jarre perform with guests such
as guitarist Hank Marvin. The performances were not without issues;
inclement weather had threatened to break the stage from its moorings,
and although the original plan was to have Jarre float across the
Royal Victoria Dock on the first evening, winds of over 30 knots
meant that it was deemed unsafe – the winds were so strong that
television cameras were blown over. The audience, which included
Diana, Princess of Wales,[44] was on the second evening soaked
by rain and wind.[46] In 1990 Jarre released Waiting for Cousteau (French version: En Attendant Cousteau), which was inspired by the French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.[44] On Bastille Day 1990 he performed a concert at La Défense in Paris, attended by a record-breaking audience of about two million people – once more, beating his earlier world records.[48] He later promoted a concert near the Pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico, to be held during the solar eclipse of 11 July 1991, but the project stalled. Several weeks before the scheduled performance, important equipment had not arrived and the sinking in the Atlantic Ocean of a cargo ship containing the purpose-built pyramidal stage and other technical equipment made the staging of the concert impossible. Jarre's disappointment was such that he "could not cope with Mexican food for two years".[3] In 1991 he released the Best Of compilation Images
– The Best of Jean Michel Jarre, which included some of his best
work and additionally three new tracks. In 1993 Jarre released his first work to be largely influenced by the techno-music scene that had been developing since about 1989. Entitled Chronologie, the album was, from a technical standpoint, a revision to a concept employed by Jarre in his Oxygène/Équinoxe period, where a grandiose overture provides the emotional feel and sonic timbre for the rest of the following, more rhythmic pieces.[49] Along with Jarre's traditional collection of instruments,
such as the ARP 2600 and Mini Moog, Jarre used newer state-of-the-art
equipment such as the Roland JD-800 and the Kurzweil K2000.[50]
This album features sampled clocks and contemporary rhythms, driving
the tempo. Its release was followed by Jarre's first large scale
tour. —Jean Michel Jarre[49] A series of 16 performances across Europe, Europe In Concert occurred on a smaller scale than his previous concerts. Chronologie was central to the tour's repertoire. The set featured a miniature skyline, laser imaging, and fireworks. Locations included Lausanne, Mont St Michel, London, Manchester, Barcelona, Sevilla and the Versailles Palace near Paris.[51] Jarre performed in Hong Kong on 11 March 1994, to mark the opening of the city's new stadium, as a continuation of the tour. The sold-out event included a range of entertainers, including bikini-clad Brazilians.[52] Jarre performed at the Concert for Tolerance on Bastille Day in 1995 (he had in 1993 accepted the offer to become a Goodwill Ambassador of Tolerance and Youth for UNESCO[5]). In front of the Eiffel Tower he celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, performing many of his most well-known hits. The tower was specially lit for the occasion, prompting the installation of a more permanent display.[53] The following December he created a website called "A Space for Tolerance". The site featured music from En Attendant Cousteau, played while the user browsed a variety of "visual worlds".[54] Also in 1995, Jarre released the remix album Jarremix. After years of experimenting with new technology,
with Oxygène 7–13 he returned to the analogue synthesisers of the
1970s. The album was released in 1997, more than 20 years after
Oxygène,[55] and was dedicated to his mentor at the GRM, Pierre
Schaeffer, who had died in 1995.[56] Eschewing the digital techniques
developed in the 1980s, in an interview for The Daily Telegraph
he said: —Jean Michel Jarre[55] On 6 September that year the Moscow State University became the backdrop for a spectacular display of image projections, skytrackers and fireworks. The event, celebrating the 850th anniversary of Moscow, was viewed by an audience of about 3.5 million,[57][58] his fourth record for the largest ever outdoor concert audience. The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, had taken place on the same day, and the composer dedicated "Souvenir of China" to her memory, followed by a well-observed minute's silence.[59] In July 1998 he became the first artist spokesman
for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
He rallied hundreds of musicians in a petition to the European
Parliament over the proposed European Union Copyright Directive.
He was succeeded in the post by The Corrs, in July 2000.[60] On
31 December 1999 Jarre held a three-hour music and light show in
the Egyptian desert near Giza. The Twelve Dreams of the Sun celebrated
the new millennium and offered a preview of his next album, Métamorphoses.
