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I just discovered this video and watched it. Thanks to Doctor Mix for his enthusiasm and for highlighting the Oxygene album. It brings back my memories of working with Jean-Michel Jarre in 1976. It was 2 years earlier that he had been given my telephone number following my presentation of the ARP 2600 for the AES (Audio Engineering Society). I confess I still wonder how I ended up working on such a legendary album! I had noticed that, apart from the single Oxygene 4, the contents of the album were little known. Hence the interest of this analysis. In fact, I've heard a number of criticisms of this single, often described by musicians as simplistic. I thought it would be useful to add a few details. First, the technical context of the recording. The recorder was an 8-track Scully. In today's unlimited-track environment, it's not uncommon for projects to reach several dozen tracks. But... each of the 8 tracks contained several parts, some of them completely different. Consequently, to achieve the final mix of one side of the vinyl, we worked in sections. Each was made up of pieces of magnetic tape cut with a razor blade and assembled with adhesive tape. And as console automation was not yet available in 76, mixing was done in real time with several pairs of hands. Each person was responsible for his or her own work, and couldn't make a mistake or they'd have to start all over again! One of my roles was to take care of the recordings, and in particular to make “on-the-fly” pick-ups of sections to be re-recorded, the "drop-ins". Jean-Michel had also consulted me on the structure of the single. My experience of music fairs had enabled me to advise him on the purchase of new instruments when he was looking to expand his sound palette. And so RMI's Harmonic Synthesizer entered the studio. Its arpeggiator forms the basis of Oxygene 4. And it's also this arpeggiator, plugged into Electro Harmonix's Electric Mistress flanger, which makes the chorus sound on the single. It's also quite fair to say that JM Jarre's signature sound was largely the result of combining the strings of the Eminent 310 with Electro Harmonix's phasing pedal, the Small Stone, also for Equinoxe. in principle intended for guitarists (the guitar had been Jean-Michel's 1st instrument in his rock band). But Oxygene's sound is also largely derived from the use of the Revox tape recorder as an echo chamber. During the recording sessions, the Revox was constantly running. Then, during mixing at Studio Gang, the same Revox was used with the same settings. Yes, Doctor Mix at 7"36 is indeed an imitation of an opera voice, played on the VCS3, which Jean-Michel humorously called ‘Arlette’ (the female first name). As for the sounds of noise, they come from three sources, two analog and one digital. One, heard mainly on the A side, is produced by the VCS3. The granular sound evokes the sound of pebbles on a beach. Another noise sound is produced by the ARP 2600. Well done Doctor! And at 28"37, you were right to mention cutoff movements on the filter. Jean-Michel had also entrusted me with this role and directed me like a conductor! I also created the seagull sound you hear in this part. I certainly had a good mastery of the 2600. And finally, the other noise sound in Oxygene 5, this one rhythmic, comes from the RMI. Of course, Jean-Michel Jarre could very well have given these explanations. But given his many activities, I'm not sure he'd have the time. And given the interest of this video, I thought you might like these details. And thanks to Doctor Mix, who, thanks to this video, has enabled me to tell this important part of my life story. Michel Geiss
@Dr Mix: A huge thank you! Since your Decode of Equinoxe, I’ve been eagerly waiting for you to do the same with Oxygène, and because of you, I felt like listening to it again today 😀 @Michel Geiss: I said to you everytime I can, huge congratulations on your work. As a fan of JMJ, I like to make som covers and this reverse engineering makes me even more admiring. Oxygène and Equinoxe were created at a time when copy-pasting didn’t exist (or at least, it was cutting and pasting with razor blades! 😅). Every listen should always be done with the technical context of the era in mind, where these albums were recorded. I’d like to take the opportunity to ask you two quick questions: Was the Small Stone used on the bass during part 1 of Oxygène? In Oxygène 4, during the first chorus at the RMI, there’s the main brass sound that comes in a bit too early (it's about 1'42 on the video clip), it's just a C, then fades away. Was this a happy accident that ended up staying in the final mix? Thanks again for everything 😀
This means very much that you put the time into writing this. Dr Mix please archive things like this. I can’t express how JMJ’s music has influenced me in a very “slow” way. My friend in high school had a dad who was a pro musician (organ) / composer / producer so had all sorts of albums laying about. I heard this a lot but it is only now in the last 5 years with the almost unlimited resources at one’s fingers for very little dollars, comparatively. And yet you guys did all that! Cutting tape, having to plan it out and little (no) room for error. I really appreciate the sweat and love you put in all those years ago to help get these masterpieces that had never been heard the likes of before, out into the world. Just awesome. Best to you!
Mr Geiss thank you for taking the time to give us such a detailed account of your involvement with the recording process of one of the most seminal LP's of all time (from any genre!). I know it may sound too sentimental and contrived but for many of us you are a living legend, along with Mr Jarre, of course.
Let me tell you a few things about this album: Part 1: The album begins with some very echoy notes made with the magnificent Eminent 310U electronic organ to which, little by little, other instruments are added. The human voice that makes the main melody is made with the AKS synthesizer and this sound is Jarre's favorite, according to his own words. In the middle part of the song, some low notes made with a Minimoog that was barely used on the album and that is out of the credits, give way to some powerful rising brass programmed in the ARP 2600 synthesizer. Finally we come to the last minutes of the theme, in which, a background noise made with the VCS3 will accompany us until the end of the theme while we resume with some strings of the Eminent 310U the main melody that was previously made by the human voice of the VCS3. Meanwhile, some sound effects produced with the VCS3 begin to be heard, which will conclude the song, giving way to the second Part of the Album. Part 2: links directly to part 1 of the album beginning with a rolling sequence performed on the AKS synthesizer. The sound of the bass seems to have been done with the ARP 2600, while almost all the special effects were done with the VCS 3. The rhythm is handled exclusively by the Korg Mini pop 7 Rhythmi Computer drum machine. There is no data on what instrument he used to perform the main melody, although the flute sound was surely made with the ARP 2600. The human choirs are, of course, made with the Mellotron. The wind sound is made with the VCS 3 processed by an Electroharmonix Smalltone pedal. Part 3: The song begins with the farfisa organ that ends in a C minor chord while some low notes of a Minimoog make a melody that will soon be accompanied by some higher notes throughout the song made by the RMI Harmonic synthesizer.. The human voice is made with the VCS3 synthesizer. The song ends with the sound of some birds. Surely a real recording. Part 4: This is par excellence the single from the album and the song that made Jean Michel Jarre famous. The wind sound is made by the VCS 3 monophonic synthesizer and the rhythm by the Korg Mini pop 7 drum machine. The string cushion throughout the entire track is made by the Eminent 310U and the sound is processed by a pedal. Smalltone by Electroharmonix that gives it that so shall we say… spatial sound. The sound of the main melody is made with the ARP 2600 and was programmed by Michel Geiss. The violins or strings of the melody are made with the Eminent and the third melody or variation is made with an RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, a device Michel Geiss insisted Jarre buy. The basses were recorded by hand and possibly made with the ARP 2600, although there is no information on what synthesizer they were made with. The special effects “Pssssssssss” are done with the AKS and the special effects at the end of the song that link to part 5 are done with the ARP 2600. This sound could also be produced by vcs 3, since there are videos with a perfect emulation of that sound recreated by both synthesizers. Part 5: Begins with a few notes from the Farfisa organ with the whole palm of the hand on the keys and which creeps towards the top of the keyboard. This keyboard is also in charge of the melody during the first minutes of this first part in which the theme is divided. The low notes are made if I remember correctly by the RMI harmonic synthesizer that will play a fundamental role in the second part of the topic. The high notes are more than likely also from the RMI due to the peculiar type of sound that this synthesizer has. In the second part, the RMI arpeggiator kicks in, making a fast and frenetic bass sequence until the end of the song. Rhythmic sounds with white noise are also made with the RMI while the melody solo is made with the Eminent 310U Organ. The short note rhythmic sounds that accompany the main melody solo are played on the Eminent 310U. The sound of waves crashing “Or fireworks rising and exploding” was made with the ARP 2600 and programmed by Michel Geiss Part 6: The rhythm of part 6 is done by the Korg Mini Pop. The theme is played entirely on the Eminent. Halfway through the song, a high-pitched sound made with the RMI harmonic synthesizer is added to the melody, but it is barely noticeable. The sound of the seagulls is made with the ARP 2600 synthesizer. Some anecdotes: This album has currently sold 18 million copies. Jean Michel recorded it in his kitchen, since he lived in a tiny apartment in the center of Paris with black painted walls. The apartment was completely empty because his ex-girlfriend had taken everything in the apartment. Jarre hardly had any instruments, so Michel Geiss had to lend him some synthesizers in order to carry out the great ideas he had told him about. The mellotron had several broken keys, so Jarre had to adapt the chords from Oxygene Part 2 to the keys that worked. To record Oxýgene and having so little money, Jarre had to go to a thrift store where he bought a Scully 8-track recorder. The album was recorded in 6 weeks. A hug.
This album is arguably my first conscious foray into entirely electronic music as a 13 year old. To this day, it remains arguably one of my top 5 albums of all time and I'm so glad to have learned a bit more about it!
@@thhedk Hi... thanks for your contribution. I imagined that the melody of the 2nd would be eminet but I wasn't sure about it. And I'm sorry to contradict you about the minimoog, but those are Michel Geiss' own words. He had one and he left it to Jarre along with other synths like the ARP 2600 since Jarre barely had the means to record the album. An organ, an aks and a VCS 3. In fact, when Michel Geiss went to Jarre's apartment and saw the synthesizers he had, he said that it was disappointing. He said that he couldn't carry out his incredible ideas with so few resources. In equinoxe there were also two drum machines that were excluded from the credits. Three were used throughout the album. The Korg mini pop 7, which is heard especially in Part 5 with the guiro and the jawbone, the rithmycomputer made by Michel Geiss with an incredible sound that you can hear especially in equinoxe 4 and the Eko Computerhythm drum machine. Another anecdote. When Jarre rented his apartment, all the walls were painted black. There are also rumors that another synth was left out of the credits for Oxygene, and that was Geiss' ARP 2500. Apparently it was only used for one sound or one note, so they decided to take it out of the credits of the album, since its contribution to the sound of the album was practically non-existent. But I can't confirm this for you, since it's just a rumor. Regards.
