These were then painstakingly overdubbed and layered onto eight-track tape, creating the mould for the countless lone home-recording artist/producers to come. Oxygene IV was recorded at home, in Jarre’s kitchen on a handful of instruments: an EMS VCS3, and Eminent 310 organ/string machine, an RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, and an ARP 2600. Oxygène – the album – treads just the right side of the line between classic and synth cheese and Part IV is a tune that, alongside Hot Butter’s cover of Popcorn and Space’s Magic Fly, thrust the synthesiser into the mainstream.Īdopted and integrated by big-name rock and pop musicians, sounds once associated with the avant-garde were now sprinkled amongst the electric guitars, electric pianos, horns and strings that formed the backbone of most hit records of the day. Finally firmly placing electronic music on the map Jarre was savvy to the fact that you can’t have a smash synth hit without a cracking tune too.
