Last year’s album of collaborations with the great and good of electronic music saw Jean-Michel Jarre pair up with Air, Vince Clark, Tangerine Dream and Moby. On this companion piece he teams up with the likes of Jeff Mills, the Orb, Yello and Sebastien Tellier, and again seems energised and inspired by the collaborative process. Brick England is dourly tuneful Pet Shop Boys, Peaches is sneeringly assertive on What You Want, and Here For You, featuring Gary Numan, has a real whiff of synthpop circa 1980 – but all are afloat on flowing patterns that bear the unmistakable stamp of Jarre. These Creatures, featuring Julia Holter, has an echo of Laurie Anderson’s O Superman in its “ah ah ah” backing. But the real curveball comes on the album’s centrepiece, Exit, on which Edward Snowden discusses the importance of privacy in a digital world (“If you don’t stand up for it, then who will?”) against a dizzying techno backdrop.