@Nidels the Eminent sound on part2 is clear I can replicate it 100% I've never heard he used MiniMoog but since the sound has flanger on no one can hear if it's ARP2600 or MiniMoog, they are both 3 oscillator synths. Yes the ARP2500 is a bit of a mystery, maybe it's that bubbling sound in the start of part 5. But I think I saw someone create it on the 2600.
This is the most important electronic album for me. Like so many, I heard it when I a little kid. It shaped my dreams and my memory of a fantastical future that never was.
Oh... that strikes at the heart with a wincing ache. You're right. I've been feeling a kind of grief recently for the loss of that story of hope we had in the 60s through into the middle 70s of a world that would move away from the blindness of competing religions, of injustice, greed and corruption - and into a bright open space of science, technology and rationality. Somewhere - perhaps around the time of this album - we ground to a halt with the last of the moon landings. For me, the music of Bladerunner was the next future soundscape but compared to 'Oxygene' its lack of sweet melodic phrasing heralded the coming darkness. When I first listened to this album I was in a slightly post-party haze, lying on the floor in a large room in a house with several strangers... the host put this on his dad's hi-fi system which had the most incredible speakers I had ever seen - tall, solid wood rectangles standing on steel points on the floor. I'd never heard a sound like it in my life. I was off, flying through the universe. Oddly, the party had been on a pebbly beach that sounded exactly like JMJ's rasping, sucking waves. For me the album has only one flaw - a single 'bum' note in the improvised section on the album...that he passes before settling on the correct note and of course, its 'bum-ness' is repeated cruelly by the delays. It always catches my ear. Then I remember that it was 1974 and this genius created this whole masterpiece on a 4 track tape machine and those temperamental synths of the day :D
Yes, when I was young I'd put an album on and read a SF book, mostly from the Fleuve Noir series... (I know, I know, not the best SF, but they were cheap to buy!) so many stories are now linked to a particular album or song. I admit that there was a certain vibe to French SF, in particular the BD which seemed to promise a great future, unlike the dystopian SF of today, that never materialized.
In July 1977 I went over to a friend as he had bought Oxygene. When I rang the doorbell his mum opened the door and said "are you coming to listen to this ghost music". The first part came swirling down the stairs out of his room. I never forget my first hearing of Oxygene in full.
Swirling and ghost music...sums this epic up....soundscapes of alien origin. Never heard anything like it before or since....only TD Phaedra and Rubycon get anywhere near.
@@syntheticvisionsmusic Zoolook blew my tiny mind when I first heard it. But the first JMJ piece I heard was Oxygène IV, when a schoolfriend used it as the soundtrack to an art and drama project. Her mother was French and her sister was obsessed with JM. Looking back now, I can see why...!
@Dr.Jellyfingers indeed and Klaus too....Mark Shreeve, Tomita and Florian Schiender.....too many gone. Rubycon needs a huge credit for its unearthly soundscapes, Froese was a visionary.
I’m a French Guy from Lyon where JM is born and I thank you for honoring this video on Jean-Michel Jarre the way you did. He is a unique Artist and our musical pride. Everyone knows him in our country. A pioneer in his Art. His cities concerts Lyon/Houston will remain forever in my memory and on a vinyl that I still own since 1987. His music transports you and touches you deeply. Oxygène is a pure gem for our ears, it gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. ( He is the son of film music composer Maurice Jarre but it’s an another story..) Let's just celebrate his music 🙏
Biologically he is his son, yes, but Maurice abandoned him at a very young age and they never had a real relationship. They met maybe 20 times during their lives. Jean-Michel Jarre was not inspired by his father's film scores in any way, he was inspired by Chet Baker's jazz in the late 1950s, because he single mother - a French resistance hero, France Pejot - introduced him to it. SHE deserves the credit, not Maurice.
THIS album changed my life. I was 13 at the time when I listened to it at a friend's house. This sound literally hooked me, and triggered my interest to synthesizers, to music, to electronics and to recording studios.
Part 1: Start sound = Eminent + Small Stone Opera sound = EMS Synthi AKS Glissando = ARP 2600 Bass middle part = ARP 2600 Effects = EMS VCS 3 Part 2: Start sequencer = EMS Synthi (I have been told - don't know the sequencer well enough) Strings = Eminent Bass = ARP 2600 Effects = EMS VCS 3 Chorus sound = Eminent End chorus sound = ARP 2600 Clarinet/flute = Mellotron Choir = Mellotron Part 3: Start = Eminent Strings = Eminent Lead = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (I think) Drum = ARP 2600 Opera sound = EMS Synthi AKS Part 4: Wind = ARP 2600 or VSC Bass = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer Sequencer = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (I can't figure out how its sequencer worked, but I think it is) Lead brass = ARP 2600 Strings = Eminent Chorus = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer + flanger (Maybe Electric Mistres) Part 5-1: Organ = Farfisa + Electric Mistres High pitch lead = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer Bass = ARP 2600 Part 5-2: Bass = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer Lead = Eminent Part 6: Waves = Could be both ARP2600 and VCS Seagull = Arp 2600 Strings = Eminent + Small Stone Lead = Eminent Lead after chorus in right channel = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer ....So I think, but challenge me ;)
@@synthetic24 Most of it is 100%. The sequencer in Part 4 is strange. I originally thought it was the RMI and maybe it is, but I don't think the build in arpeggio can do it like that. So it might just be ARP 2600 and the matrisequencer - but I think it almost sounds hand played, even though still a little too perfect, the matrisequencer was more precise.
Great video as always. I'm 51 now and almost blind but Jean-Michel Jarre inspired me back in my early teens to learn electronic music and I've been writing, mixing and mastering for myself and others ever since but the one constant is Jarre never stops inspiring me, even with being blind in 1 eye and 2 degree's of vision left in the other nobody inspires me musically like Jarre.
I'm a semi pro musician same age as you. My background is the usual pub rock guitar base, but I often dabble with digital electronic media . Your videos are not only inspirational, but highly educational and the theoretical chordal and melodic breakdowns you make even help me with my guitar work. Thank you, and keep them coming
Being an iconic album, your deconstruction (decoding) is not less epic. It shows, in such evidence, your skills at both understanding, perceiving and vulgarizing to less adept people like me. I genuinely appreciated this work of yours. I'm certain that I cannot convey what I feel in these simple words. Thank you Claudio.
I was lucky enough to have been introduced to Jarre at a very young age in the 80s by my grandmother who was my piano teacher. She was very progressive and open minded musically, and her album library included Jarre, Vangelis, Wendy Carlos, etc, right along side her classical and jazz albums. When she saw that the classical and jazz pieces she usually taught to her students weren’t resonating with me, she introduced me to early synthesizer music ❤ I’m almost 44 now, and this music always reminds me of a wonderful part of my childhood when the sonic landscape of the time felt like the final unexplored frontier❤ Everything felt so wild and new, and from time to time it still does.
I was introduced as a young teenager in the 80s and loved Jarre. It got me into synthesiser music and I recorded many very noisy ‘multitrack’ recreations of these tracks, live and using early MIDI on an Amstrad COC6128, Recording tape to tape through the air! Quality was terrible but I learnt lots and had fun
@ ah the days of facing two tape recorders together to “multitrack,” somewhere I still have some of my own very primitive recordings like that too 🤣 What a wonderful time to have been alive, eh!?
@@sharkeynoyz What an absolutely positive and upbeat thing to say! You've made my day brighter to see that he made your day brighter. Keep up the good work.
Oh, man! This video was so emotional that I cried! It's one of your best videos ever, Doctor Mix. Thank you so much! I heard so many times this album that I stopped listening for nearly 25 years and now listening again as an adult brought back so many memories. Mil gracias!!
Been waiting for you to cover this one since Equinoxe. Oxygene is one of my favourite albums of all time, always joke that it makes me sick when I think about how young he was when he composed it. Was great to see your breakdown and playing along, always nice to see and hear more perspective to a classic album you love. Thank you.
I just listened to this record two times today because my 2-year old toddler randomly took it off the shelf. She seemed mesmerized especially by the more sound-designey parts, the swells and rumblings and weird little synth noises. I just realized: This is exactly how I discovered it as well, when I was a child, going through my fathers record collection. Full circle, i guess!
It's so wonderful to see what a passion you have for music. Jean-Michel Jarre should invite you to his studio, and you should both discuss and philosophise about this masterpiece together. At the same time, you could try all these great synthesisers and have a really deep discussion about Oxygen. That would be fantastic.😍
Finally! I was waiting for this video since I left a comment on your decoding of Equinoxe, at this point I think it's very important to state that Jarre must absolutely invite you to his " mancave " , I really would love to see you going through all those gorgeous old EMS and analog beauties with his comments
My first contact with this album was in a planetarium in 1984. The next day at school I was asked what I remembered...I said the music, just the music, no constellations, no planetary constellations...just the music JMJ once said that this album supposedly caused a significant increase in marijuana use. the intro to Oxy 2 is so amazing, it is rebuild in the Arturia V Col in the Synthi V as "JMJ tribute sound" ..sometimes i was listen to this sequence for hours....and Oxy 5 with this Moog Liberation part to at the end...without words...so it is without words and that´s the deepest thing at his music
Thank you for this, Dr. Mix. This is my favourite album of all time. For me, it will forever be his best masterpiece. Those EMS VCS3 echos @ 20:41 are beyond words, beyonds feelings, especially through headphones! I bought my first Jean-Michel Jarre albums of _Oxygène_ to _Rendezvous_ inclusive on the same day in September 1986, and clearly, _Oxygène_ is an album that I cannot stop playing! Purely magnificent!
What an awesome deconstruction (as always!). Oxygene is a very special album to me. I was born on the same day it came out in France. My earliest memories are of my Dad playing it over and over, and me not thinking that much of it, but then Houston happened and I've been a hardcore Jarre fan ever since. I'm not musically minded and don't understand classical techniques, but there is really something very special going on in this record, and your analysis helps to reveal that. I've spent so much time with the Oxygene in your Living Room performance, watching how the synths are used. I love how organic and tactile the record is - like a car when you put your foot on the accelerator, you feel it, you become connected with the machine. There's an emotional connection. I implore people to listen to 2016's Oxygene 3 in a similar way. It is a work of modern genius which people hurry over in the rush to review it and get to the next thing. It deserves far more attention than it gets. Jarre takes a similar approach to his opus, but it benefits from new technologies and experience. I am really quietly hooked on Oxygene 16 - in which Jarre uses Teenage Engineering's pocket operators and realises their capabilities in a way that only he can. I do wish he would spend more time with his classical training - it's what made Oxygene special and what makes his work unique. Thanks so much.
