Jean-Michel Jarre announces book tracing electronic music from 1913 to AI era
Machines: A History of Electronic Music draws on his personal collection of 80+ instruments to tell the history of electronic sound
Jean-Michel Jarre has announced his book, Machines: A History of Electronic Music, published by Thames & Hudson, will be arriving on October 8, 2026.
It covers the full arc of electronic sound, from a 1913 Futurist manifesto by Luigi Russolo through to AI-driven music-making today.
Jarre himself has released 22 studio albums since ‘Oxygène’ in 1976, sold over 85 million records, and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest-ever outdoor concert attendance at 3.5 million.
He also headlined the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
The book is built around Jarre's personal collection of electronic and electroacoustic instruments, one of the largest privately held collections in the world.
“This book is a journey through these machines: those I acquired, those I tamed, those I imagined, and those that shaped my musical language - and which together tell one possible story of today’s music,” he said in the Facebook announcement post.
He adds: “When I step into the studio, they are there, lurking in the shadows, blinking silently. They contain every sound in the world. And like a gold prospector, my obsession is to extract a few nuggets from them. My personal El Dorado.”
More than 80 instruments are documented in detail, from the iconic ARP 2500 modular synthesiser to rare, one-of-a-kind custom builds that never went into production.
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Each entry traces how individual machines shaped the direction of electronic sound, making it a useful reference for producers and collectors alike.
The history Jarre lays out frames electronic music as fundamentally European in origin—rooted in Surrealism, the Bauhaus movement, and early radio experimentation—before expanding into the broader global story.
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The book also weaves in biographical material from Jarre's own career, offering first-hand context that spans decades of hands-on experience with the instruments he writes about.
Contributing voices include Pete Townshend, Armin van Buuren, Gary Numan, and Gillian Gilbert, with more names still to be announced.
Machines: A History of Electronic Music is available for pre-order here.
Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.
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