Musique pour Supermarché

Musique pour Supermarché (English title: Music for Supermarkets) is the sixth studio album by electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre. Only a single copy was pressed and distributed, and its master plates were deliberately destroyed.

Musique pour Supermarché
Studio album by
Jean-Michel Jarre
Released6 July 1983 (1983-07-06)
RecordedFebruary–May 1983
GenreElectronic
Length29:49
LabelDisques Dreyfus
ProducerJean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel Jarre chronology
Les Concerts en Chine
(1982)		 Musique pour Supermarché
(1983)		 Zoolook
(1984)

Production

In 1983, Jean-Michel Jarre was asked to compose the background music for the supermarket-themed art exhibition Orrimbe show. Jarre agreed, recording Musique pour Supermarché (English: Music for Supermarkets) between February and May 1983.[1] The exhibition, created by some young artists and friends of Jarre, ran at the Jean-Claude Riedel gallery between 2 and 30 June 1983, and the works of art on display would be auctioned off afterwards. Inspired by this, Jarre decided that the music accompanying the exhibition could be treated as a one-off piece of art as well.[1] Thus Musique pour Supermarché would have only a solitary, unique copy pressed, to be auctioned for charity at Hotel Drouot. After the exhibition had ended, the album's master plates were destroyed, making this the only existing legitimate copy in the world. It instantly became one of the most expensive and collectible albums in history. In the inside cover, 11 polaroid photos show the step-by-step creation of the disc, leaving one slot so that the final owner could add their photo with the album. The album owner was at first kept anonymous, but later revealed to be a M. Gerard who, after a car accident, had woken up to the radio playing Jarre's track "Souvenir de Chine" (from Les Concerts en Chine);[1] this album cost him 69,000 francs[2] (10,500 euros or $8960 US).

The music today

Shortly after its sale, the album was played in its entirety on Radio Luxembourg for the first and only time. Jarre introduced the playback with the words "Piratez moi!" (Pirate me!), and multiple bootlegs of the radio broadcast exist.[1]

The following tracks were reworked into later releases by Jarre, which indicates despite the physical destruction of both the original mould for the vinyl, and the master tape utilized for the pressing, the multi-tracks and digital assets (such as samples) used for the album were left intact:

  • Musique pour Supermarché Part II: used in "Fifth Rendez-Vous (Part III)" on Rendez-vous (1986 initial pressings have the aforementioned track listed as track 10 - otherwise it is incorporated to track 5, "Fifth Rendez-vous" on later pressings of the CD, beginning around 4:07 and concluding with the transition into "Ron's Piece".)
  • Musique pour Supermarché Part IV: used as "Blah Blah Café" on Zoolook (1984).
  • Musique pour Supermarché Part VI: used in the second half of "Diva" on Zoolook (1984) with additional vocals recorded by Laurie Anderson. The bass line used in "Musique pour Supermarché Part VI" has noticeable differences compared to the later piece, and a few of the audible voice samples recorded on the Fairlight would be removed from the "Zoolook" mix.

An excerpt of Part I, labelled as being such, appears for the first time on an official release as part of the Planet Jarre retrospective album, released in September 2018.

Due to the comparatively low quality of bootlegs created from the original AM radio broadcast, several Internet users have also attempted to entirely recreate the original album.[3]

Track listing
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Musique pour Supermarché Overture"4:09
2."Musique pour Supermarché Part I"2:18
3."Musique pour Supermarché Part II"3:29
4."Musique pour Supermarché Part III"2:17
5."Musique pour Supermarché Part IV"3:52
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Musique pour Supermarché Part V"5:54
2."Musique pour Supermarché Part VI"3:59
3."Musique pour Supermarché Part VII"3:51

The above timing is approximate, calculated from bootleg recordings, as the album has never officially been released internationally.

See also

References
  1. "The toughest used vinyl 'get' in the world: Jean Michel Jarre's 'Music for Supermarkets'". Dangerous Minds. 29 May 2014.
  2. "Vieon – Music for Supermarkets". analoguetrash.
  3. YouTube release of multiple fan version
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