On March 31, 2026, Instagram surprised us with an unexpected announcement: Jean-Michel Jarre, the legendary French musician, was about to release a new book titled Machines. The post by Sonny Marr (of Marr Literary), the literary agent initially involved, can be seen on her Instagram account, where she enthusiastically shared the news. She was invited to develop the project by Alistair Norbury, a senior executive at BMG (where he is President of Repertoire & Marketing for the UK, Europe and APAC).
Sonny Marr met with Jarre in Paris to work on the book project, but she would eventually join Marjacq Scripts, and the book rights would be acquired by Thames & Hudson through Tristan de Lancey (publisher and creative director).
Jean-Michel Jarre’s book Machines: A History of Electronic Music (in French: Machines : Histoire de la musique électronique) was officially announced in late March/early April 2026 by Thames & Hudson (with the French edition published by Éditions du Chêne). Its publication date is October 8, 2026 (UK/international), and around October 14 for the French edition.
It is a large illustrated book (368 pages) centered on Jarre’s personal collection of more than 80 electronic instruments, with contributions from Pete Townshend, Armin van Buuren, Gary Numan, Gillian Gilbert, among others.
The books are available for pre-order on Amazon.fr:
And from other retailers.
Additional sources: