The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
French electronic music pioneer Jarre shows no fatigue at 74
PARIS — Genes — and a dash of humility — are the secrets of longevity for one of France's biggest music stars, JeanMichel Jarre, the septuagenarian electronic music pioneer who's sold over 80 million records and is still going strong.
“My vitality is probably genetic — it's coming from my mother,” he said before a Paris concert, referring to Francette Pejot, the French Resistance member and concentration camp survivor.
The electronic music star spoke Tuesday in central Paris' Brongniart Palace without displaying any fatigue, despite constant performances, and looking younger than his 74 years. He flitted between observations on life and technical details on his new sound. His latest album entitled Oxymore, or “oxymoron,” released last week, is a groundbreaking electronic album recorded in 360-degree immersive sound, accompanied by a virtual reality experience in the metaverse.
This trippy recording, his 22nd album, comes full circle in his six-decade career as it seems to reference his first major recording, the 1976 album Oxygene that catapulted him to fame, selling an estimated 18 million copies — despite having been recorded in a makeshift studio at home.
That approach — huge success twinned with a down-to-earth attitude — is the signature of the man who remains humble despite being a household name in France and beyond.
Setting records for the biggest concerts in the world — a 1997 concert in Moscow drew 3.5 million spectators, something he describes as an “accident” — has not changed his regular-guy attitude.
It was shedding his ego — something he learned early on, he said — that helped him be able to constantly move forward.
“It created kind of humility because at a very early stage, I realized it takes time to realize that success, (like) failure, are accidents in the life of an artist,” he said.