Electronica 1: The Time Machine

Electronica began around 2010 under the working title E-Project, and grew into the most ambitious thing Jarre has attempted: a personal history of electronic music told through the people who made it. The Time Machine is the first of two volumes; roughly thirty collaborators across the pair.

Every track here is a collaboration — one artist per piece, chosen for a sense of common lineage rather than genre. Veterans and pioneers sit next to people half a century younger: John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Vince Clarke, Laurie Anderson, Air and Pete Townshend alongside Gesaffelstein, M83, Little Boots, Boys Noize, Fuck Buttons, Moby, Armin van Buuren, Lang Lang and Robert "3D" Del Naja of Massive Attack. Jarre travelled to work with each of them in person.

"Zero Gravity", written with Tangerine Dream, is among the last recorded work of Edgar Froese, who died in January 2015 — the track stands as a memorial to a fellow pioneer as much as a collaboration with one.

Released 16 October 2015. Sixteen tracks, 68 minutes. Singles: "Glory", "Conquistador", "Zero Gravity", "Watching You", "Stardust", "If..!".