Jean-Michel Jarre, the French composer behind such game-changing electronic albums of the ’70s as Oxygène and Équinoxe, among many others, still has plenty of surprises up his sleeve. Take for instance E-Project, which is the current working title for an album that Jarre has planned for an October 16 on Ultra Music. It’s a collaborative album that Jarre is crafting as a celebration of the legacy of electronic music over the years. Accordingly, he has nabbed a host of influential artists to take part in the project. Many are still to be announced, but some of Jarre’s creative partners in the process will include M83, Gesaffelstein, Tangerine Dream and Robert “3D” Del Naja from Massive Attack.
For the album, Jarre created demos of each track and sent them to his prospective collaborators so they could see what they had to bring to the track, each lending their own singular style.
Obligatory press gush from Jarre: “I’ve wanted to tell a story for a while regarding electronic music history from my point of view and experience, from when I started to nowadays. So I planned to collaborate with array of artists who are, directly or indirectly, linked to this scene, over the last four decades that I‘ve been making electronic music—with people I admire for their singular contribution to our genre, that represent a source of inspiration for me but who also have an instantly recognizable sound.”
For you collector types, look out for a limited-edition hand-signed and numbered box-set version with exclusive content, available via pre-order at Jarre’s website.
Image by Mashinskiy Constantin