Dance music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre can now add “published author” to his resume, as the French titan is set to release his debut book this fall.
Coming Nov. 24, Machines: A History of Electronic Music will document Jarre’s vast collection of electronic and electro-acoustic instruments. According to a press release, “Through these machines, Jarre traces the evolution of a century of sonic experimentation, underscoring the ideas, technologies and cultural movements that shaped electronic music as we know it today.”
The book will “journey through Surrealism and the Bauhaus, into avant-garde radio laboratories and inside pioneering studios, including Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Radio France and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Along the way, Jarre charts the creative and technological breakthroughs that transformed modern music — from tape manipulation and analogue synthesis to the digital revolution, 3D recording, immersive multimedia and AI-assisted performance.”
Machines: A History of Electronic Music will include 130 images photographed especially for the project, “from iconic modular synthesizers to rare prototypes and bespoke one-offs.” The book will also include contributions from fellow artists including Armin Van Buuren and Richie Hawtin, Vince Clark of Erasure/Yazoo/Depeche Mode, New Order’s Gillian Gilbert, Nicolas Godin of Air, Johnny Marr of The Smiths/The The/Electronic Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes and more.
Announcing the book on social media, Jarre wrote on Instagram, “This book is a journey through these machines: those I acquired, those I tamed, those I imagined, and those that shaped my musical language – and which together tell one possible story of today’s music. When I step into the studio, they are there, lurking in the shadows, blinking silently. They contain every sound in the world. And like a gold prospector, my obsession is to extract a few nuggets from them. My personal El Dorado.”
Machines: A History of Electronic Music is available for pre-order now.