First heard this on the Gallipoli Soundtrack when I was 13 or 14. I went to a record show and found Oxygene and was immediately mesmerized. I've loved that album for 45 years now.
I imagine that everyone who listened to this album when it was released remembers it indelibly. I must have been about ten years old when it came out and the shockwave it caused. Excellent video, thank you!
Thank you doctor mix for this live … and with one of the best album ever made… I remember listening it for the first time in my childhood.. in my parent s car… with the rain outside. A little voice in my head said to me : you will need some synths in your life😊😊❤.
As a kid, I listened to this record over and over again, trying to isolate each of many different and intrigue sounds and melodies. Just wonderful record..
Hello Claudio, these explanations on Jean-Michel Jarre's album "Oxygen" are really great. I already knew that you were a good musician. But I also realize that you have a real background in classical music. You are really multi-talented. Bel lavoro amico mio !😉
I first heard it in the film Gallipoli. When I was a boy. And it lifted me out of my sweet and made me want to run. Then a friend of Mines parents had the album. And I was blown away listening to it. Every time I hear Oxygen I am transported in time and space. Thanks for bringing your musical mastery to this this musical masterpiece. Pat ❤
Hi Claudio! I really like this video. I listened to Oxygene 2 and at the same way, to Jarre thanks to my uncle. He loves this kind of music. I also discovered Mike Olfield thanks to him too. That was back when I had 12 years old... And my firsts vinyl records for that Christmas was the Oxygene and Equinoxe vinyls reissue. That was my first contact with vinyls. In that moment I still was at the Music School and I can say, thanks to Jarre's music, I'm musician nowadays. I work playing a totally different music but I remember those evenings studying and listening to Jarre. I'm 24 years old now, and I'm so proud to have been raised since I was little in such a rich musical environment. Thanks for uploading this!!
I was 8 when an synth cover band lent me their cassette tape of Oxygene, here I am 46 years later enjoying @Doctor Mix doing a deep dive 😁👍💖💖💖 14:19 thats the money shot....eargasm
Great video. Huge fan of JM Jarre from the get go. Saw him live twice. This record literally changed my life and revolutionized my love and appreciation of music. I still have the original vinyl and there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t play a version of this whole album while driving my car. For the little story, he said in an interview that the crashing waves sounds throughout were added to mask the humms and buzzes of some of his synths and effects boxes. Genius and magnificent!! ❤️❤️
Imagine a full Oxygene remix album with jazz drums, brass, upright bass, and Dr. Mix on Rhodes. This video underscores that Jarre is more than just the novelty of using electronic instruments, he is a truly gifted musician.
Jean-Michel Jarre has a future jazz album, it's called Sessions 2000. Though he did not use any "real" jazz instrument. He is not a keyboard virtuoso, but is amazing and mixing different genres, styles and always reinventing himself.
This is my top favorite album album next to Orbitals In Sides. I discovered JMJ when I saw the Houston concert on the TV 1986 but I knew I’ve heard JMJ before when I was a kid and when I began to listen to his recordings I fell in love with Oxygene and I almost cries every time I listen to it. It so perfect produced and it’s a masterpiece and I think JMJ can be compared with Mozart and all other classical composers. I’m so thankful that you did both Equinoxe and Oxygene. Merci beaucop! 🎹❤️
Great video Claudio! I'm a big JMJ fan and I've studied his music quite extensively. Just a quick rundown of the instruments and where they are used throughout Oxygene: Oxygene 1 start with the Eminent 310 Unique organs string synthesizer (later compacted into the Solina String Ensemble), going through a modified ElectroHarmonix Smallstone phaser and a Revox tape machine for the delay. The low bass is simply the bass pedal from the Eminent organ on I believe an 8' setting. The bleepy glissando's are done with the ARP2600, again with delay from the Revox tape machine. The vibrato soprano voice sine patch is done with the EMS Synthi AKS (the suitcase VCS3). The loud bass drone again comes from the ARP2600 ran through an ElectroHarmonix Electric Mistress flanger. All the computer room like effects (the random s&h bleepy effects) come from the EMS VCS3 (The Putney). In Oxygene 2 all the laser effects and such like are done with the VCS3 (the best synth to create such effects ever). The 13/8 sequence running is done with ARP2600 with delay from the Revox and triggered by the Matrisequencer which was custom built and created by Michel Geiss for JMJ (not listed on any album covers). The drummachine used is Korg Minipops 7 of coarse. The track's meter is 6/8. The lead from Oxygene 2 again afaik comes from the ARP2600. The choir at end is done with the Mellotron. Oxygene 3 pad is again the Eminent. The drone bass is again ARP2600 through the Electric Mistress flanger. The lead bell like sound RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (the best synth to create bell like sounds). Oxygene 4 starts with noise from the VCS3 going through the Smallstone and Revox. This song is (contrary to popular belief) also in a very fast 6/8 (out of the top of my head like 180 or 190 bpm) meter! That is what gives the song it's 'swing'! The 5th arpeggio pattern is done with the ARP2600 triggered by the Matrisequencer (or ARP sequencer, he might have used either one of them) and I personally think the former just running in first-last step mode for triggering. Korg Minipops 7 for the drums (also going through the Smallstone phaser, which gives it that meandering and spacious effect). The lead is the ARP2600 of coarse! The bass also ARP2600 triggered by the Matrisequencer. The next part starts starts with the Eminent String Ensemble, but this time going through the Electric Mistresss flanger. The bass sequence and noise rhythmic sequence are done with the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (loads of panning during tracking for both parts, and it really sounds like there were two sets of hands on the console while they tracked that). They actually pegged little blocks of wood on the keys to keep the sequence running, and you can see JMJ do it live during Oxygene Live In Your Livingroom tour. There's plenty of videos out there on RUclips about those concerts and such that really truly outline the process of making Oxygene in it's entirety, albeit he is liberal with the usage of instruments for the sake of a live performance! The end of the album is breathing in, and breathing out noise made with the VCS3. The seaguls of coarse are a famous ARP2600 patch with Revox delay. I think this is one of the few, if not only, 4/4 songs on the album. Korg Minipops. The lead is the Eminent String Ensemble doubled with a bit of Farfisa and bell kind of sound (flanged) from the RMI. The album was recorded in it's entirety on a Scully 8-track tape machine I believe, so they had to do a lot of bouncing and such, hence he used copious amounts of white noise from the VCS3 to cover up for all the build-up tapenoise. I'm sure if Michel (Geiss) reads this, he'd be more than happy to comment and elaborate! He was fysically there during most part of the recording process, and I just use my educated ear and what i have come to know... Try to arrange a meeting with master JMJ himself! 💜
That was the only time that the otherwise always progressive and modern Jarre looked back. Nowadays, Jarre also performs in VR and uses the most modern Ableton and L-ISA Studio softwares for his music.
I heard this album first time in 1982 when i was 11 Years and introduce me to elektronik Musik as i fan now all kinds in a big Stereo Radio Hitachi , was a space travel, Greetings from Chile
I didn't think that Claudio was capable of producing even better content than his masterpieces. but here he surpassed himself. seeing him play the things I play but a million times better is pure enjoyment. thanks doc.
@Doctor Mix Thank you for this very interesting RUclips content. I remember young years, first albums, first synths, his concert in Lausanne… but it is the first time that I hear someone embellish an Oxigen-Song like you do around 14:52…and at the end. Thank you Doctor Mix!
What a masterpiece. Thank you so much. Love the improvisation on the tracks, it give it a jazz feeling. Interesting when you know that Jean Michel was at Chet Baker concerts when he was young. We see all his inspirations in his music
Wow, thank you for such a respectful analysis. For me, this album teached me how to really LISTEN to music, let it sink in and let your mind do the picture painting on your closed eyelids. I was literally tripping on this when I was 10 (lying in my bedroom, lights off and my stereo boombox up on the pillow), obviously without any substances, and it basically sparked my interest in music and its creation. I strongly encourage all my metalhead/techno/you-name-it friends to listen to Oxygene, because it absolutely stood the test of time - still relevant, jawdropping and listenable like no other.
This album is a masterpiece !! Thank you for this excellent video Dr Mix.I first heard this when It was released and later about 78 or 79 I got this and Tangerine Dreams Rubycon on LP . I still have them both in my collection and even over 40 years later they still are as awesome and fresh as the first time I heard them.They still get played a lot. Oxygene has such a beautiful sound to it and doesn't sound dated at all.
Rubycon I consider Dreams soundscape masterpiece like Jarres Oxygene.....quite beautiful and otherworldly. When The Moog sequencer kicks in part 2....like wow.
Hi Claudio! I am a piano teacher and I always has loved synthesizers and electronic music. I teach to young students that dont know nothing about electronic music and synths and I feel very frustrated talking with them like if they were people of other planet! (It is normal because they are other generation) So I always recommend them your channel like reference. Casually this week I showed Oxygene to a student and now you make a vid about it. Your channel is fantastic and perfect for teach to new generations of musicians what electronic and synths are, how they work and they impact in music combined with your talent and personality. Regards from Spain, Claudio!
