This is the first album from this musical wiz-kid, son of the legendary
symphony composer Maurice Jarre (well-known for his many movie soundtracks).
By the time this was released, Jean-Michel was probably in his late twenties
or so, judging by the picture on the back cover.
The music is
probably best described as a sweeping new-age-ish instrumental synth-ambient
symphony, with occasional blip sequences rolling off the keys. Some melodies are
simply heavenly beautiful, simple yet fascinating. The most well-known track
is part four, which somehow always makes me think of penguins slipping off an
ice berg. The melody is somewhat similar to another old synth tune, namely 'Popcorn',
but this is slower and more sweeping, not as 'poppy'. Maybe it's an overstatement
to call Jarre the "godfather of techno" (as that airhead Simone on MTV did), but I'm
sure many synthetic musicians of today, especially in the ambient genre, are heavily
influenced by this man.
