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Jean Michel André Jarre (born August 24, 1948) is a French composer of electronic music. He is the son of Maurice Jarre, a composer of film music, who has written the scores to such films as Lawrence Of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago, among many others.
He was married to British actress and photographer Charlotte Rampling. In 2002 he became engaged to French actress Isabelle Adjani, but later she ended this relationship. Currently, Jarre is engaged to French actress Anne Parillaud. He has three children: Emilie (from Jarre's first marriage in early 1970's), Barnaby (Charlotte Rampling's son from a previous marriage) and David (Charlotte and Jean-Michel's son).
Jean-Michel Jarre is regarded as one of the pioneers in the electronic music gendre, along with artists and bands such as Wendy Carlos, Vangelis, Kraftwerk, Isao Tomita or Tangerine Dream. His album Oxygene launched in 1976 was a big success worldwide, the song Oxygene Part IV becoming one of the best-known pieces of electronic music ever. His album Equinoxe also was a big success (especially Part V).
In 1983 he created the album Musique pour supermarchés (Music for supermarkets), which had a print run of only a single copy. Jarre destroyed all the master records from his studio work, allowed a Luxembourg radio to broadcast the album once and auctioned it to raise money for French artists. People recorded the album using their tape recorders while it was broadcasted on the radio, so we can listen to that album, at a very poor quality though (the radio station was an AM station).
Jarre is well-known for staging spectacular outdoor concerts of his music, which feature laser displays and fireworks, and three of which appeared in the Guinness Book of RecordsThe Guinness Book of Records (or in recent editions Guinness World Records and in previous US editions Guinness Book of World Records is a book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of superlatives: both in terms of human for their large audiences, often of several million.
In October 1981Events January-February January Sarawak Chamber found January 1 Greece enters the EEC January 1 Palau becomes self-governing January 4 Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper January 16 Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette D, Jarre was the first Western pop-artist who was granted to give concerts in the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China PRC comprises most of the cultural, historic, and geographic area known as China. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is the world's most populous country, with a population.
In 19861986 is a common year starting on Wednesday. Events January January 1 Spain and Portugal enter the European Community January 1 Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles. January 9 After losing a pa NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA (established 1958) is the government agency responsible for the United States of America's space program and long-term general aerospace research. A civilian organization, it conducts (or oversees) re and the city of Houston asked him to do a concert to celebrate NASA's 25th anniversary and the city of Houston 150th anniversary. During that concert, astronaut Ronald McNairRonald Erwin McNair ( October 21, 1950 January 28, 1986) was one of the astronauts killed in the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, mission STS-51-L. He was a native of Lake City, South Carolina. McNair received a B. in physics from North Carolina A& was to play the saxophone part of Jarre's piece Rendez-Vous VI while in orbit on board the Space Shuttle ChallengerShuttle Orbiter Challenger ( NASA Designation: OV-99) was a Space Shuttle orbiter. Challenger was the second shuttle orbiter to be placed into service (after Columbia and was constructed using a body frame (STA-099) that had initially been produced for us. It was to have been the first piece of music recorded in space, for the album Rendez-Vous. After the Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986, the piece was recorded with a different saxophonist, retitled Ron's piece and the album dedicated to the seven Challenger astronauts. The Houston concert entered the Guinness Book of Records for the audience of over 1.5 million.
In 1999 he created a spectacular music and light show in the egyptian desert, near Giza. The show, called The 12 Dreams of the Sun , celebrated the new millennium and 5000 years of civilization in Egypt. It also offered a preview of the new Jarre album, Metamorphoses.
In 2000 he performed a concert in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke and Tetsuya Komuro in the Okinawa beaches, to celebrate the "real" beginning of the new millennium. The concert was called Rendez-vous in Space and the group called itself The ViZitors.
In 2002 he performed the AERO concert at Grammel Vrå Enge wind farm, just outside Aalborg in Denmark, to a rather wet audience of approximately 50000.
On October 10th, 2004 he gave a big concert in the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square in China, due to the " Year of France in China ". The audience was of about 15,000 spectators, most of them special guests, but also a small number of international fans. No fireworks were used due to security concerns. This concert was broadcasted in HDTV with 5.1 sound by some satellite channels. 5.1 sound was also used on the stage. It included music from the AERO compilation album, as well as some songs not by Jarre.