Sunday Music Club – Oxygène

Today’s Sunday Music Club celebrates the 40th anniversary of Jean Michele Jarre’s ground breaking Electronic Music album, Oxygène.

The album was something of a departure from the synthesizer music of the time. While composed on the most modern analogue synths of the time, and one digital synth, it sought to emulate neither the experimental style of pioneers like Delia Derbyshire, nor the classical adaptions of Wendy Carlos.

Recorded in Jarre’s kitchen over a year’s time, it took some effort to get published, due to its unusual, almost classic-music format (no singers, track names, etc.)  but when it was at last published, it became a wild success, despite being panned by critics, obsessed with the new “punk” sound, eventually selling over 5 million copies, and setting the stage for the entire electronic music revolution of the 70s and Oxygène would go on to define electronic music for a generation and still influences Electronic Musicians today.

Are you a fan of electronic music? Who are some of your favorite artists, of today or yesterday?