Oxygene and Equinoxe are amazing albums, but Jean-Michel Jarre is so much more than these albums. Instead of making endless copies of these albums, JMJ kept reinventing himself in every decade since the 1970s. Every album of his is different and surprising and unique, even shocking if you just expect Oxygene-like music. Listen to albums like: Zoolook (1984) - This is his most creative, best album in my opinion. A 10/10 avante garde sampledelica masterpiece. Revolutions (1988) - mixing symphonic, industrial, rock, world music, Japanese ethno-jazz, featuring vocoder vocals. Waiting for Cousteau (1990) - A becautiful concept album about the submarine journey of Jacques Cousteau, featuring a 47 minutes beatless ambient piece Metamorphoses (2000) - The perfect mix of female vocal performances in many different languages, heavy world music influence, several 90s electronic influences (downtempo, dreampop, trance, progressive house, etc.) with many organic instruments like harps, Irish violin solos, etc. with the most amazinly detailed Pro Tools sound design ever. Sessions 2000 (2002) - A lowkey future jazz album that critics compared to late period Miles Davis albums Electronica 1-2 (2015-2016) - A 2 part, 160 minutes project to have every track on the album as a different collab with a great electronic artist, people like Moby, Tangerine Dream, Gary Numan, Yello, Laurie Anderson, Air, Massive Attack, Vince Clarke, Hanz Zimmer, Julia Holter are all part of the project. Oxymore (2022) - A musique concrete inspired, complex, creative experimental techno album with the most detailed 360 degree revolutionary sound design. It's sounds nothing like what you expect from a 74 year old man. Jean-Michel Jarre is still active, alive and still makes new, good music. Go to his concerts, listen to his albums, not just the old albums for nostalgia, be open minded and expect surprises.
Zoolook and Electronica 1-2 are also favourites of mine. I love that he was looking forwards then and that he still is today even if that upsets the people who think he should be stuck in the 70s like they are.
And to think that this album is from 1976. It was way ahead of its time and the sounds were groundbreaking. This is and remains a timelessly good album.
Mate, I heard this guy from a friend when I was sixteen (The Essential). I could not believe the colour, depth, atmosphere and complete originality, everything was jumping out at me and hugging me from the speakers. Oxeygene is a complete masterpiece that has inspired not a generation, but the whole world for all time!
Oh... Maaan.... like a Kid🤗 it's amazing to see how you get carried away by the music... for me is also wonderful and goosebump when listening this or the equinoxe album from Mr. Jarre. Many thanks this video!
The lead line of Oxygene I was actually done on the EMS AKS. The KS keyboard was touch sensitive (apparently more by luck than judgement) which made it perfect for the track.
Thank you so much for this!! Me being a classical pianist, but also an electronica composer, has always listened to Jarre’s composing with classical eyes. I love his father’s work, and Jean-Michel certainly has a great legacy here, he hi truly a pioneer, like Vangelis. Oxygen was my "wake up call" in the 80-s, started with a timer, connected to a Bang & Olufson Beomaster... but I never woke up until the vinyl side one was finished and made scratching noise, the music just haunted my dreams...I had to place this “alarm clock” an hour before I should wake up.
This for me is JMJ's masterpiece and have loved this album for many years. I love all of the Doctor Mix videos but this is one of the best. You make so many great points on this video and never miss the tiniest extra touches. Incredible stuff!
Thanks you so much, Dr Mix! Si long i was waiting for such a vidéo... Oxygène is a wonderful creation i listen for so many years (and running in loop in my car), always with the same enthousiasm but just enjoying the beauty without thinking over too much on the technique and the complex process of création. Then your vidéo and analysis sounds really perfect and wonderful to me, providing some new keys of understanding. Thanks again, Dr Mix!
Jarre hasn't changed in 50 years, and yet of course he has, his modern work is still distinctively Jarre but you can trace the development from this album, he remains at the head of this movement, often imitated but never bettered. His recent concerts show he is still the master of melody and rhythm embracing new technology and techniques without letting them dictate to him. One of the greatest composers, innovators and performers of all time. It would be great if JMJ would sit with Dr Mix and record an exposition of his works, the musical world needs this preserving for eternity.
Oxymore from 2022 was a noisy, experimental techno album in 360 degree sound, but it was as different and unique as Oxygene was back in 1976. Many critics were very surprised that the 74 year old Jarre can make such a modern and still creative album.
I was 7 years old and my mother didn't let me buy the Oxygene album because of the skull on the cover, she thought it was very ugly for a child, lol...but she let me take the equinoxe album to my house. I'm 41 years old now and I haven't stopped listening to JMJ yet. Thanks mom for at least getting me to take the equinoxe home.
I love these playing-along passages with the Rhodes. Hearing this LP of JMJ in a more harmonic and melodic way without all these synth sounds shows the real beauty of this epochal work. I first heard Oxygene in my very early teen years. And I was hooked on it. That was 46 years ago. And I still listen to it (just listening, no distraction) several times a year.
Holy shit! This is an absolutely killer breakdown...I don't any experience playing music but I have been enjoying it and dancing to electronic music since 1990. I remember this album being played in our house when In was a kid along with Kitaro and Tangerine Dream. Clearly this stuff nested in my subconscious. Thank you for this!!
I'm a guitar player/songwriter, but was heavily influenced by synth music in the 80s, and JMJ's records were still selling well back then so he was a staple among the others that inhabited the pop world. Even then, as a 12 year old, I knew there was something special about these records. Their ability to transport you away, purely with sound, was almost indescribable for a wee kid on a housing estate in Glasgow. I love love love what this guy is doing here. I'm not au faux with programming (even in the somewhat easier albeit less tactile DAW emulation environment) analog synths, but even as a guitarist primarily, I love working with these amazing machines, and devour almost any content that sheds light on this dark art. I have to ask Doctor Mix though - another BIG record from the day that still enjoys the plaudits is Stop Making Sense - I LOVE this record, and I adore the the synth sounds. To my knowledge, there is not a single RUclips dive into the Prophet V dominant landscape of this record. It is a masterpiece of synth performance in my humble opinion, and it elevates the instrument to levels rarely seen in popular music. I honestly believe it's that good. Can you possibly shed some light on this droplet of 80s gold?
Love your videos about Jarre music, and explaining the ingredients of his music, truly epic paving the music we hear today, I hope Jean-Michel sees this, I’m a big JMJ fan since 83, it’s really opened my mind on how does he create these sounds, truly amazing idea for a genius musician, I’ve seen many of his gigs and have plenty of his music, good to hear it, many thanks for sharing 👍🏻🎹
No way! Absolutely seminal album, shaped me deeply in the late 80s. I think you did an excellent job Dr. Mix! You always do a great job, but this is something that requires care and attention... It's Oxygene! Re. your sponsor - never did this before, comment on a sponsor - but Beyerdynamic cans are something I want to experience. I have a great playback solution on big speakers, but good cans are amazing too, in a different way. Need to be blown away by cans again!
It was this album at 11 years old that made me into a composer producer..... It is pure genius in every way. Brilliant video, you do it justice with a pure love for the music :)
Thank you Claudio. My favourite album of all time. JMJ got me into synthesizer playing in the 80s. And everything without MIDI or velocity sensitivity. Just with a 8-track tape machine. He used the noise effects so much because the 8-track recorder had too much background noise...
I first heard Oxygene when I saw Gallipoli on cable TV in 1982 when I was 9. That sound had my ears hooked in, and that it blended in so seamlessly with the scenes where the main characters are running to beat the time. Thanks, Doc, for putting this together and breaking it down.
I enjoyed your video so much, Im a big fan of Jarre and loved dissecting each instrument and sound to catch every nuances, I do this sometimes in my head listening to these songs, but I'm just an enthusiastic, not a professional like you. Thank you so much
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any discounts from the manufacturer ?
Yes!
What do you prefer Claudio? Open-Back or Closed-Back? I find Closed-Back has better base and no leakage.
Very happy with my DT 770 :-)
I can play almost the whole album with KORG KRONOS in real time, and you are not :)
I just discovered this video and watched it. Thanks to Doctor Mix for his enthusiasm and for highlighting the Oxygene album. It brings back my memories of working with Jean-Michel Jarre in 1976. It was 2 years earlier that he had been given my telephone number following my presentation of the ARP 2600 for the AES (Audio Engineering Society). I confess I still wonder how I ended up working on such a legendary album!
I had noticed that, apart from the single Oxygene 4, the contents of the album were little known. Hence the interest of this analysis. In fact, I've heard a number of criticisms of this single, often described by musicians as simplistic.
I thought it would be useful to add a few details.
First, the technical context of the recording.
The recorder was an 8-track Scully. In today's unlimited-track environment, it's not uncommon for projects to reach several dozen tracks. But... each of the 8 tracks contained several parts, some of them completely different. Consequently, to achieve the final mix of one side of the vinyl, we worked in sections. Each was made up of pieces of magnetic tape cut with a razor blade and assembled with adhesive tape. And as console automation was not yet available in 76, mixing was done in real time with several pairs of hands. Each person was responsible for his or her own work, and couldn't make a mistake or they'd have to start all over again!
One of my roles was to take care of the recordings, and in particular to make “on-the-fly” pick-ups of sections to be re-recorded, the "drop-ins". Jean-Michel had also consulted me on the structure of the single. My experience of music fairs had enabled me to advise him on the purchase of new instruments when he was looking to expand his sound palette. And so RMI's Harmonic Synthesizer entered the studio. Its arpeggiator forms the basis of Oxygene 4. And it's also this arpeggiator, plugged into Electro Harmonix's Electric Mistress flanger, which makes the chorus sound on the single.
It's also quite fair to say that JM Jarre's signature sound was largely the result of combining the strings of the Eminent 310 with Electro Harmonix's phasing pedal, the Small Stone, also for Equinoxe. in principle intended for guitarists (the guitar had been Jean-Michel's 1st instrument in his rock band). But Oxygene's sound is also largely derived from the use of the Revox tape recorder as an echo chamber. During the recording sessions, the Revox was constantly running. Then, during mixing at Studio Gang, the same Revox was used with the same settings.
Yes, Doctor Mix at 7"36 is indeed an imitation of an opera voice, played on the VCS3, which Jean-Michel humorously called ‘Arlette’ (the female first name).
As for the sounds of noise, they come from three sources, two analog and one digital. One, heard mainly on the A side, is produced by the VCS3. The granular sound evokes the sound of pebbles on a beach. Another noise sound is produced by the ARP 2600. Well done Doctor! And at 28"37, you were right to mention cutoff movements on the filter. Jean-Michel had also entrusted me with this role and directed me like a conductor! I also created the seagull sound you hear in this part. I certainly had a good mastery of the 2600. And finally, the other noise sound in Oxygene 5, this one rhythmic, comes from the RMI.
Of course, Jean-Michel Jarre could very well have given these explanations. But given his many activities, I'm not sure he'd have the time. And given the interest of this video, I thought you might like these details.
