Oxygène By Jean Michelle Jarre

If Kraftwerk’s vision of the future was icy and robotic, Jean Michelle Jarre’s music had a uniquely Gallic sensibility that was more like the comics created by French artist Moebius with curvaceous spaceships floating in the sky over impossible landscapes. We also get more Earthly concerns with the ominous cover of a ruined planet and the synthesised sounds of crashing waves and electronic bird song evoking fears of environmental doom.

This soundscape was created in Jarre’s kitchen studio using a mix of wonky, cobbled together synthesisers with effects created with magnetic tape loops and the innovative technique of taping down certain keys on the keyboard with sticky tape. The overall effect is rather charming and certainly caught the public imagination at the time - parts of this album were a regular feature on TV themes and even background ambient music for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Needless to say this was hugely influential, notably on bands like The Orb, Air and System 7 who built on these warm and squelchy sounds to great effect.

Frog-tastic!