Jean-Michel Jarre is releasing his 22nd studio album.
‘OXYMORE’ is billed as the 74-year-old’s “most ambitious and groundbreaking to date”, with him having produced, composed and recorded the record.
He said about his cutting-edge recording method: “In real life stereo does not exist, our audio field is 360 degrees. Today, technology allows us to explore composition in spatial audio and that opens a whole new experience for us musicians in the creative process.
“Music will be more easily experienced by anyone with regular headphones or the new generations of sound systems, offering a more physical and natural way of listening to sound and music in full immersion.”
‘OXYMORE’ is said to be “a tribute to the French roots of electronic music” and an homage to the late French composer Pierre Henry, an iconic figure in electronic and classical music and one of Jean-Michel’s influences at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales where he studied.
Since his death in 2017, Pierres’s widow provided the musician with original sounds which had been intended for use in this collaboration.
Jean-Michel added: “Pierre’s work inspired me for ‘OXYMORE’ and working around some soundbites of his led me down a creative path that I may not have taken otherwise.
“I chose some of his sounds precisely from one track to another. ‘OXYMORE’ is also a tribute to the French way of approaching modern music, electroacoustic music, and my early studies at the GRM where Pierre definitely influenced the future of electronic music worldwide,
along with Pierre Shaeffer.”
The project is also inspired by the French movement “musique concrete”, a genre that utilises recorded sounds as raw material – a movement first developed in the 1940s and went on to revolutionise the way music is produced.
As part of an immersive project, Jean-Michel is also launching ‘OXYVILLE’, a VR world which accompanies the album release, providing a digital stage for him to perform the album live in VR.
To celebrate the launch of the album, he will perform ‘OXYMORE’ live in 360 spatial audio at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, in partnership with GL Events, to a selected audience at exclusive, invitation-only events between 23 and 25 October.
The concert on 24 October will be live and available on invitation to the world in VR within the musician’s custom built and designed Metaverse ‘OXYVILLE’ via VR Chat in partnership with VRROOM, and
simultaneously in Livestream 2D across the artist’s social media channels.
‘OXYMORE’, out now, is available on CD, Double Vinyl and digital in Stereo, Binaural, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos.
The physical product also includes a code to access the highest quality Binaural master.