And thanks to Doctor Mix, who, thanks to this video, has enabled me to tell this important part of my life story. Michel Geiss
@Dr Mix: A huge thank you! Since your Decode of Equinoxe, I’ve been eagerly waiting for you to do the same with Oxygène, and because of you, I felt like listening to it again today 😀
@Michel Geiss: I said to you everytime I can, huge congratulations on your work. As a fan of JMJ, I like to make som covers and this reverse engineering makes me even more admiring. Oxygène and Equinoxe were created at a time when copy-pasting didn’t exist (or at least, it was cutting and pasting with razor blades! 😅).
Every listen should always be done with the technical context of the era in mind, where these albums were recorded.
I’d like to take the opportunity to ask you two quick questions:
Was the Small Stone used on the bass during part 1 of Oxygène?
In Oxygène 4, during the first chorus at the RMI, there’s the main brass sound that comes in a bit too early (it's about 1'42 on the video clip), it's just a C, then fades away. Was this a happy accident that ended up staying in the final mix?
Thanks again for everything 😀
This means very much that you put the time into writing this. Dr Mix please archive things like this. I can’t express how JMJ’s music has influenced me in a very “slow” way. My friend in high school had a dad who was a pro musician (organ) / composer / producer so had all sorts of albums laying about. I heard this a lot but it is only now in the last 5 years with the almost unlimited resources at one’s fingers for very little dollars, comparatively. And yet you guys did all that! Cutting tape, having to plan it out and little (no) room for error. I really appreciate the sweat and love you put in all those years ago to help get these masterpieces that had never been heard the likes of before, out into the world. Just awesome. Best to you!
Many thanks for your input, M. Geiss. I only know your name from the credits, so this piece of information was a real treat.
Now he needs to analyze Equinoxe and that legendary bass line you did with the Matrisequencer 🙂 Oh wait, already done.
Mr Geiss thank you for taking the time to give us such a detailed account of your involvement with the recording process of one of the most seminal LP's of all time (from any genre!). I know it may sound too sentimental and contrived but for many of us you are a living legend, along with Mr Jarre, of course.
Let me tell you a few things about this album:
Part 1: The album begins with some very echoy notes made with the magnificent Eminent 310U electronic organ to which, little by little, other instruments are added. The human voice that makes the main melody is made with the AKS synthesizer and this sound is Jarre's favorite, according to his own words. In the middle part of the song, some low notes made with a Minimoog that was barely used on the album and that is out of the credits, give way to some powerful rising brass programmed in the ARP 2600 synthesizer. Finally we come to the last minutes of the theme, in which, a background noise made with the VCS3 will accompany us until the end of the theme while we resume with some strings of the Eminent 310U the main melody that was previously made by the human voice of the VCS3. Meanwhile, some sound effects produced with the VCS3 begin to be heard, which will conclude the song, giving way to the second Part of the Album.
Part 2: links directly to part 1 of the album beginning with a rolling sequence performed on the AKS synthesizer. The sound of the bass seems to have been done with the ARP 2600, while almost all the special effects were done with the VCS 3. The rhythm is handled exclusively by the Korg Mini pop 7 Rhythmi Computer drum machine.
There is no data on what instrument he used to perform the main melody, although the flute sound was surely made with the ARP 2600. The human choirs are, of course, made with the Mellotron. The wind sound is made with the VCS 3 processed by an Electroharmonix Smalltone pedal.
Part 3: The song begins with the farfisa organ that ends in a C minor chord while some low notes of a Minimoog make a melody that will soon be accompanied by some higher notes throughout the song made by the RMI Harmonic synthesizer.. The human voice is made with the VCS3 synthesizer. The song ends with the sound of some birds. Surely a real recording.
Part 4: This is par excellence the single from the album and the song that made Jean Michel Jarre famous. The wind sound is made by the VCS 3 monophonic synthesizer and the rhythm by the Korg Mini pop 7 drum machine. The string cushion throughout the entire track is made by the Eminent 310U and the sound is processed by a pedal. Smalltone by Electroharmonix that gives it that so shall we say… spatial sound. The sound of the main melody is made with the ARP 2600 and was programmed by Michel Geiss. The violins or strings of the melody are made with the Eminent and the third melody or variation is made with an RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, a device Michel Geiss insisted Jarre buy. The basses were recorded by hand and possibly made with the ARP 2600, although there is no information on what synthesizer they were made with.
The special effects “Pssssssssss” are done with the AKS and the special effects at the end of the song that link to part 5 are done with the ARP 2600. This sound could also be produced by vcs 3, since there are videos with a perfect emulation of that sound recreated by both synthesizers.
Part 5: Begins with a few notes from the Farfisa organ with the whole palm of the hand on the keys and which creeps towards the top of the keyboard. This keyboard is also in charge of the melody during the first minutes of this first part in which the theme is divided. The low notes are made if I remember correctly by the RMI harmonic synthesizer that will play a fundamental role in the second part of the topic. The high notes are more than likely also from the RMI due to the peculiar type of sound that this synthesizer has. In the second part, the RMI arpeggiator kicks in, making a fast and frenetic bass sequence until the end of the song. Rhythmic sounds with white noise are also made with the RMI while the melody solo is made with the Eminent 310U Organ. The short note rhythmic sounds that accompany the main melody solo are played on the Eminent 310U. The sound of waves crashing “Or fireworks rising and exploding” was made with the ARP 2600 and programmed by Michel Geiss
Part 6: The rhythm of part 6 is done by the Korg Mini Pop. The theme is played entirely on the Eminent. Halfway through the song, a high-pitched sound made with the RMI harmonic synthesizer is added to the melody, but it is barely noticeable. The sound of the seagulls is made with the ARP 2600 synthesizer.
Some anecdotes:
This album has currently sold 18 million copies.
Jean Michel recorded it in his kitchen, since he lived in a tiny apartment in the center of Paris with black painted walls.
The apartment was completely empty because his ex-girlfriend had taken everything in the apartment.
Jarre hardly had any instruments, so Michel Geiss had to lend him some synthesizers in order to carry out the great ideas he had told him about.
The mellotron had several broken keys, so Jarre had to adapt the chords from Oxygene Part 2 to the keys that worked.
To record Oxýgene and having so little money, Jarre had to go to a thrift store where he bought a Scully 8-track recorder. The album was recorded in 6 weeks.
A hug.
This album is arguably my first conscious foray into entirely electronic music as a 13 year old. To this day, it remains arguably one of my top 5 albums of all time and I'm so glad to have learned a bit more about it!
@@JayKaufman Thanks. If you like Jarre's music, I would recommend A. J. Espinal music channel. Best wishes.
So much text...
Main melody on Part 2 is 100.0% Eminent.
Mini Moog was not used, it's all ARP2600
Bass on Part 4 is RMI
Part 3 is Eminent
@@thhedk Hi... thanks for your contribution. I imagined that the melody of the 2nd would be eminet but I wasn't sure about it. And I'm sorry to contradict you about the minimoog, but those are Michel Geiss' own words. He had one and he left it to Jarre along with other synths like the ARP 2600 since Jarre barely had the means to record the album. An organ, an aks and a VCS 3. In fact, when Michel Geiss went to Jarre's apartment and saw the synthesizers he had, he said that it was disappointing. He said that he couldn't carry out his incredible ideas with so few resources. In equinoxe there were also two drum machines that were excluded from the credits. Three were used throughout the album. The Korg mini pop 7, which is heard especially in Part 5 with the guiro and the jawbone, the rithmycomputer made by Michel Geiss with an incredible sound that you can hear especially in equinoxe 4 and the Eko Computerhythm drum machine. Another anecdote. When Jarre rented his apartment, all the walls were painted black. There are also rumors that another synth was left out of the credits for Oxygene, and that was Geiss' ARP 2500. Apparently it was only used for one sound or one note, so they decided to take it out of the credits of the album, since its contribution to the sound of the album was practically non-existent. But I can't confirm this for you, since it's just a rumor. Regards.
@Nidels the Eminent sound on part2 is clear I can replicate it 100%
I've never heard he used MiniMoog but since the sound has flanger on no one can hear if it's ARP2600 or MiniMoog, they are both 3 oscillator synths.
Yes the ARP2500 is a bit of a mystery, maybe it's that bubbling sound in the start of part 5. But I think I saw someone create it on the 2600.
This is the most important electronic album for me. Like so many, I heard it when I a little kid. It shaped my dreams and my memory of a fantastical future that never was.
EXACTLY the same for me.
Ditto!
Oh... that strikes at the heart with a wincing ache. You're right. I've been feeling a kind of grief recently for the loss of that story of hope we had in the 60s through into the middle 70s of a world that would move away from the blindness of competing religions, of injustice, greed and corruption - and into a bright open space of science, technology and rationality. Somewhere - perhaps around the time of this album - we ground to a halt with the last of the moon landings. For me, the music of Bladerunner was the next future soundscape but compared to 'Oxygene' its lack of sweet melodic phrasing heralded the coming darkness.
When I first listened to this album I was in a slightly post-party haze, lying on the floor in a large room in a house with several strangers... the host put this on his dad's hi-fi system which had the most incredible speakers I had ever seen - tall, solid wood rectangles standing on steel points on the floor. I'd never heard a sound like it in my life. I was off, flying through the universe. Oddly, the party had been on a pebbly beach that sounded exactly like JMJ's rasping, sucking waves.
For me the album has only one flaw - a single 'bum' note in the improvised section on the album...that he passes before settling on the correct note and of course, its 'bum-ness' is repeated cruelly by the delays. It always catches my ear. Then I remember that it was 1974 and this genius created this whole masterpiece on a 4 track tape machine and those temperamental synths of the day :D
Yes, when I was young I'd put an album on and read a SF book, mostly from the Fleuve Noir series... (I know, I know, not the best SF, but they were cheap to buy!) so many stories are now linked to a particular album or song. I admit that there was a certain vibe to French SF, in particular the BD which seemed to promise a great future, unlike the dystopian SF of today, that never materialized.
We used to live in the future...
The sounds of Oxygene and Equinoxe are like nothing else. Absolute masterpieces!
👍
In July 1977 I went over to a friend as he had bought Oxygene. When I rang the doorbell his mum opened the door and said "are you coming to listen to this ghost music". The first part came swirling down the stairs out of his room. I never forget my first hearing of Oxygene in full.
