Jean-Michel Jarre’s third studio album, Oxygène, features one of the most iconic pieces of 1970s analogue synthesizer music: Oxygène, Part IV. It’s remarkable to think that this track and the album it is from was released half a century ago, back in 1976.
For me, the piece always brings back vivid memories of Bonfire Night celebrations at Gloucester Park in Basildon when I was a young boy. Each November, music from Oxygène and Équinoxe would play over the loudspeakers throughout the evening. I can still remember standing there with my family, watching the fireworks and thinking how incredibly futuristic it all sounded at the time.
Oxygène Part IV went on to become Jarre’s most successful single, released in January 1977—the same month and year I was born—and eventually reaching number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, where it stayed for four weeks between September and October of that year. Remarkably, Jarre recorded the album in a makeshift studio set up in the kitchen of his Paris apartment.
An incredible song, from an equally incredible album.
