10 Fun Facts About Jean-Michel Jarre

Which Jean-Michel Jarre album, released in 1976, is widely considered his international breakthrough?

He recorded it at home on a small budget with analogue gear such as the EMS VCS 3 and a Scully 8-track machine.

In which city did Jean-Michel Jarre's 1997 concert set a Guinness record for the largest outdoor audience?

The concert on 6 September 1997 was reputed to have drawn about 3.5 million people.

What was Jean-Michel Jarre's father, Maurice Jarre, primarily known for?

He won three Academy Awards for Best Original Score, all for David Lean films: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India.

Jarre's mother, Francette Pejot, survived a concentration camp after serving in which wartime movement?

Jarre was born in Lyon in 1948; his parents separated when he was five and he was raised by his mother and grandmother.

Which instrument did Jean-Michel Jarre call the 'Stradivarius of electronic music'?

He made the remark about Chronologie, an album he built from 1970s analogue machines alongside a Roland JD-800 and a Kurzweil K2000.

Jarre was the first Western musician officially invited to perform in which country?

Copies of three of his albums, given to Radio Beijing by the British Embassy, were the first foreign music played on Chinese national radio in decades.

Which 1984 Jean-Michel Jarre album is known for digital sampling of vocal fragments in many languages?

The voices span 25 languages, cut up on a Fairlight CMI in a nod to the musique concrete of his old mentor at the GRM.

The 'Rendez-vous Houston' concert in 1986 was a tribute to which group of individuals?

Jarre's friend Ron McNair was to have played saxophone from orbit on one track; after he died, Houston saxophonist Kirk Whalum took the part.

In what year was Jean-Michel Jarre's influential album 'Équinoxe' released?

The year after, he played to more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a crowd record he has since beaten three times.

Jean-Michel Jarre studied under which avant-garde musician, considered a pioneer of musique concrète?

Schaeffer taught him at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris, and Jarre dedicated a 1997 album to him two years after his death.