Jean-Michel Jarre is a world-renowned producer, performer, songwriter, and composer. He has been an enormous pioneer in electronic music production and performance, inspiring and sculpting generations to come. He learned from Pierre Schaeffer, the so-called “father of musique concrete,” and one of the most innovative composers of the 20th century. Musique concrete is a style that arose in the 50’s and involved playback of primarily non-musical recorded sounds (via tape loops and turntables). This marks the beginning of the sampling era, and the style would be intimately linked with the evolution of technology for decades to come, influencing artists such as Aphex Twin and Brian Eno.
After concluding his studies, Jarre released the album, Oxygène (1976), produced in his DIY home studio. The album was an enormous success, and ultimately went 18x platinum. In total, Jean-Michael Jarre has sold 80 million copies of his 17 albums, and holds a space in the Guinness Book of Records (largest concert attendance) for the 3.5 million people that attended his 1997 performance in Moscow. In this exclusive video, courtesy of Native Instruments, Jarre goes in-depth into the evolution of music technology, and how this evolution affects both the creative and technical side of music-making.
Click here to read his full interview with NI.
