Jean Michel Jarre
Oxygene

Oxygen. Associations. Oxygen and one, oxygen and two, oxygen is breathable air, oxygen is breath, oxygen is aaahhhhhhhh, aaahhhhhhhh, breaths with many final h's: because h is aspiration, and oxygen is inhaled, not shouted; oxygen in tanks for recreational diving, oxygen is life, oxygen is. Idea of oxygen translated into six movements six by the inspiration of Jean Michel Jarre, a journey into the inseparable, the a-tom, the ultimate cognition.

But if we place in oxygen the idea of breathable air that follows, is air oxygen or vice versa? Because custom teaches us that we breathe more nitrogen than oxygen, so oxygen is air, and not the contrary. Ta-dah, intuition, First Movement, 4 minutes, 31 seconds: it is the part for the whole, not the whole for the whole, and it is also a small part, not coincidentally; Ugo Foscolo, "In morte del fratello Giovanni", v. 8, "e se da lunge i miei tetti saluto": he refers to the homes, not just the roofs, only a part, even if useful, of the whole; the roofs for the houses, the oxygen for the air. So in the end, it's a matter of synecdoches, logical.

Or not?

Jarre and electricity. Because oxygen doesn't just translate into the idea of breathability, but also of elemental nature. And nature is infinitesimal energy, it is entropy, it is a state of unstable equilibrium. A small metal sphere on a portion of a plane at the top of a slope. Still. If a minimal force is applied, it leaves the unstable equilibrium it is in, rolls, slips away. Second Movement: an electro-magnetic radiation. The atom excites, the valence electron leaves its level for another, nature pulses, bursts with electricity. The excited, flawed, uncontrolled nature. So in the end, it's a matter of instability, logical.

Or not?

Oxygen in forma mentis, potential oxygen, degenerable, transformable. Third Movement, chemical combination. Explosion. Because quiet oxygen in nature is in diatomic form, proceeds paired, remains blissful in its hermaphroditic stasis. Plato, Symposium: the androgynous is complete, but wants to challenge the gods; it has authority in its completeness but pays the price and is punished by Zeus. Thus, oxygen challenging the atmosphere undergoes the onslaught of lightning, electric discharges, transforms into ozone and degenerates in it. Reactive, insidious molecule, no longer perfect in its diatomicity: now a third intruder has stepped in, now the price is paid in triatomicity. So in the end, it's a matter of molecular versions, logical.

Or not?

Commercial oxygen. Imported oxygen, priced, for consumption. In Tokyo in special bottles ready for consumption. Oxygen is an asset. Jarre and the new conception of electronic music, of the object of the same, of the consumer good. No more the rigid schemes of Kraftwerk, no more the diluted stasis of Schulze's Kosmische Musik; consumer music, because popular: commercial oxygen that stirs the ear, enchants it. Fourth Movement: "the little tune". Melody. Sweetened electronics. So in the end, it's a matter of commerciality, logical.

Or not?

Oxygen by acception. Aeriform oxygen, gaseous, imperceptible. Cognition of impalpability translated by the Fifth Movement. Connatural condition, because of common understanding. An "other" nature of oxygen that in chemical compounds is liquid, liquid in the ocean, in oxidations. And the study of proportions teaches us that there is less oxygen in the air than there is in the sea. Oxygen by common cognition. So in the end, it's just a matter of acceptions, logical.

Or not?

Decontextualized oxygen. Oxygen the object of chemical, biogenetic, more generally physical studies. Oxygen discussed, interpreted, analyzed. Music, the subject of medieval quadrivium, a humanistic art that does not deal with scientific competencies. Oxygen the object of music. The new dimension of oxygen outside its compass of competencies, oxygen experienced by music, mediated oxygen. Outside the context, because free from sentimental connotations: oxygen does not love, because it cannot be loved. Oxygen has no feeling. Yet in the Sixth Movement it seems that oxygen, curious to say, is endowed with some affection. Concubine oxygen. So in the end, it's a matter of feelings, logical.

Or not?

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh…
Aaahhhhhhh…
Aaahhh…
Aaah…