Jean-Michel Jarre live in Italy to celebrate 50 years of "Oxygène"

Jean-Michel Jarre, one of the great pioneers of electronic music, has chosen Jazz Open Modena for the only Italian date of his new tour. On July 18, for the festival's grand finale, the French artist will bring to Piazza Roma an immersive show blending electronic music, technology and audiovisual experimentation through monumental lasers, architectural mapping, giant screens, virtual reality, three-dimensional audio and generative visuals. A visionary composer, performer and producer, Jarre has spent decades redefining the relationship between sound, image and live performance. Famous for his spectacular productions staged in iconic locations such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Sahara or Tiananmen Square, he will turn the heart of Modena into an all-encompassing environment in which music, lights, images and architecture merge into a single collective sensory experience.

Every Jarre concert is conceived in close relationship with the space that hosts it: synths, electronic sequences, percussion and audiovisual effects are woven into a synchronized structure that engages the entire urban setting. From large-scale outdoor productions to international clubs, the French artist has progressively redefined the concept of live spectacle, consistently pursuing tools capable of making electronic music "visible". A prime example of this is his famous laser harp, introduced back in the early Eighties and which has since become the very symbol of his performance aesthetic: green beams of light interrupted by the artist's hands trigger notes and MIDI signals, turning physical gesture into sound the audience can perceive.
The Modena date also arrives in the midst of celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of "Oxygène", the 1976 album that revolutionized instrumental electronic music with its atmospheric, pioneering imagination, selling over 18 million copies worldwide. To this day, that record continues to influence producers, performers and creatives across generations. Fifty years on from its release, "Oxygène" stands not merely as a celebratory anniversary but as the symbol of an artistic quest still projected toward the future: from analog modular synthesizers to 360-degree immersive audio, all the way to experiments with artificial intelligence and virtual-reality concerts with digital avatars.

Among the most radical examples of this quest is "Welcome To The Other Side", a performance staged during the pandemic in a virtual Notre-Dame: Jarre was actually playing in a studio while his avatar performed inside a digital cathedral in front of viewers connected from all over the world.
One of the first artists to explore the possibilities of generative artificial intelligence applied to both sound and image, Jarre continues to champion a vision in which technology does not replace human creativity but expands its potential, defining AI as "Augmented Imagination". According to the French artist, artificial intelligence could help give rise to new musical languages and new art forms, while still remaining a tool within a broader technological evolution of music. The creative uniqueness of artists such as Rosalía, Miles Davis or Billie Eilish, Jarre notes, remains tied to the singularity of human personality and cannot be artificially replicated.

The European tour will touch down at some of the most significant events on the international music scene. Before the Modena date on July 18, Jarre will kick things off on July 5 in Ibiza for the fiftieth anniversary of the legendary club Amnesia Ibiza. He will then take the stage for a special performance at Amsterdam Dance Event 2026, which for its thirtieth anniversary has chosen him as the guest of honor for the opening night at AFAS Live on October 21.
On October 8, 2026, "Machines By Jean-Michel Jarre: A History Of Electronic Music" will also be released, a book published by Thames & Hudson tracing the history of electronic music through the instruments that shaped its evolution. Based on the artist's personal collection of more than eighty musical instruments, the book also gathers contributions from central figures of the international electronic scene and spans over a century of technological innovation, covering legendary synthesizers, rare instruments and devices that helped shape new sonic worlds and entire musical movements.

The grand finale on July 18 with Jarre will close out a week of concerts that, from July 13 to 18, will turn Modena into a huge open-air stage. Also on the bill are performances by Diana Krall and Gregory Porter on July 13, Moby on July 14, Parov Stelar and Meute on July 15, Jamie Cullum and Joss Stone on July 16, and finally Luca Carboni on July 17.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google