Swirling and ghost music...sums this epic up....soundscapes of alien origin. Never heard anything like it before or since....only TD Phaedra and Rubycon get anywhere near.
@@syntheticvisionsmusic Zoolook blew my tiny mind when I first heard it. But the first JMJ piece I heard was Oxygène IV, when a schoolfriend used it as the soundtrack to an art and drama project. Her mother was French and her sister was obsessed with JM. Looking back now, I can see why...!
@@syntheticvisionsmusic RIP Mr. Froese.
@Dr.Jellyfingers indeed and Klaus too....Mark Shreeve, Tomita and Florian Schiender.....too many gone. Rubycon needs a huge credit for its unearthly soundscapes, Froese was a visionary.
I’m a French Guy from Lyon where JM is born and I thank you for honoring this video on Jean-Michel Jarre the way you did.
He is a unique Artist and our musical pride. Everyone knows him in our country. A pioneer in his Art.
His cities concerts Lyon/Houston will remain forever in my memory and on a vinyl that I still own since 1987.
His music transports you and touches you deeply.
Oxygène is a pure gem for our ears, it gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it.
( He is the son of film music composer Maurice Jarre but it’s an another story..)
Let's just celebrate his music 🙏
Biologically he is his son, yes, but Maurice abandoned him at a very young age and they never had a real relationship. They met maybe 20 times during their lives. Jean-Michel Jarre was not inspired by his father's film scores in any way, he was inspired by Chet Baker's jazz in the late 1950s, because he single mother - a French resistance hero, France Pejot - introduced him to it. SHE deserves the credit, not Maurice.
Mêmes sensations pour moi je l’ai en CD et équinoxe que j’ai acheté en premier en vinyle…
❤
Vraiment fantastique 😮
JMJ is a genius and is known throughout the Western World!
THIS album changed my life. I was 13 at the time when I listened to it at a friend's house. This sound literally hooked me, and triggered my interest to synthesizers, to music, to electronics and to recording studios.
the same... very cool album
exact same here
Same here
Same for me
My late father LOVED Oxygène. Each time I played the record for him, he'd day the same thing: "That man is a genius". True that!!
Part 1:
Start sound = Eminent + Small Stone
Opera sound = EMS Synthi AKS
Glissando = ARP 2600
Bass middle part = ARP 2600
Effects = EMS VCS 3
Part 2:
Start sequencer = EMS Synthi (I have been told - don't know the sequencer well enough)
Strings = Eminent
Bass = ARP 2600
Effects = EMS VCS 3
Chorus sound = Eminent
End chorus sound = ARP 2600
Clarinet/flute = Mellotron
Choir = Mellotron
Part 3:
Start = Eminent
Strings = Eminent
Lead = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (I think)
Drum = ARP 2600
Opera sound = EMS Synthi AKS
Part 4:
Wind = ARP 2600 or VSC
Bass = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer
Sequencer = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (I can't figure out how its sequencer worked, but I think it is)
Lead brass = ARP 2600
Strings = Eminent
Chorus = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer + flanger (Maybe Electric Mistres)
Part 5-1:
Organ = Farfisa + Electric Mistres
High pitch lead = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer
Bass = ARP 2600
Part 5-2:
Bass = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer
Lead = Eminent
Part 6:
Waves = Could be both ARP2600 and VCS
Seagull = Arp 2600
Strings = Eminent + Small Stone
Lead = Eminent
Lead after chorus in right channel = RMI Harmonic Synthesizer
....So I think, but challenge me ;)
At least it coincides with the instrumentation used in the "Oxygene live in your living room" dvd, in which JMJ said he used all the original gear..
This comment should be framed.
@@synthetic24 Most of it is 100%. The sequencer in Part 4 is strange. I originally thought it was the RMI and maybe it is, but I don't think the build in arpeggio can do it like that.
So it might just be ARP 2600 and the matrisequencer - but I think it almost sounds hand played, even though still a little too perfect, the matrisequencer was more precise.
@@thejollyjoker187 Nah the ARP was not used for much in that concert.
@@thhedk Yes indeed, but it's the best we have to navigate and your list is pretty much spot-on.
Oxygene is probably one of the best album ever. A true masterpiece! 🙌
Great video as always. I'm 51 now and almost blind but Jean-Michel Jarre inspired me back in my early teens to learn electronic music and I've been writing, mixing and mastering for myself and others ever since but the one constant is Jarre never stops inspiring me, even with being blind in 1 eye and 2 degree's of vision left in the other nobody inspires me musically like Jarre.
Same age, keep at it!
This record was so bloody mindblowing ... I got (and still get) chills when the base-sound at 4:25 kicked in.
I'm a semi pro musician same age as you. My background is the usual pub rock guitar base, but I often dabble with digital electronic media . Your videos are not only inspirational, but highly educational and the theoretical chordal and melodic breakdowns you make even help me with my guitar work. Thank you, and keep them coming
Being an iconic album, your deconstruction (decoding) is not less epic. It shows, in such evidence, your skills at both understanding, perceiving and vulgarizing to less adept people like me. I genuinely appreciated this work of yours. I'm certain that I cannot convey what I feel in these simple words.
Thank you Claudio.
I was lucky enough to have been introduced to Jarre at a very young age in the 80s by my grandmother who was my piano teacher. She was very progressive and open minded musically, and her album library included Jarre, Vangelis, Wendy Carlos, etc, right along side her classical and jazz albums. When she saw that the classical and jazz pieces she usually taught to her students weren’t resonating with me, she introduced me to early synthesizer music ❤
I’m almost 44 now, and this music always reminds me of a wonderful part of my childhood when the sonic landscape of the time felt like the final unexplored frontier❤
Everything felt so wild and new, and from time to time it still does.
I was introduced as a young teenager in the 80s and loved Jarre. It got me into synthesiser music and I recorded many very noisy ‘multitrack’ recreations of these tracks, live and using early MIDI on an Amstrad COC6128, Recording tape to tape through the air! Quality was terrible but I learnt lots and had fun
@ ah the days of facing two tape recorders together to “multitrack,” somewhere I still have some of my own very primitive recordings like that too 🤣
What a wonderful time to have been alive, eh!?
I think you has been one most lucky child in the world, I’m very happy for you!
awesome teacher:)
The amount of happiness on Doctor Mix's face is just unbelievable! What a man!
@@sharkeynoyz What an absolutely positive and upbeat thing to say!
You've made my day brighter to see that he made your day brighter.
Keep up the good work.
Oh, man! This video was so emotional that I cried! It's one of your best videos ever, Doctor Mix. Thank you so much! I heard so many times this album that I stopped listening for nearly 25 years and now listening again as an adult brought back so many memories. Mil gracias!!
Been waiting for you to cover this one since Equinoxe. Oxygene is one of my favourite albums of all time, always joke that it makes me sick when I think about how young he was when he composed it. Was great to see your breakdown and playing along, always nice to see and hear more perspective to a classic album you love. Thank you.
I just listened to this record two times today because my 2-year old toddler randomly took it off the shelf. She seemed mesmerized especially by the more sound-designey parts, the swells and rumblings and weird little synth noises.
I just realized: This is exactly how I discovered it as well, when I was a child, going through my fathers record collection. Full circle, i guess!
That reminds me how I need to play it to my seven year old son because he too also loves the cover!
Finally! I had a feeling this video was coming! Top 3 Jarre for me. Thanks for everything Claudio!
It's so wonderful to see what a passion you have for music.
Jean-Michel Jarre should invite you to his studio, and you should both discuss and philosophise about this masterpiece together. At the same time, you could try all these great synthesisers and have a really deep discussion about Oxygen. That would be fantastic.😍
I sign in!
Would be a brilliant interview 👍
I have been waiting for this since you decoded Equinoxe, thank you so much!
I cryid little when watching, this vinyl is so important to me and you give it respect so well.
Haahh...another patient! Just like me😁
I get misty all the time too.
Finally! I was waiting for this video since I left a comment on your decoding of Equinoxe, at this point I think it's very important to state that Jarre must absolutely invite you to his " mancave " , I really would love to see you going through all those gorgeous old EMS and analog beauties with his comments
My first contact with this album was in a planetarium in 1984. The next day at school I was asked what I remembered...I said the music, just the music, no constellations, no planetary constellations...just the music
JMJ once said that this album supposedly caused a significant increase in marijuana use. the intro to Oxy 2 is so amazing, it is rebuild in the Arturia V Col in the Synthi V as "JMJ tribute sound" ..sometimes i was listen to this sequence for hours....and Oxy 5 with this Moog Liberation part to at the end...without words...so it is without words and that´s the deepest thing at his music
Doc, you are on fire, could watch/listen to you breakdown the classics 25 hours a day, thank you!
Think it is inevitable that you visit JMJ and se his private Synth collection stash and have a talk with him❤
How awesome that would be!!
Oh man.....may I live to witness this one!
totally
@@slimyelow And than make a beautiful YT documentary of this encounter 🙏
A six piece documentary!
This album is a dream to me. The best memories from my childhood are attached to this music. Thanks Claudio!
Thank you for this, Dr. Mix. This is my favourite album of all time. For me, it will forever be his best masterpiece. Those EMS VCS3 echos @ 20:41 are beyond words, beyonds feelings, especially through headphones! I bought my first Jean-Michel Jarre albums of _Oxygène_ to _Rendezvous_ inclusive on the same day in September 1986, and clearly, _Oxygène_ is an album that I cannot stop playing! Purely magnificent!
I was 5 when this album came out, and I grew up with my Dad listening to it (also Kraftwerk). That's how I got into electronic music 😁
What an awesome deconstruction (as always!).
Oxygene is a very special album to me. I was born on the same day it came out in France. My earliest memories are of my Dad playing it over and over, and me not thinking that much of it, but then Houston happened and I've been a hardcore Jarre fan ever since. I'm not musically minded and don't understand classical techniques, but there is really something very special going on in this record, and your analysis helps to reveal that.
I've spent so much time with the Oxygene in your Living Room performance, watching how the synths are used. I love how organic and tactile the record is - like a car when you put your foot on the accelerator, you feel it, you become connected with the machine. There's an emotional connection.
