Description
The seven-track LP will complete the Oxygène trilogy, which began with the French veteran’s debut album in 1976. (The second instalment, Oxygène 7–13, came out 20 years later in 1997.) Jarre says the inspiration for the new record, which he put together in six weeks, came a couple of years ago when he was recording his last album, the collaboration-heavy Electronica Vol 2: The Heart Of Noise. Following that album’s May release, Oxygène 3 will be Jarre’s second full-length of 2016.
“I don’t necessarily like anniversaries that much,” says Jarre. “But when I was recording Electronica, two years ago, I did a piece of music (‘Oxygene 19’) that made me think about what Oxygène could be if I was composing it today. What made the first Oxygène so different at the time was probably the minimalist aspect, and the fact that there are almost no drums, and I wanted to keep this approach, creating the groove mainly with the sequences and the structure of the melodies only. I did the first Oxygène on an 8-track tape recorder with very few instruments, with no other choice than being minimalist. I tried to keep this minimalist approach for Oxygène 3.”