Beginning on New Year's Eve, the show featured performances from
more than 1,000 local artists and musicians, and was based on ancient
Egyptian mythology about the journey of the sun and its effect
upon humanity. Addressing the audience, Jarre said "I hope the new millennium will witness international understanding".[61] Jarre's anthemic work melded electronic music with Western jazz and Arabic
rhythms and melodies, and was accompanied by lasers projected onto
the backdrop of the pyramids and the Sahara Desert.[61] Jarre released Métamorphoses, his first vocal
album, in 2000. The entire album was mixed on an early version
of Pro Tools, a digital audio workstation designed to record, edit
and play back digital audio.[11] The compositions and their arrangement
on this techno-based album co-produced with Joachim Garraud marked
a departure from Jarre's previous style. Sound effects used include
radio interference from mobile phones (used on the track "Tout est Bleu"), and Macintalk, a Macintosh program used to generate lyrics on the track "Love, Love, Love". Laurie Anderson makes her second guest appearance in the Jarre discography
(her first was on Zoolook on the track "Diva"). Other contributors include Natacha Atlas and Sharon Corr.[21] —Jean Michel Jarre[11] On 1 January 2001 Jarre and Tetsuya "TK" Komuro performed exclusive new material in Okinawa. Rendez-vous in Space was a tribute to the science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, a close friend of Jarre’s. Jarre used recordings of Clarke (filmed before the concert) to introduce each piece of music. The opening sequence of the concert was based on the theme from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[62] Later that year, Jarre gave a charity concert for the Elpida Foundation at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.[63] In 2001 he composed Interior Music, a demonstration
piece for Bang and Olufsen. The album has not had a commercial
release. On 6 September 2002 Jarre performed a concert at a windfarm
near Gammel Vrå Enge, outside Aalborg in Denmark. A rain-soaked
audience of between 35–40,000 watched him perform in front of a
windfarm illuminated by lights and fireworks.[64] The event was
beset with problems, caused mainly by the 22mm of rain that fell
on the venue – the organisers had anticipated only 4mm. Some fans
reported a wait of six hours to leave the site, and one fan reported
that a bus had blocked traffic when it slid into a ditch, and also
that many ticket-holders were not allowed into the arena because
thousands of gatecrashers had broken through a fence. The concert
was however generally viewed as a success.[65] The event marked a change in direction in Jarre's live concerts; from Rendez-vous Houston onwards he had been accompanied by a full complement of live musicians, however the concert in Aalborg demonstrated a marked reduction in the number of musicians on stage; Jarre was accompanied only by the Klarup Girls Choir, Francis Rimbert, Safri Duo, and the Aalborg Symphonic Orchestra.[64] 2002 also saw the release of Sessions 2000, a set of more experimental synth-jazz pieces that were stylistically distinct from anything Jarre had previously released. The album was reviewed positively by Billboard Magazine, which wrote "He's [Jarre] created a deeply nuanced soundscape that invites repeated listening."[66] In 2003, Jarre released Geometry of Love. The album was commissioned by Jean Roch, as a soundtrack for his 'V.I.P. Room' nightclub in France, and contains a mix of 'electro-chill' music, with touches of his more traditional style.[67] The following year, on 10 October, he returned to China for two performances, one in the Forbidden City at the Meridian Gate, followed immediately by a smaller concert in Tiananmen Square. Both were designed to open China’s "Year of France" cultural exchange. The concert was transmitted live across the country, and was also watched on large television screens at shopping centres in Beijing. Jarre opened the concert with a collaboration with Chen Lin, who played an Erhu. Accompanying his traditional musical repertoire, 600 projectors shone coloured light and images across various screens and objects. More than 15,000 spectators watched the concert at the Meridian Gate.[68] A combined DVD/CD of these concerts, Jarre in China was released in 2004. In September 2004, Jarre released AERO, both a DVD and a CD in one package. Purportedly the world's first album released for 5.1 systems, with it being fully "constructed" in 5.1 surround sound, it contains re-recorded versions of some of his most famous tracks, including tracks from Oxygène and Équinoxe. Accompanying the audio, the DVD features a visual image of Anne Parillaud's eyes, recorded in real time as she listened to the album.[10][69] Jarre used the minimalist imagery to reinforce the audio content of the DVD.[70] The CD was mixed in super-stereo. In his role of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Jarre performed a concert named Water for Life in Morocco, on 16 December 2006, to celebrate the year of desertification in the world.[71] The performance was in front of the Erg Chebbi Dunes of Merzouga, in the Sahara. A free event, it was attended by about 25,000 people. Images of water and the environment were projected onto nine vertical screens, held in place by sand which was watered to keep it hard. Several permanent drinking fountains were built on the site, along with a permanent electricity installation. Jarre was accompanied by over 60 Moroccan artists.[72] Jarre released Téo & Téa
on 26 March 2007.[73] He described the two computer-generated characters
in the video clip of the title track as being "like twins", one female, one male. The album is supposed to describe the different stages
of a loving relationship, and explores the idea that the length
of such relationships is unpredictable. Its release demonstrated
a move away from virtual instruments and computers that Jarre had
been using up to that point; he instead chose to use a simplified
range of devices, including several new prototype instruments.
