Jean-Michel Jarre releases his 22nd Studio Album ‘OXYMORE’

Electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre releases OXYMORE, is 22nd studio album and conceptually his most ambitious and groundbreaking to date. 

OXYMORE is the first commercial release of this scale which fully utilizes multichannel and binaural sound (spatial 3D), with Jarre not just producing, but also composing and recording and mixing in audio 360 in the “Innovation” studios of Radio France. It is also a homage to the late French composer Pierre Henry.

Jean-Michel Jarre has always been a futurist in his field. Throughout his illustrious career, the composer, performer, producer and cultural ambassador has continued to break new ground with his music and his mastery of creative innovation. Jarre’s current catalogue, which now includes 22 studio albums, has generated sales of more than 85 million worldwide to date and earned him countless awards and nominations.

OXYMORE is a tribute to the French roots of electronic music which has had a significant influence on the music production of the genre over the years. OXYMORE is also an homage to the late French composer Pierre Henry, at the origin of Musique Concrete with Pierre Schaeffer, with whom Jarre had been intending to collaborate for Jarre’s GRAMMY-nominated project album Electronica. Henry was an iconic figure in electronic and classical music, and one of Jarre’s influences at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) where he studied. Since his death in 2017, Henry’s widow provided Jarre with original sounds which had been intended for use in this collaboration.

Jarre explains, “In real life stereo does not exist, our audio field is 360 degrees. Today, technology allows us to explore composition in spatial audio and that opens a whole new experience for us musicians in the creative process. Music will be more easily experienced by anyone with regular headphones or the new generations of sound systems, offering a more physical and natural way of listening to sound and music in full immersion.”

OXYMORE is a musical journey back and forth between analogue and digital sounds. Says Jarre, “Pierre’s work inspired me for Oxymore and working around some soundbites of his led me down a creative path that I may not have taken otherwise. I chose some of his sounds precisely from one track to another. Oxymore is also a tribute to the French way of approaching modern music, electroacoustic music, and my early studies at the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) where Pierre definitely influenced the future of electronic music worldwide, along with Pierre Shaeffer.”

As part of the immersive project, Jarre is also launching ‘OXYVILLE’, a VR world which accompanies the album release, providing a digital stage for him to perform the album live in VR. “OXYVILLE is a virtual music city where I am going to perform from time to time. And in the future I wish to invite other artists to be a part of it, as well as hold masterclasses and other events. I also want it to become a sandbox for new music experiences,”

Jean Michel joins me on Twitch from 1pm on twitch.tv/grahamefarmer

OXYMORE is out now. The album is available as CD, Double Vinyl and digital in Stereo, Binaural, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. The physical product includes a code to access the highest quality Binaural master as intended by Jean-Michel Jarre when producing the album.