Jean-Michel Jarre | |
|---|---|
 Jarre in 2017 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jean-Michel André Jarre |
| Born | 24 August 1948 Lyon, France |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Labels | |
| Spouses |
|
| Website | jeanmicheljarre |
| Parents |
|
Jean-Michel André Jarre[note 1] (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl ɑ̃dʁe ʒaʁ]; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays, large projections and fireworks.
Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. His musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales.
His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 18 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums followed, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events.
As of 2004, Jarre had sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles.[2] He was the first Western musician officially invited to perform in the People's Republic of China and held the world record for the largest-ever audience at an outdoor event for his Moscow concert on 6 September 1997, which was attended by 3.5 million people.
- ^ Roberts, Chris (17 June 2016). "Jean-Michel Jarre: an audience with the godfather of electronic prog". Louder. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ "Disques Dreyfus Announces the American Release of 'The Jean-Michel Jarre Collection'". Dreyfus Records. 17 February 2004. Archived from the original on 13 February 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).