Following on from the unparalleled success of Vol. 1., Jean-Michel Jarre’s second and final part to his ground-breaking ‘Electronica’ series, ‘Vol. 2: The Heart of Noise’, is out now and available for all.
Much like its predecessor, ‘The Heart of Noise’ is teeming with some of the greatest musical talents on earth, with a mind-blowing 15 collaborators featured on the 18-track album that was masterminded by Jarre himself.
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This time around, Rone, Pet Shop Boys, Primal Scream, Julia Holter, Gary Numan, Jeff Mills, Peaches, Siriusmo, Yello, The Orb, Sebastien Tellier, Hans Zimmer, Cyndi Lauper, Christophe and none other than Edward Snowden have all been handpicked by Jarre to complete his Electronica double album project. As with Vol 1., Jarre personally connected with each of his collaborators and travelled extensively to work together on the music, taking him everywhere from Moscow to see the ostracized Snowden to Los Angeles with Gary Numan.
Having started work on the two-part project almost five years ago, Jarre’s ‘Electronica’ has evolved since day one into its current format. Perhaps the biggest surprise – on an album that features rare contributions from musical legends such as Primal Scream, Peaches, Jeff Mills and The Pet Shops Boys – is the Edward Snowden-featured track, ‘Exit’. A United Nations ambassador for UNESCO, Jarre somehow added to his legend even further with one of the most surprising partnerships in recent memory, and released the official video for the track last week.
‘The Heart of Noise’ is a tribute to Luigi Russolo, Italian composer and builder of experimental musical instruments, who proposed in 1913 in his Futurist manifesto ‘Art of Noises’ a number of conclusions about how electronics and other technology would allow futurist musicians to “substitute for the limited variety of timbres that the orchestra possesses today the infinite variety of timbres in noises, reproduced with appropriate mechanisms”. Russolo predicted the dawn of the synthesiser and Electronic Music.
Jarre’s illustrious career has spanned over four decades and he is considered one of the founding fathers of electronic music. Just a few of his feats include selling over 70 million albums worldwide, holding the Guinness World Record for playing to the largest attendance in history (3.5 million in Moscow) and becoming the first Western musician to be invited to perform in post-Mao China in 1981.
The release of Vol. 2 marks a historic moment in the career of Jarre, who having released his most ambitious project to date, will now set his sights on his upcoming live shows and world tour. With a unique and brand-new super production in tow, Jarre will kick things off this summer with a string of outdoor shows at Sónar in Barcelona, Melt! Festival and Bluedot at Jodrell Bank, after which he will move onto major venues across Europe like the 02 Arena in London and AccorHotels Arena in Paris as part of his Electronica World Tour. He will play further dates in Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and more. See all of Jarre’s official dates here.
