Okay, maybe not. I mean, there have been two or three albums that I could say definitely changed my life, two of which have been featured already and the third being Jeff Wayne's "War of the worlds", which I already reviewed, but most of the rest in this series, while not actually life-changing, did form part of the soundtrack to my teenage/adolescent life. This is more or less where I intend to go with this series now. It wouldn't be right or accurate to say that every album I feature here had a profound effect on me, but each one is nevertheless carefully picked to reflect an influence that was exerted on, or opened up to me by listening to the album in question, and each is recalled with fondness and in some cases gratitude. Each evokes particular memories, and when played can transport me back to an earlier, simpler time in my life when I didn't have to deal with the sort of issues I do now.
This next one certainly fits that bill, and like "War of the worlds" it also brings to mind the memory of my late best friend, who loved this album too. I always think of him when I listen to it, which admittedly isn't that often. It's the sort of album you can really get into, but not that you would listen to once a month or even once a year. You really have to be in the mood for it. It's also the kind of recording you can't really break up and listen to piecemeal: it's an all-encompassing experience, and you're best treating it as a sort of electronic symphony (which is really what it is), one piece of music that flows almost without pause or break from the one track into the other, only broken --- in my case, originally --- by having to flip over the record, which these days of course you don't have to do. So you can let it soak into you, wash over you and like the title of the album itself, you can breathe it in and let it fill your lungs, your heart, your mind and your soul.
Oxygene --- Jean Michel Jarre --- 1976 (Disques Dreyfus)
Hailed by many as the first real electronic synthesiser composition, "Oxygene" has gone down in history as Jean Michel Jarre's most popular and recognised album, the only one to give him a hit single and the one that also afforded him his big break. Released purely on a gamble by his record label, it went on to sell over fifteen million copies worldwide, and its cover, a painting by Michael Granger, has become one of the most inconic images of the seventies. It's pretty incredible too to think that this masterpiece was achieved without the aid of digital technology, multi-tracking or any of the high-tech doodads albums are typically created with these days. Jarre played all instruments, wrote all the music and produced the album, and used only analogue synthesisers, yet makes them sound as state of the art as today's best.
Of course, like all his work it's completely instrumental, and so presents something of a challenge to me as a reviewer, but I know the album intimately, so I don't think I'll have too much trouble getting across the various moods and tempos and communicating to you (if you don't know the album) how extraordinary a suite it is. Of course synthesisers are pretty much all you'll hear, and there are echoing, swirly ones to start the first part off, with a kind of deep, cavernous quality to them, then a deeper, more sustained tone comes through, with little bubbly flashes of faster synthwork climbing up them like squirrels scampering up a tree. Then a sort of wailing, keening sound takes over, almost like a phantom haunting the melody, a little like a violin with a lot of vibrato on it, and there's a great sense of space and openness about this opening part. Every so often little flurries fly off the main melody, similar perhaps to prominences being thrown off the surface of the sun, or perhaps ripples expanding across a pool, eventually widening to the point where they disappear. Suddenly, about halfway through out of nowhere a big bassy booming synth sounds, and the music takes a slightly more dramatic turn, with some phrases that remind me of Vangelis's work on "Heaven and Hell" sliding in and out too.
Fanfares ring out but then fade back and the original, softer melody returns, this time with birdsong and the sounds of water running as the first part heads towards its conclusion. The big sweeping synth that opened the piece maintains its control to the end, with spacey sounds flitting here and there, a sound like wild dogs howling in the distance, then part two comes to life on a rippling, pulsing synth that for pretty much the first time brings in a sense of percussion to the music as a thrumming, upbeat bassline joins the melody, the spacey sounds continuing on as a higher-register synth holds the line, till suddenly a boppy, bubbly keyboard throws in a new melody, quite catchy and almost dancy as percussion flies in with drum pads and more sounds flying back and forth almost like an interstellar war with lasers buzzing all over the place. A high keyboard arpeggio then takes the tune, carrying it towards another change as low synth remains in the background then the tempo gets very upbeat and rocks along nicely with another synth almost whistling the line as it joins in.
