Deserted Palace

In 1971 Francis Dreyfus was commissioned to produce soundscapes for public spaces — airports, libraries — and handed the job to a young composer he had recently signed. Jarre was then working at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, and what came back was fifteen short electronic pieces, written to be used: library music for television, advertising and film.

The instruments were two. An EMS VCS3 and a Farfisa organ, with rhythms built by hand. Jarre has called it a crazy album, totally homemade, assembled between his student room and after-hours sessions at the GRM studios — a pirate record, in his words.

The range is wider than the format suggests. Classical structures sit beside pure novelty: "Music Box Concerto", "Bridge of Promises" and "A Love Theme for Gargoyles" against "Exasperated Frog", "The Abominable Snowman" and "Poltergeist Party". "Wind Swept Canyon" is the longest piece and the clearest ancestor of the space music to come.

Released in 1972 on Sam Fox Records in the United States, where electronic music had a readier audience than in Europe. For decades it circulated mainly as a bootleg; several tracks appeared officially on Essentials & Rarities in 2011, and Transversales issued the first official vinyl reissue in 2025, restored from the Sam Fox library pressing.