The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), the world’s leading event for electronic music, is pleased to welcome French music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre to its 19th edition (15 to 19 October). Jarre will be interviewed by own Armin!

Jean-Michel Jarre elevated the electronic music genre to new peaks of popularity as early as the late 70’s and 80’s with 80 million albums sold worldwide, to date. His approach to melodic, instrumental electronic pop music still sounds fresh today. With his astonishing live shows he played huge concerts to millions of fans in iconic sites such as London’s Docklands and the Pyramids of Giza, combining state-of-the-art sounds and lights to create a thoroughly immersive experience that pre-dated today’s huge, technically sophisticated EDM raves.

He remains a very busy man, having taken on the presidency of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, where he campaigns tirelessly for copyright protection, as well as continuing his recording career, and designing high-end speakers for Jarre Technologies.

During the ADE Jean-Michel Jarre will be interviewed by Armin, as part of ADE’s extensive conference program.

”Jean-Michel was one of the electronic music pioneers at the point where it was not called ‘trance’ or ‘EDM’ yet. In the beginning the synthesizer was seen by many as a ‘devil’ instrument and its music was not particularly called ‘music’. With albums like ‘Oxygen’, ‘Equinox’ and ‘Zoolook’ Jean-Michel reached a wide audience and opened many doors for synthesizer music. This device has been at the basis of what we now call dance. Additionally Jarre is also a pioneer when it comes to large audience performances and techniques such as video projection, says Armin van Buuren.

The Amsterdam Dance Event takes place from 15 to 19 October and is organized by the Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation, an initiative of Buma.