I implore people to listen to 2016's Oxygene 3 in a similar way. It is a work of modern genius which people hurry over in the rush to review it and get to the next thing. It deserves far more attention than it gets. Jarre takes a similar approach to his opus, but it benefits from new technologies and experience. I am really quietly hooked on Oxygene 16 - in which Jarre uses Teenage Engineering's pocket operators and realises their capabilities in a way that only he can.
I do wish he would spend more time with his classical training - it's what made Oxygene special and what makes his work unique.
Thanks so much.
This is so great! I was one of the ones who said "Oxygene" in your previous video on Equinoxe.
I’m going through some dark times right now and just wanna say that lifted my spirits a bit Thanks xx❤
First heard this on the Gallipoli Soundtrack when I was 13 or 14. I went to a record show and found Oxygene and was immediately mesmerized. I've loved that album for 45 years now.
Three words : thank you Claudio. What a masterpiece is Oxygene. Extraordinary album of synth prog.
I imagine that everyone who listened to this album when it was released remembers it indelibly. I must have been about ten years old when it came out and the shockwave it caused. Excellent video, thank you!
This not music, is ART. JMJ IS FOREVER
I use a Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X for my HiFI and an AKG K92 for laptop and audio on the move.
I love both for these specific applications.
Thank you doctor mix for this live … and with one of the best album ever made…
I remember listening it for the first time in my childhood.. in my parent s car… with the rain outside.
A little voice in my head said to me : you will need some synths in your life😊😊❤.
This is the most listened to album of my life. Thousands of times. You have brilliantly shown Jarre's Genius in this deconstruction.
As a kid, I listened to this record over and over again, trying to isolate each of many different and intrigue sounds and melodies. Just wonderful record..
Hello Claudio, these explanations on Jean-Michel Jarre's album "Oxygen" are really great. I already knew that you were a good musician. But I also realize that you have a real background in classical music. You are really multi-talented. Bel lavoro amico mio !😉
This is nothing less than the pinicle of synthesizer music.
This is RUclipss greatest video.
I first heard it in the film Gallipoli. When I was a boy. And it lifted me out of my sweet and made me want to run. Then a friend of Mines parents had the album. And I was blown away listening to it. Every time I hear Oxygen I am transported in time and space. Thanks for bringing your musical mastery to this this musical masterpiece. Pat ❤
The part at the end where Claudio is jamming along with Jarre's masterpiece is the icing on the cake! Thank you for sharing!
Absolutamente! Saludos desde Argentina
A fascinating journey through a goosebump filled soundscape from a classic era in electronic music.
Bravo and thankyou 👏
Hi Claudio! I really like this video.
I listened to Oxygene 2 and at the same way, to Jarre thanks to my uncle.
He loves this kind of music.
I also discovered Mike Olfield thanks to him too.
That was back when I had 12 years old... And my firsts vinyl records for that Christmas was the Oxygene and Equinoxe vinyls reissue.
That was my first contact with vinyls.
In that moment I still was at the Music School and I can say, thanks to Jarre's music, I'm musician nowadays.
I work playing a totally different music but I remember those evenings studying and listening to Jarre.
I'm 24 years old now, and I'm so proud to have been raised since I was little in such a rich musical environment.
Thanks for uploading this!!
I was 8 when an synth cover band lent me their cassette tape of Oxygene, here I am 46 years later enjoying @Doctor Mix doing a deep dive 😁👍💖💖💖
14:19 thats the money shot....eargasm
These are by far my favorite episodes! Thank you Dr. Mix.
Jean Michel Jarre is one of my idols and influences, thanks for this video
Great video. Huge fan of JM Jarre from the get go. Saw him live twice. This record literally changed my life and revolutionized my love and appreciation of music. I still have the original vinyl and there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t play a version of this whole album while driving my car. For the little story, he said in an interview that the crashing waves sounds throughout were added to mask the humms and buzzes of some of his synths and effects boxes. Genius and magnificent!! ❤️❤️
Imagine a full Oxygene remix album with jazz drums, brass, upright bass, and Dr. Mix on Rhodes. This video underscores that Jarre is more than just the novelty of using electronic instruments, he is a truly gifted musician.
Jean-Michel Jarre has a future jazz album, it's called Sessions 2000. Though he did not use any "real" jazz instrument. He is not a keyboard virtuoso, but is amazing and mixing different genres, styles and always reinventing himself.
I love the rhythms in these - so light, not in-your-face - but also driving and powerful and bringing contrast - so different from now
So true
This is my top favorite album album next to Orbitals In Sides. I discovered JMJ when I saw the Houston concert on the TV 1986 but I knew I’ve heard JMJ before when I was a kid and when I began to listen to his recordings I fell in love with Oxygene and I almost cries every time I listen to it. It so perfect produced and it’s a masterpiece and I think JMJ can be compared with Mozart and all other classical composers. I’m so thankful that you did both Equinoxe and Oxygene. Merci beaucop! 🎹❤️
This saved my mental health when I was at school aged 10. Love it so much still today.
Yeah... analog harmonic music realy save lifes
Sort of same here
beautiful
music is indeed the great heart of the universe:)
13:08 I always love the space noises on this so much. To me this why owning a synth was a dream since I heard it around 1978.
Great video Claudio! I'm a big JMJ fan and I've studied his music quite extensively. Just a quick rundown of the instruments and where they are used throughout Oxygene: Oxygene 1 start with the Eminent 310 Unique organs string synthesizer (later compacted into the Solina String Ensemble), going through a modified ElectroHarmonix Smallstone phaser and a Revox tape machine for the delay. The low bass is simply the bass pedal from the Eminent organ on I believe an 8' setting. The bleepy glissando's are done with the ARP2600, again with delay from the Revox tape machine. The vibrato soprano voice sine patch is done with the EMS Synthi AKS (the suitcase VCS3). The loud bass drone again comes from the ARP2600 ran through an ElectroHarmonix Electric Mistress flanger. All the computer room like effects (the random s&h bleepy effects) come from the EMS VCS3 (The Putney). In Oxygene 2 all the laser effects and such like are done with the VCS3 (the best synth to create such effects ever). The 13/8 sequence running is done with ARP2600 with delay from the Revox and triggered by the Matrisequencer which was custom built and created by Michel Geiss for JMJ (not listed on any album covers). The drummachine used is Korg Minipops 7 of coarse. The track's meter is 6/8. The lead from Oxygene 2 again afaik comes from the ARP2600. The choir at end is done with the Mellotron. Oxygene 3 pad is again the Eminent. The drone bass is again ARP2600 through the Electric Mistress flanger. The lead bell like sound RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (the best synth to create bell like sounds). Oxygene 4 starts with noise from the VCS3 going through the Smallstone and Revox. This song is (contrary to popular belief) also in a very fast 6/8 (out of the top of my head like 180 or 190 bpm) meter! That is what gives the song it's 'swing'! The 5th arpeggio pattern is done with the ARP2600 triggered by the Matrisequencer (or ARP sequencer, he might have used either one of them) and I personally think the former just running in first-last step mode for triggering. Korg Minipops 7 for the drums (also going through the Smallstone phaser, which gives it that meandering and spacious effect). The lead is the ARP2600 of coarse! The bass also ARP2600 triggered by the Matrisequencer. The next part starts starts with the Eminent String Ensemble, but this time going through the Electric Mistresss flanger. The bass sequence and noise rhythmic sequence are done with the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (loads of panning during tracking for both parts, and it really sounds like there were two sets of hands on the console while they tracked that). They actually pegged little blocks of wood on the keys to keep the sequence running, and you can see JMJ do it live during Oxygene Live In Your Livingroom tour. There's plenty of videos out there on RUclips about those concerts and such that really truly outline the process of making Oxygene in it's entirety, albeit he is liberal with the usage of instruments for the sake of a live performance! The end of the album is breathing in, and breathing out noise made with the VCS3. The seaguls of coarse are a famous ARP2600 patch with Revox delay. I think this is one of the few, if not only, 4/4 songs on the album. Korg Minipops. The lead is the Eminent String Ensemble doubled with a bit of Farfisa and bell kind of sound (flanged) from the RMI. The album was recorded in it's entirety on a Scully 8-track tape machine I believe, so they had to do a lot of bouncing and such, hence he used copious amounts of white noise from the VCS3 to cover up for all the build-up tapenoise. I'm sure if Michel (Geiss) reads this, he'd be more than happy to comment and elaborate! He was fysically there during most part of the recording process, and I just use my educated ear and what i have come to know... Try to arrange a meeting with master JMJ himself! 💜
48 years after the release of this iconic album, OXYGENE is still the music of the future. Thanks Doc...
A work of art. One of the best albums ever for sure.
I love your channel, your break downs of electronic music are fantastic!
JMJ - OxyGenius Of Electronic Music ! Greets From Poland Doctor Mix ;-)
Nice ! I was so lucky to see JMJ perform the entire album live with analog-only gear. That was AMAZING !!!
I’ve watched it on RUclips.
That was the only time that the otherwise always progressive and modern Jarre looked back. Nowadays, Jarre also performs in VR and uses the most modern Ableton and L-ISA Studio softwares for his music.
I heard this album first time in 1982 when i was 11 Years and introduce me to elektronik Musik as i fan now all kinds in a big Stereo Radio Hitachi , was a space travel, Greetings from Chile
I didn't think that Claudio was capable of producing even better content than his masterpieces. but here he surpassed himself. seeing him play the things I play but a million times better is pure enjoyment. thanks doc.
I am a big Jarre Fan. This two Albums, Oxygene and Equinoxe are Masterpieces and Never getting old
@Doctor Mix Thank you for this very interesting RUclips content. I remember young years, first albums, first synths, his concert in Lausanne… but it is the first time that I hear someone embellish an Oxigen-Song like you do around 14:52…and at the end. Thank you Doctor Mix!
What a masterpiece. Thank you so much. Love the improvisation on the tracks, it give it a jazz feeling.
Interesting when you know that Jean Michel was at Chet Baker concerts when he was young. We see all his inspirations in his music
I've been listening to it since I was 2 years old, thanks to my father 😍
I've had the DT770 Pro's for 2 years. And they are still perfectly fine. And sound great to 😄 Great song choice and reproduction. Thank you as always.
