A biography for Jean-Michel Jarrehasn’t been written yet.
“When I heard Edward Snowden's story, it reminded me of my mother in a strange way. She was in the French resistance from early on, 1941. At that time, the Resistance were considered troublemakers - even traitors - in France.”
“'Oxygene' was one of the first, if not the first, popular electronic music album.”
“One of the first things I created was music for the Paris opera's ballet troupe. That was the first time that electronic music was played at the opera. I really like the relationship between the music and the choreography.”
“Suddenly, we are putting ourselves as the next dinosaurs. It's rather dark; we have narrowed our dreams. It is time to restore our visions. And so it's not a nostalgic idea; it is based with this unconscious need to restore a kind of dynamic for tomorrow.”
“We should never forget that in the smartphone, the smart part is us creators.”
“I used to play in rock bands. Then I went to the first school of electronic music in the world. It was in Paris headed by one of the most important people involved in electronic music.”
“I consider music like a mirage in the desert. You're obsessed with the ideal piece of music, and the more you think you're getting closer, it's not there.”
“People who do music do it because it is all they can do. And that's me, I suppose. I can do nothing else.”
“Emotions are the basics of any art form!”
“The characteristic of 'Oxygene' is a mixture of innocence and ambition, of trying to do something different in a different way.”
“To me, the original VCS3 synthesizer is like a Stradivarius.”
“I feel very privileged to have played China, and the pyramids, all these fantastic places, but it created a kind of smoke curtain between the audience and me as a musician.”
“Early music in all kinds of movements is always a mixture of innocence and ambition.”
“My first break was in my home country with some pop songs that became hits, writing for French singers Christophe & Francoise Hardy, which became hits.”
“I want the Dead Sea, like Masada, to be part of UNESCO's world heritage.”
“With electronic music, you are not confined to the acoustics of a concert-hall, and that inspired me to bring my performances outdoors.”
“I always dreamed, when I started writing music, to find a way of immersing yourself in it.”