Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 3
After the two Electronica collaboration albums, we finally get a new solo album from Jean Michel Jarre.
Nice to have an album again, which you can put on repeat and gets better everything time.
Is this a revolutionary album like the first Oxygene? No, but lets be honest, that's a hard thing to do nowadays, where almost all music is electronic. It has been done before...
But, this is the classic Jarre we know from the first Oxygene album up until Oxygene 7-13 (released in 1997, already 20 years ago, time flies...).
It's a headphone album, it's loud but not aggressive, although it sounds a bit too digital.
He is playing with sounds again, it is more ambient, more pads, there is more 'Musique Concrete'. That's what we like, right?
A shame that he set a target of 40 minutes, since some parts should have been longer. But the music is intense, it feels like more than 40 minutes.
It is clearly not a 70's album, he still uses some modern sounds and influences which you can also hear on Electronica. Especially Oxygene part 19, which also could have been a collaboration with Armin van Buuren, but this track is better than Stardust on Electronica.
From the three Oxygene albums, this one has the least Oxygene in it, the typical Oxygene sounds are mostly used in part 17.
As I said before, this is a headphone album, like the first Oxygene the layering of the sounds/tracks is very subtle, there is a lot to discover.
You can debate wether this is really an Oxygene album; marketing probably played a big role here, but I don't mind. I agree with Jarre that at least the minimalistic approach is shared with the original album.
Oxygene part 17, which sounds the most like the original Oxygene, is perhaps even the weakest track on the album, but still better than any track on Electronica except for Close Your Eyes and Zero Gravity.
As a whole this almost feels like a soundtrack to a SciFi movie, he probably likes Gravity and Interstellar very much.
He should really do a soundtrack next.
Current highlights for me:
Oxygene part 15: Classic Eminent + Phaser sounds. On top of that he is playing with a bass sound processed by morphing reverbs. Cool beat; a mixture of the famous mini-pops and modern drums. No real climax, just a super geeky track.
Oxygene part 16: Starts weird. Upbeat. Lots of detail, effects and sequences/arpeggios. A bit of Aero, Geometry of Love and Metamorphoses.
Oxygene part 18: Short ambient / chillout / 'Brian Eno' piece, simple but effective, too short.
Oxygene part 20: Starts with some 'aggressive' organs. It has a nice reference to the first Oxygene, is it stuck in a black hole? It ends in a Ron's Piece / Souvenir of China kinda mood. Also it feels like a chill-out version of Immortals on Electronica. I want to see the images to which Jarre composed this track.
Conclusion after 20+ listening sessions: A superb album, the first Oxygene remains the best, but is this better than the second one? hmmm...
BTW Buy the Vinyl version, better packaging and sound :-)
