untitled

The ARP 2500, built from 1970 through the mid-70's, was ARP's first product. A monophonic analog modular synthesizer equipped with a set of sliding matrix switches above each module. These were the primary method of interconnecting modules. There were also rows of 1/8" miniphone jacks at the end of each row of matrix switches, to interconnect rows of switches. The main 2500 cabinet could hold 12 modules, and optional wing cabinets could each hold 6. The matrix switch interconnection scheme allowed any module's output to connect to any other module's input, unlike the patch cords of competitive units from Moog and Buchla which could obscure control knobs and associated markings, but it had the disadvantage of greater cross-talk.

Although the 2500 proved to be a reliable and user-friendly machine, it was not commercially successful, selling approximately 100 units. A collection of the 2500s most popular modules was packaged into a single, non-modular unit as the ARP 2600, leaving out the matrix switching and more esoteric functions.

The 2500s most notable usage was in the motion picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind to communicate with aliens. The ARP technician sent to install the unit, Phil Dodds, was cast as the musician. The unit featured in the film consisted of a fully loaded main unit, two fully loaded wing cabinets and dual keyboards in a custom case.

Jean Michel André Jarre (born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.

Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents, and trained on the piano. From an early age he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including those of street performers, jazz musicians, and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales.

His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Équinoxe, and in 1979 Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events, and he is now perhaps as well known as a performer as a musician.