Essentials & Rarities is a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 by Jean Michel Jarre

Jean Michel Jarre

Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...

, released in 2011. The double CD set

Double album

A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....

 consists of two distinctive CDs

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

: Essentials, which is a compilation of Jean Michel Jarre's most famous work, and Rarities, which has tracks made before his ground-breaking album Oxygène.

Most of the tracks on Rarities were never officially released on CD before (apart from tracks from Les Granges Brûlées

Les Granges Brûlées

Les Granges Brûlées is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Eden Roc in France and Canada in 1973. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name starring Simone Signoret and Alain Delon...

). The Rarities CD includes a selection of tracks from Deserted Palace

Deserted Palace

Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...

, his first single "La Cage" and its B-side "Erosmachine", and the track "Happiness Is a Sad Song", which he composed in 1968 for "Les Fêtes de la Jeunesse" in Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 and is Jean Michel Jarre's first musical release. Both "Happiness Is a Sad Song" and "La Cage / Erosmachine" were composed during Jarre's time at the Groupe Recherche Musicale.

The album was released in memory of Francis Dreyfus

Francis Dreyfus

Francis Dreyfus was a French record producer, who focused on jazz and electronic music, publishing Jean-Michel Jarre's first commercially successful work, Oxygène....

, who was the founder of Jarre's first record label Disques Dreyfus

Disques Dreyfus

Disques Dreyfus is a record label which is currently home to artists such as Klement Julienne. Jean Michel Jarre was part of the label for more than 20 years.Francis Dreyfus founded Disque Dreyfus in 1985...

 and who died in the previous year.

Track listing

CD 1 – ESSENTIALS

1. "Souvenir of China
   The Concerts in China
   The Concerts in China is a live album by Jean Michel Jarre, recorded in 1981 and released in 1982 on Disques Dreyfus...
   
   " – 3:59
2. "Oxygene 2" – 3:12
3. "Arpegiateur
   The Concerts in China
   The Concerts in China is a live album by Jean Michel Jarre, recorded in 1981 and released in 1982 on Disques Dreyfus...
   
   " – 6:16
4. "Oxygene 4" – 4:14
5. "Equinoxe
   Equinoxe
   Équinoxe was the second major-label album release by French musician Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus in late 1978....
   
    4" – 6:42
6. "Calypso 2
   Waiting for Cousteau
   Waiting for Cousteau is the seventh overall studio album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor, in 1990. The album was dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and was released on his 80th birthday 11 June 1990. The title of the album is a reference to Samuel Beckett's...
   
   " – 2:28
7. "Zoolook
   Zoolook
   Zoolook is the fourth overall mainstream studio album by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Disques Dreyfus in 1984. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling. It is considered by many fans as one of Jarre's most experimental albums to date...
   
   " – 3:52
8. "Magnetic Fields
   Magnetic Fields (album)
   Magnetic Fields is the third mainstream album by Jean Michel Jarre , released on Disques Dreyfus in 1981...
   
    1" – 5:20
9. "Magnetic Fields 2" – 4:02
10. "Equinoxe 5" – 3:55
11. "Industrial Revolution 2" – 2:22
12. "Rendez-Vous 4" – 3:59
13. "Gloria, Lonely Boy" – 5:30
14. "Oxygene 6" – 6:21
15. "Space of Freedom
    Space of Freedom
    Space of Freedom was a concert performed by French musician Jean Michel Jarre in Poland, at the Gdańsk Shipyard, on August 26, 2005, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity trade union's foundation...
    
    " (a.k.a. "March 23
    Sessions 2000
    Sessions 2000 is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus and distributed by Sony Music in 2002. It was released in the U.S. in early 2003. It is his eleventh overall studio album....
    
    ") – 8:02

CD 2 – RARITIES

1. "Happiness Is a Sad Song" – 5:53 (1968, not previously released on an album)
2. "Hypnose" – 3:29 (1970, Dominique Webb single)
3. "Erosmachine" – 2:58
4. "La Cage" – 3:23
5. "Chanson des Granges Brûlées / Song of the Burnt Barns
   Les Granges Brûlées
   Les Granges Brûlées is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Eden Roc in France and Canada in 1973. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name starring Simone Signoret and Alain Delon...
   
   " – 2:45
6. "Windswept Canyon
   Deserted Palace
   Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
   
   " – 7:39
7. "The Abominable Snowman
   Deserted Palace
   Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
   
   " – 0:52
8. "Deserted Palace
   Deserted Palace
   Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
   
   " – 2:22
9. "Le Pays de Rose / Roseland
   Les Granges Brûlées
   Les Granges Brûlées is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Eden Roc in France and Canada in 1973. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name starring Simone Signoret and Alain Delon...
   
   " – 2:01
10. "Rain Forest Rap Session
    Deserted Palace
    Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
    
    " – 1:40
11. "Black Bird" – 3:06 (1972, not previously released on an album)
12. "Music Box Concerto
    Deserted Palace
    Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
    
    " – 2:41
13. "Iraqi Hitch-Hiker
    Deserted Palace
    Deserted Palace is an album of experimental instrumental electroacoustic music composed and produced by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on Sam Fox Records in 1972. It is Jarre's very first album, released four years before his breakthrough album, Oxygène. It was an album of library music, intended...
    
    " – 2:25
14. "Les Granges Brûlées / The Burnt Barns
    Les Granges Brûlées
    Les Granges Brûlées is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Eden Roc in France and Canada in 1973. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name starring Simone Signoret and Alain Delon...
    
    " – 3:13
15. "La Cage Vitalic RMX" – 4:16 (2010, not previously released on an album)
16. "Erosmachine Vitalic RMX" – 3:45 (2010, not previously released on an album)

External link

• Essentials & Rarities at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...