The album's cover was inspired by the David Lynch film Wild at
Heart.[69] In August 2007 Jarre signed for EMI France. He
released an anniversary package containing a special live recording
of his classic work, Oxygène, in 3D DVD, live CD and normal 2D
DVD formats in November 2007, named Oxygène: New Master Recording.
A first for Jarre, the album was recorded live, without tape or
hard disk playback, with help from Francis Rimbert, Claude Samard,
and Dominique Perrier. The album also contains three extra tracks
not found on either the original or remake, which form links between
the main movements. Jarre plans to integrate the original analog
synthesizers from Oxygène into his next album, and is building
a new private recording studio on the outskirts of Paris.[12] In
the same year Disques Dreyfus released The Complete Oxygène, containing
the original versions of Oxygène and Oxygène 7–13, and remixes
of tracks from Oxygène 7–13.[74] —Jean Michel Jarre[12] Jarre performed 10 concerts (Oxygène Live) in Paris, from 12–26 December 2007, held in the Théâtre Marigny, a small 1000-seat theatre in the Champs-Élysées. Later in 2008 Jarre performed several concerts to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Oxygène, in theatres in Europe. Following one such performance at the Royal Albert Hall Jarre met Brian May, who proposed he create a concert in Tenerife for the International Year of Astronomy,[75] but a lack of sponsorship meant that the concert did not take place.[76] In 2009 he was selected as the artistic director
of the World Sky Race,[77] and also accepted a role as Goodwill
Ambassador for the International Year of Astronomy.[78] In 2009
he started an indoor tour in arenas throughout Europe.[79] On 1 March 2010, Jean Michel Jarre started the second leg of his 2009–2010 indoors tour, and on 10 June he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Mojo magazine.[80] On 30 May 2011, he released the double CD set Essentials & Rarities. The Essentials disc is a compilation of his most famous work. The Rarities disc includes tracks made before Oxygène. On 1 July 2011, Jarre performed a large scale
concert in Monaco to celebrate the marriage of Prince Albert and
his bride Charlene. Jarre has been married three times. He was married to Flore Guillard from 20 January 1975 until 1977, their daughter Émilie Charlotte was born in 1975 (or 1976) and became a fashion model.[81][82] He met his second wife Charlotte Rampling at a dinner party in St Tropez in 1976.[82] Both were in failing marriages, but they each obtained a divorce (Rampling was married to New Zealander Bryan Southcombe).[83] The two married, Jarre gaining custody of his daughter Émilie Charlotte,[82] and Rampling her son Barnaby. Together they have a son, David. In 1995 photographs in Hello! showed Jarre apparently romantically involved with 31-year old secretary Odile Froument, and in 1996 Jarre and Rampling separated.[83][84] They divorced in 2002.[85] He had a brief relationship with Isabelle Adjani,[86] but married French actress Anne Parillaud in May 2005.[87] In November 2010 the couple announced their divorce.[88] Jarre has a half-sister Stéphanie Jarre, from
Maurice Jarre's other marriages.[24] His half-brother, Kevin Jarre,
died in 2011.[89] Although Maurice and Jean-Michel remained estranged,
following Maurice's death in 2009 Jarre paid tribute to his legacy.[90]
Jarre said about his father: —Jean Michel Jarre[5] 1976 – Grand Prix du Disque by L'Académie Charles
Cros, for Oxygène[8]
1990 – New Guinness Book of Records entry for
the biggest concert ever (Paris La Defense: A City in Concert) 2005 – HCA Ambassador for the Hans Christian
Andersen 2005 Bicentenary Festival An asteroid, 4422 Jarre, has been named in his
honour.[106] He is honorary citizen of Gdansk.[107] Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles,[1] the first of which was the 1969 single "La Cage / Erosmachine". His first solo album, Deserted Palace, was released in 1972, but it was the success of his 1976 album, Oxygène, that catapulted him to international stardom.[12][13] Until 2000 Jarre's output was entirely instrumental, but that year he released Métamorphoses, his first vocal album.[11] Studio albums Deserted Palace (1972)
Waiting for Cousteau (1990)
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