Jean Michel Jarre - La Cage (1976)

Jean-Michel Jarre was born in Lyon on 24 August 1948, and is the son of composer Maurice Jarre. When he was five his parents separated and his father moved to the United States, leaving him with his mother, and he didn't see his father again until he was 18. His musical education was fraught, and he struggled with classical piano studies, although he later changed teachers and worked on his scales. As a young man Jarre earned money by selling his paintings, exhibiting some of his works at the Lyon Gallery, and also by playing in a band called Mystère IV. In 1967 he played guitar in a band called The Dustbins, who appear in the film 'Des garçons et des filles', and he mixed instruments including the electric guitar and the flute with tape effects and other sounds. More experimentation was followed in 1968, when he began to use tape loops, radios and other electronic devices, and in 1969 he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, founded and led by Pierre Schaeffer, inventor of musique concrete. Around this time he was introduced to the Moog modular synthesizer and spent time working at the studio of influential German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne. In the kitchen of his apartment in Rue de la Trémoille, Jarre set up a small makeshift recording studio. linking his EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesisers to Revox tape machines, and for a 1969 exposition at the Maison de la Culture in Reims, Jarre wrote the five-minute song 'Happiness Is A Sad Song', after which he composed and recorded his first single 'La Cage'/'Erosmachine', a mixture of harmony, tape effects and synthesisers, which was released in 1971. That same year he was commissioned by choreographer Norbert Schmucki to perform a ballet called 'AOR' (in Hebrew "The Light'), and he also composed background music for ballet, theatre, television programs, department stores, and advertising jingles for Pepsi-Cola, Nestlé and RTL. 

He also formed The Popcorn Orchestra to record a cover version of Gershon Kingsley's Moog instrumental 'Popcorn', although Hot Butter had the international hit with it the following year. From 1972 to 1975 he wrote music and lyrics for artists like Françoise Hardy, Gérard Lenorman, Christophe and Patrick Juvet, and he also appeared on Samuel Hobo's 1972 single 'Freedom Day' and Triangle's 'Recreation' the same year. In 1973 he released his first solo album, 'Deserted Palace', as well as composing the soundtrack for 'Les Granges Brûlées', and he also composed the song 'Zig Zag Dance', which he seemed so determined to have a hit with that he released it nearly half a dozen times, either under pseudonyms such as Jo Sherman, The Electric Choo Choo Band and The Superfly, or playing on recordings of it by artists Foggy Joe and Tony Lopez. 1974 saw another mystery band appear, but once again 1906 was just Jarre with another single, 'Cartolina', while his next few appearances on record were collaborations with stage illusionist Dominique Webb, Gerard Lenorman, Blue Vamp and Bill And Buster. In 1976 he recorded and released his low-budget solo album 'Oxygène', recorded at his home studio with analogue synthesizers like the EMS VCS 3 and the EMS Synthi AKS, and taped on a Scully 8-track recorder. It was initially turned down by several record companies, until Jarre decided to meet with Francis Dreyfus, the head of the Disques Motors label, to see if he could release the album, and it was accepted. The first pressing of 50,000 copies was promoted through hi-fi shops, clubs and discos, and by April 1977 it had sold 70,000 copies in France. It was to be his breakthrough record, launching him to international stardom, and so he no longer needed to pretend to be one-man bands or work with other artists. This collection of his early work shows the effort that he put in to get to that point in his career, and there are glimpses of what was to come in some of these pieces, so enjoy these early efforts from Jean Michel Jarre, and so you don't get completely fed up with 'Zig Zag' I've only included two versions of it.  

Track listing

01 Happiness Is A Sad Song (for the Maison de la Culture exposition 1969)

02 La Cage (single 1971)

03 Erosmachine (b-side of 'La Cage')
04 Pop Corn (single as The Pop Corn Orchestra 1971)
05 Black Bird (b-side of 'Pop Corn' as The Pop Corn Orchestra)
06 Freedom Day (single with Samuel Hobo 1972)
07 Recreation (single with Triangle 1972)
08 Le Matin Du Premier Jour (b-side of 'Recreation' with Triangle)
09 Zig-Zag Dance (single as Jo Sherman, with Christopher Laird 1973)
10 Ping-Pong Song (b-side of 'Zig-Zag Dance' as Jo Sherman 1973)
11 Zig-Zag (Instrumental) (single as Electric Choo Choo Band 1973)
12 Cartolina (single as 1906 1974)
13 Helza (b-side of 'Cartolina' as 1906)
14 Hypnose (single with Dominique Webb 1974)
15 La Belle Et La Bete (single with Gerard Lenorman 1975)
16 Jolly Dolly (single with Blue Vamp 1976)
17 Lady (single with Bill And Buster 1976)