#oxygene

[vinyl-artwork]

Jean Michel Jarre, Oxygene, 1977

Cover by Michel Granger

[abz-j-harding]

[therecordblog]

Album Review #44: Jean-Michel Jarre // Oxygène // 1976

Do you ever see some album art and think, "oh hell yeah, this is going to rule"? Like, I don't even care what it sounds like, that art is awesome! Well luckily, today we get one that both looks and sounds good. A synth odyssey awaits!

I'm totally lifting this from Wikipedia, but with regards to the album art, Jarre had some thoughts he shared in an interview:

"[The artwork] perfectly adheres to the spirit of the songs. 30 years ago there weren't so many people thinking about the planet. But I've always been interested in that, not necessarily in a political way but in a poetic, surrealistic way. In a way, I wanted to link everything to nature and environmental issues".

These 70's electronic albums are always so fascinating to me, because synthesizers back in the day used to be so technical. it wasn't enough to merely be a good musician, you needed to know advanced recording and audio engineering techniques to make anything approaching this level.

Jarre recorded this album in a makeshift studio in his apartment, using a whole arsenal of cutting edge keyboards, drum machines, and synthesizers. The effect is an expansive, grand sound that moves from theme to theme. The album just has one song, that's split up into six parts. Actually, this album is very similar to another album we've looked at, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (Review #6). Oxygène was compared unfavorably to Bells when it was first released actually, critics calling it derivative and lacking the heart of Oldfield's work.

To me, the two albums are different enough. Oldfield's feels more like rock, while Jarre's feels almost more like classical, I guess? Oxygène also features synthesized sounds exclusively, while Tubular Bells has guitar, piano, percussion, as well as synthesizer. Truthfully, I think I do like Tubular Bells a little better than Oxygène, but we're talking like eight stars out of ten vs. seven.

The overall vibe of the album is fairly melancholy, but punctuated with some groovier moments. Take a listen to Part 4 here. If you can believe it, this was a chart topper back in the day! As I said back in my Tubular Bells review, it's crazy that this kind of music reached mainstream appeal at any point, but 1976 was a different time.

Also, you NEED to see the music video. (Also my rip won't upload due to copyright boooooo)

You can see what I mean about these electronic artists needing to be almost more engineer than musician, right? Obviously, this is hammed up a little in the video for dramatic effect, but these people needed to have an intimate knowledge about how these machines worked. I feel that's something that's largely been lost with pre-programmed voice banks and modern audio production software. You used to have to get your hands dirty, man!

Until next time, keep spinning!

[yaminahsaini]

🤕 August 23, 2025: Migraine attacks that just wouldn’t go away no matter what I did : oxygen therapy sessions, smelling an essential oil that was supposed to help, using the acupressure pillow on the painful area, etc…These moments are some of the worst…

[sowhatifiliveintsuyazaki]

Visit Original Link

[saddayfordemocracy]

Hiba Kamal Abu Nada (24 June 1991 – 20 October 2023)

Hiba Kamal Abu Nada was a Palestinian poet, novelist, nutritionist and wikimedian. Her novel "Oxygen is not for the dead" won second place in the Sharja Award for Arab Creativity in 2017.

She was killed in Gaza strip  by an Israeli airstrike in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.

Abu Nada was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 24 June 1991 fom a refugee family from Beit Jirja, which was displaced in 1948.

She received a bachelor's degree of biochemistry from Islamic University, Gaza, and a master's degree in clinical nutrition from Al-Azhar University.

She worked for a time at the Rusul Center for Creativity, associated with the al-Amal Institute for Orphans. According to Al-Ayyam, she was "preoccupied with justice, the uprisings of the Arab Spring, and the realities of Palestinian life under occupation."

She published a number of collections of poetry, and a novel, titled al-Uksujīn laysa lil-mawtā (‘Oxygen is not for the dead).

In 2017, she won second place in the 20th annual Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity, held by the United Arab Emirates, for her novel. The book was republished by Dar Diwan in 2021.

Her last post online was on 8 October 2023, when she wrote:

Gaza’s night is dark apart from the glow of rockets, quiet apart from the sound of the bombs, terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer, black apart from the light of the martyrs. Good night, Gaza.

On 20 October 2023, she was killed in the Israel-Hamas war, during an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force, which hit her home in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. She was 32.

Rest in Power !

[fuzzyghost]