It's rather amazing to think that this was all recorded on an eight-track recorder by Jarre. Eight tracks! When nowadays even twenty-four seems inadequate to most musicians. It certainly sounds like more though as he layers the sounds one on top of another without masking or drowning out any of them. Choral voices now join the melody as the boppy keyboard drops back and though the percussion still nips smartly along, the main synth melody is slowing down now, giving way to wind effects and the sound of waves crashing. As even the voices fade the effects carry us into part three, where an ominous organ-like sound rises, some discordant piano behind it, then a big bassy synth that takes the melody in a slower, more majestic direction. High piano notes are joined by slow, measured percussion and the choral voices return in a much higher octave, rather like the ghostly noises that marked the opening piece. This is the shortest of all the tracks on the album, just shy of three and a half minutes, and it leads into the famous "Part IV", which gave Jarre his hit single and lifted electronic music out of the realm of the obscure and into the charts.
It's likely you know this one anyway: a high-powered, uptempo almost dancy piece that opens on soft but insistent vibe like notes and wind sounds before the percussion takes it and it rocks along on an upbeat keyboard motif in a tune which has become synonymous with Jarre. Little hissing sounds, like meteors falling to Earth, slide by and away as the main melody continues, then another synth builds up the layers of the tune, adding its voice before a strangely distorted piano sound comes in too, and the main melody reasserts itself. Ironically, of all the six tracks on the album, "Part IV" is probably the least adventurous, as it maintains more or less the same melody throughout, quite simple in comparison to the other parts on the album. But it caught the imagination, and was certainly the impetus for me to shell out on this album, which I've never regretted.
"Part V" then is the longest by a country mile, over ten minutes and comes in on the sound of what sounds like bubbling pools, water dripping down from caves on an alien planet, then a nice sedate synth line takes over the melody, more like an organ really, with everything else dropping away as this keyboard runs solo. There's an almost hymnal, sepulchal feel to the music, the thought that it would not be out of place being played in a church. That's for the first nearly four minutes, before thick bass comes in to join the melody, giving it something of a harder edge, slowly taking over from the organ and its attendant piano which has sneaked in almost unnoticed to join the piece. Then as the music reaches its halfway point fast, clicking, uptempo percussion rather like corn popping slips in joined by a running bass line that changes the whole shape of the piece, making it a much more upbeat and faster track. Some rippling keyboard is overlaid on this, again a violin-like sound though this time without the vibrato, and now the piece resembles "Part IV" a little; it's certainly come to life.
Glissandos and arpeggios abound as the banks of synthesisers flow over the piece, the "popcorn" percussion and pulsing, tripping bass keeping the tempo high. The sounds of surf crashing returns as the piece comes to its end and the thrumming bass takes us into part VI, the closing movement, with the wave sounds and loud, echoey almost breathing sounds slowly joined by conga-style percussion, then a low, droning synth washes over everything, another setting up the main melody in counterpoint, while the waves and crashing sounds continue in the background. A bassier synth runs the main melody as the droning one slips back a little, and swirling sounds float about in the atmosphere of the piece. With a last run on the higher-register synth the track begins to wind down, fading at the last in a wash of wind sounds, waves and crashing breakers.
TRACKLISTING
1. Oxygene part I
2. Oxygene part II
3. Oxygene part III
4. Oxygene part IV
5. Oxygene part V
6. Oxygene part VI
Although this was Jarre's third album, his previous two were a movie soundtrack and some library music, which was never officially released, so in effect "Oxygene" stands as his first "proper" album. Since then he has of course gone on to score major hits with a total of fifteen albums, not including soundtracks. But although his popularity soared in the seventies and eighties --- mostly on the back of his amazing laser lightshows --- he never reached the heights of commerical chart success he did on this album. He did release a followup to it, in 1997, called "Oxygen 7-13", but this album still stands alone in his catalogue as a unique and major achievement. The world of electronic music was at the time more or less in its infancy, with artistes like Vangelis and, to some extent, Mike Oldfield, leading the way, but the success of "Oxygene" raised awareness of and interest in purely electronic, instrumental music, and the fact that a hit single could come from such an album was not only a surprise, but a marker for things to come.