Magnetic Fields

Magnetic Fields (French title: Les Chants magnétiques) is the fifth album by Jean Michel Jarre, released in 1981 on Disques Dreyfus. The album was one of the first records to use sampling as a musical element and represents a departure from the sound of Jarre's previous efforts. For this album Jarre was partly inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and a fascination with the reproducibility of digital sound. The long first track consists of three d... more

Magnetic Fields (French title: Les Chants magnétiques) is the fifth album by Jean Michel Jarre, released in 1981 on Disques Dreyfus. The album was one of the first records to use sampling as a musical element and represents a departure from the sound of Jarre's previous efforts. For this album Jarre was partly inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and a fascination with the reproducibility of digital sound. The long first track consists of three distinct movements, the slower second movement being heavily laden with sample work, foreshadowing the sound of Jarre's 1984 album Zoolook. The album reached #6 in the UK charts and #98 in the US charts. The album has official titles in both French and English. The French title, Les Chants magnétiques is a play on words. Literally translated into English this means "Magnetic Songs" or "Magnetic Singing". Spoken aloud however, it sounds as "Les Champs magnétiques" (literally, "Magnetic Fields"), due to the French words chants (songs or singing)... less