Oxygene
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Oxygene is an album of instrumental electronic music composed and produced by Jean-Michel Jarre, and released in 1976 (see 1976 in music) on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor.
Originally Jarre found it very hard to get this record released due to it being all instrumental and without a clear single, but after its release it has become one of the most popular and characteristic albums of electronic music with a sale of over 15 million copies of albums and singles worldwide.
Contrasted with his contemporaries, such the rather clinical, hard, futuristic sound of Kraftwerk, or the more 'cosmic' and murky Tangerine Dream, Oxygene had a lush, spacey and strongly melodic sound.
The track Oxygene Part IV was released as a single and became one of the best-known pieces of electronic music ever.
Key components of Jarre's sound here included his use of the Electroharmonix Small Stone phaser on synthetic string pads provided by the Dutch-built Eminent-310 Unique organ, and liberal use of echo on various sound effects generated by the VCS3 and AKS synthesizers.
In 1997, Jarre produced a sequel to this album Oxygene 7-13, which is written in the same style using the same instruments, but is much more uptempo.
The album reached #2 in the UK charts and #78 in the US charts [link]
Track listing
- "Oxygene (Part I)" – 7:40
- "Oxygene (Part II)" – 8:09
- "Oxygene (Part III)" – 2:55
- "Oxygene (Part IV)" – 4:15
- "Oxygene (Part V)" – 10:24
- "Oxygene (Part VI)" – 6:21
Equipment
Jean-Michel Jarre perfomed on the following instruments for this album: ARP Synthesizer, EMS Synthi AKS, VCS 3 Synthesizer, RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, Farfisa Organ, Eminent, Mellotron and the Rhythmin' Computer (later revealed to be a Korg Minipops-7 rhythm machine).
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