Happy 9th anniversary to one of the most defining Jean-Michel Jarre releases: Electronica 1 The Time Machine!
This album was a huge turning point in Jarre's career. Before he released this album, his last studio release had been Teo & Tea. Then, he went back to remaking Oxygene and did tours with his older stuff. Many fans thought that Jarre is more or less retired in the early 2010s or even if not, his days of huge success is most likely over.
And then, this album came and changed everything.
The core idea was amazing. Every track on the album is collaboration with a different electronic artist, an artist that Jarre found inspiring. From legendary musicians to newcomers, from musicians older than Jarre to people in their 20s, from vocal artists to instrumental artists, he collaborated with people like Moby, Massive Attack, Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Armin van Buuren, Air, Vince Clarke and many others. Electronica 1 The Time Machine is a 68 minute long exhibition of the history of electronic music, showing us different sounds from the 1970s to the 2010s. Electro pop, space music, classic trance, industrial, triphop and many other styles are there. Perhaps my personal favourite track on the album is 'Close Your Eyes' with Air, a track that perfectly demonstrates what Jarre wanted to do: the track's instrumentation is gradually gets more modern as the song progresses, starting with tape machine sounds and ending with iPad generated sounds. This is quite symbolic when you think how Jarre progressed during his career.
The album was an amazing success. Electronica 1 was nominated for a Grammy, he got into the British charts Top 10 for the first time since 1988. The Electronica Tour was also an amazing success, he did his first ever North America Tour and even today, he uses the most popular Electronica tracks at his concerts.
This was the point when fans had to realise: Jarre is not going anywhere. He never did, he was simply too busy working on the Electronica albums, which took him several years. But here is the new, rejuvinated Jarre, with new hair, new look, new light technology and he is here to stay, with new projects, new concerts, new albums. He is still keeping up with the times, using Albleton for Electronica and he will keep moving forward, experimenting and innovating. Which is what he did in the last 9 years.