Wow, thank you for such a respectful analysis. For me, this album teached me how to really LISTEN to music, let it sink in and let your mind do the picture painting on your closed eyelids. I was literally tripping on this when I was 10 (lying in my bedroom, lights off and my stereo boombox up on the pillow), obviously without any substances, and it basically sparked my interest in music and its creation. I strongly encourage all my metalhead/techno/you-name-it friends to listen to Oxygene, because it absolutely stood the test of time - still relevant, jawdropping and listenable like no other.
This album is a masterpiece !! Thank you for this excellent video Dr Mix.I first heard this when It was released and later about 78 or 79 I got this and Tangerine Dreams Rubycon on LP . I still have them both in my collection and even over 40 years later they still are as awesome and fresh as the first time I heard them.They still get played a lot. Oxygene has such a beautiful sound to it and doesn't sound dated at all.
Rubycon I consider Dreams soundscape masterpiece like Jarres Oxygene.....quite beautiful and otherworldly. When The Moog sequencer kicks in part 2....like wow.
Hi Claudio! I am a piano teacher and I always has loved synthesizers and electronic music. I teach to young students that dont know nothing about electronic music and synths and I feel very frustrated talking with them like if they were people of other planet! (It is normal because they are other generation) So I always recommend them your channel like reference. Casually this week I showed Oxygene to a student and now you make a vid about it. Your channel is fantastic and perfect for teach to new generations of musicians what electronic and synths are, how they work and they impact in music combined with your talent and personality. Regards from Spain, Claudio!
Oxygene and Equinoxe are amazing albums, but Jean-Michel Jarre is so much more than these albums. Instead of making endless copies of these albums, JMJ kept reinventing himself in every decade since the 1970s. Every album of his is different and surprising and unique, even shocking if you just expect Oxygene-like music.
Listen to albums like:
Zoolook (1984) - This is his most creative, best album in my opinion. A 10/10 avante garde sampledelica masterpiece.
Revolutions (1988) - mixing symphonic, industrial, rock, world music, Japanese ethno-jazz, featuring vocoder vocals.
Waiting for Cousteau (1990) - A becautiful concept album about the submarine journey of Jacques Cousteau, featuring a 47 minutes beatless ambient piece
Metamorphoses (2000) - The perfect mix of female vocal performances in many different languages, heavy world music influence, several 90s electronic influences (downtempo, dreampop, trance, progressive house, etc.) with many organic instruments like harps, Irish violin solos, etc. with the most amazinly detailed Pro Tools sound design ever.
Sessions 2000 (2002) - A lowkey future jazz album that critics compared to late period Miles Davis albums
Electronica 1-2 (2015-2016) - A 2 part, 160 minutes project to have every track on the album as a different collab with a great electronic artist, people like Moby, Tangerine Dream, Gary Numan, Yello, Laurie Anderson, Air, Massive Attack, Vince Clarke, Hanz Zimmer, Julia Holter are all part of the project.
Oxymore (2022) - A musique concrete inspired, complex, creative experimental techno album with the most detailed 360 degree revolutionary sound design. It's sounds nothing like what you expect from a 74 year old man.
Jean-Michel Jarre is still active, alive and still makes new, good music. Go to his concerts, listen to his albums, not just the old albums for nostalgia, be open minded and expect surprises.
Zoolook and Electronica 1-2 are also favourites of mine. I love that he was looking forwards then and that he still is today even if that upsets the people who think he should be stuck in the 70s like they are.
you convinced me to go to soulseek and download his discography, thank you:)
Put the headphones on and watch this video, been waiting for this one.
And to think that this album is from 1976. It was way ahead of its time and the sounds were groundbreaking. This is and remains a timelessly good album.
Check out some other 70s synth musicians; Vangelis (especially Spiral and Albedo 0.39), Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze...
One of your best decoding's yet. So deep with the piano playing.
Mate, I heard this guy from a friend when I was sixteen (The Essential). I could not believe the colour, depth, atmosphere and complete originality, everything was jumping out at me and hugging me from the speakers. Oxeygene is a complete masterpiece that has inspired not a generation, but the whole world for all time!
Oh... Maaan.... like a Kid🤗
it's amazing to see how you get carried away by the music...
for me is also wonderful and goosebump when listening this or the equinoxe album from Mr. Jarre.
Many thanks this video!
The lead line of Oxygene I was actually done on the EMS AKS. The KS keyboard was touch sensitive (apparently more by luck than judgement) which made it perfect for the track.
That's cool. Thanks for the info.
Most keybords are touch sensitive? ;)
Thank you so much for this!! Me being a classical pianist, but also an electronica composer, has always listened to Jarre’s composing with classical eyes. I love his father’s work, and Jean-Michel certainly has a great legacy here, he hi truly a pioneer, like Vangelis. Oxygen was my "wake up call" in the 80-s, started with a timer, connected to a Bang & Olufson Beomaster... but I never woke up until the vinyl side one was finished and made scratching noise, the music just haunted my dreams...I had to place this “alarm clock” an hour before I should wake up.
This for me is JMJ's masterpiece and have loved this album for many years. I love all of the Doctor Mix videos but this is one of the best. You make so many great points on this video and never miss the tiniest extra touches. Incredible stuff!
🌍Oxygene! - Drmix! - Michel Geiss! - Info that i heard for the 1st time! wtf? this is Great!! thank you!!🙏
16.00' Oxygene 7!
Thanks you so much, Dr Mix!
Si long i was waiting for such a vidéo...
Oxygène is a wonderful creation i listen for so many years (and running in loop in my car), always with the same enthousiasm but just enjoying the beauty without thinking over too much on the technique and the complex process of création. Then your vidéo and analysis sounds really perfect and wonderful to me, providing some new keys of understanding.
Thanks again, Dr Mix!
I was not expecting to see this album on this channel. That's awesome that it's getting it's flowers.
I expected it, though, caus Claudio loves Jean Michel!
Jarre hasn't changed in 50 years, and yet of course he has, his modern work is still distinctively Jarre but you can trace the development from this album, he remains at the head of this movement, often imitated but never bettered. His recent concerts show he is still the master of melody and rhythm embracing new technology and techniques without letting them dictate to him. One of the greatest composers, innovators and performers of all time. It would be great if JMJ would sit with Dr Mix and record an exposition of his works, the musical world needs this preserving for eternity.
Oxymore from 2022 was a noisy, experimental techno album in 360 degree sound, but it was as different and unique as Oxygene was back in 1976. Many critics were very surprised that the 74 year old Jarre can make such a modern and still creative album.
Jarre has always been looking forwards - an inspiration to us to keep developing our music.
I was 7 years old and my mother didn't let me buy the Oxygene album because of the skull on the cover, she thought it was very ugly for a child, lol...but she let me take the equinoxe album to my house. I'm 41 years old now and I haven't stopped listening to JMJ yet. Thanks mom for at least getting me to take the equinoxe home.
I love these playing-along passages with the Rhodes. Hearing this LP of JMJ in a more harmonic and melodic way without all these synth sounds shows the real beauty of this epochal work. I first heard Oxygene in my very early teen years. And I was hooked on it. That was 46 years ago. And I still listen to it (just listening, no distraction) several times a year.
La improvisación en 4:12 y en el tema del final son hermosas, gracias Dr.!!
Wonderful video - accompanying JMJ on the keys sounded great. One of my favourite videos you’ve done in all the many years I’ve been watching you.
Holy shit! This is an absolutely killer breakdown...I don't any experience playing music but I have been enjoying it and dancing to electronic music since 1990. I remember this album being played in our house when In was a kid along with Kitaro and Tangerine Dream. Clearly this stuff nested in my subconscious. Thank you for this!!
I'm a guitar player/songwriter, but was heavily influenced by synth music in the 80s, and JMJ's records were still selling well back then so he was a staple among the others that inhabited the pop world. Even then, as a 12 year old, I knew there was something special about these records. Their ability to transport you away, purely with sound, was almost indescribable for a wee kid on a housing estate in Glasgow.
I love love love what this guy is doing here. I'm not au faux with programming (even in the somewhat easier albeit less tactile DAW emulation environment) analog synths, but even as a guitarist primarily, I love working with these amazing machines, and devour almost any content that sheds light on this dark art.
I have to ask Doctor Mix though - another BIG record from the day that still enjoys the plaudits is Stop Making Sense - I LOVE this record, and I adore the the synth sounds. To my knowledge, there is not a single RUclips dive into the Prophet V dominant landscape of this record. It is a masterpiece of synth performance in my humble opinion, and it elevates the instrument to levels rarely seen in popular music. I honestly believe it's that good. Can you possibly shed some light on this droplet of 80s gold?
Love your videos about Jarre music, and explaining the ingredients of his music, truly epic paving the music we hear today,
I hope Jean-Michel sees this, I’m a big JMJ fan since 83, it’s really opened my mind on how does he create these sounds, truly amazing idea for a genius musician,
I’ve seen many of his gigs and have plenty of his music, good to hear it, many thanks for sharing 👍🏻🎹
No way!
Absolutely seminal album, shaped me deeply in the late 80s.
I think you did an excellent job Dr. Mix! You always do a great job, but this is something that requires care and attention... It's Oxygene!
Re. your sponsor - never did this before, comment on a sponsor - but Beyerdynamic cans are something I want to experience. I have a great playback solution on big speakers, but good cans are amazing too, in a different way. Need to be blown away by cans again!
It was this album at 11 years old that made me into a composer producer..... It is pure genius in every way. Brilliant video, you do it justice with a pure love for the music :)
@@CaptainProton1 yeah!!!
Thank you Claudio. My favourite album of all time. JMJ got me into synthesizer playing in the 80s. And everything without MIDI or velocity sensitivity. Just with a 8-track tape machine. He used the noise effects so much because the 8-track recorder had too much background noise...
I first heard Oxygene when I saw Gallipoli on cable TV in 1982 when I was 9. That sound had my ears hooked in, and that it blended in so seamlessly with the scenes where the main characters are running to beat the time. Thanks, Doc, for putting this together and breaking it down.
Nice touch having an iconic album playing on such an Iconic Technics 1210 deck! Great video!
I love people enjoying music. How you smile while deconstructing this masterpiece.
I enjoyed your video so much, Im a big fan of Jarre and loved dissecting each instrument and sound to catch every nuances, I do this sometimes in my head listening to these songs, but I'm just an enthusiastic, not a professional like you. Thank you so much
Mille mercis Doctormix !!! from France 🎵🎶👏