Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise

The Heart of Noise takes its name and its argument from Luigi Russolo

The Italian composer and instrument-builder whose 1913 Futurist manifesto The Art of Noises set out how electronics and other technology would let musicians replace the orchestra's limited palette of timbres with the infinite variety available in noise, reproduced by suitable machines. Russolo's claim was that noise itself only came into being with the machinery of the 19th century — that the modern ear was a manufactured thing. He was, in effect, predicting electronic music decades before the instruments existed.

The album is the second and final volume of Electronica, a project Jarre began around 2010 and has called his most ambitious. Fifteen collaborators here, roughly thirty across the two records: Rone, Pet Shop Boys, Primal Scream, Gary Numan, Jeff Mills, Hans Zimmer, Julia Holter, Cyndi Lauper, Peaches, Yello, The Orb, Siriusmo, Sébastien Tellier, Christophe, and — on "Exit" — Edward Snowden. Jarre met each of them in person and travelled to work face to face, from Los Angeles to Moscow. Three tracks he completed alone.

Where Electronica 1: The Time Machine was reflective, this one moves faster. What he took from the process, in his words, was that electronic music has a family, a legacy and a future.

Released 6 May 2016. Eighteen tracks, 74 minutes. Singles: "The Heart of Noise, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2", "What You Want", "Exit", "As One".