Geometry Of Love

Jarre's fifteenth studio album began as a commission.

Jean-Roch asked him to write the soundtrack for his VIP Room nightclub — music for the chill-out area, meant to be played in the background rather than listened to head-on. Jarre took the brief literally, and the constraint shapes the record.

The mood sits close to Sessions 2000, but the palette is modern ambient, chillout and electronica rather than jazz: brooding synths, spare piano, slow beats. What lifts it is the melancholy underneath the calm — "Near Djaina" is the clearest example, a quiet piano piece and one of the saddest things in his catalogue, with "Pleasure Principle" opening the album on a similarly moody note.

The release was almost private. The CD was originally intended as a run of 2,000 copies, sold at the VIP Room itself, before a general edition followed. It then spent years out of print outside digital, until a remastered CD reissue in 2018. "Velvet Road" reworks "Children of Space", an unreleased piece written for Rendez-Vous in Space.

Released October 2003.