This is what the “Exit” sounds like. The music video features flashes of computer screens with “Matrix”- like arrays of numbers, mixed with fast-paced surveillance camera footage, satellite dishes and urban landscapes.
But unlike many other electronic music mixes, written mainly to please the crowd on the dance floor, “Exit” also carries an important message to society.
It was made by an unlikely duo – the French techno legend Jean Michel Jarre and the former NSA contractor-turned-online privacy activist Edward Snowden. Part of Snowden’s interview, his message to the world, can be heard in the song:
Rights are not just individual. They are collective. And what may not have value to you today may have value to the entire population, entire people, our entire way of life tomorrow. And if you don’t stand up for it – then who will?
Jean Michel Jarre is known for his electronic music albums that sold millions of copies. In 1979 the French techno guru performed before a live audience of one million at Paris’ Place de la Concorde. Edward Snowden also has a huge army of followers – almost 2.5 million people follow him on Twitter.
It was Jean Michel Jarre’s idea to meet with the US whistleblower in Moscow.
In his interview to the Post Magazine Jarre said he was impressed with the personal sacrifices Snowden has made while revealing the scale of global surveillance programs. He also added that he wants to find a way to incorporate Snowden “visually” into his 2016 tour:
“I’m going to the States to promote the project and I know you have so many crazy people saying this guy is a traitor and he deserves to be hanged. I think it’s so, so unfair. It’s interesting just to shift things, to be able to give a slightly different light on somebody I really consider one of the most courageous men I have met.”
Even though Edward Snowden’s activism recently inspired writers and Hollywood movie producers, it was probably his techno music collaboration with Jarre that looked the most surprising: with the powerful visuals and hard-hitting monologue, it looks like Jarre and Snowden did quite well in delivering their message.
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