Music For Supermarkets is unique amongst Jean Michel Jarre's albums. It was released in 1983, slotting neatly between the live release of The Concerts In China (1982) and Zoolook (1984). What makes it unique is that only one copy was ever produced, and, since the masters were deliberately destroyed by Jarre, there will only ever be one copy.
Like much of Jarre's work, Music For Supermarkets is an instrumental album performed on synthesizers. It comprises eight parts, named in the traditional Jarre style as 'Music For Supermarkets 1' through to 'Music For Supermarkets 8'.
It's interesting to note how Music For Supermarkets came about. In 1983, Jarre composed music for an art exhibition based around the theme of supermarkets. Since the work from the exhibition was unique and would be auctioned off following the event, Jarre decided that his music should also be part of this. It is also widely reported that the act of destroying the album was to voice Jarre's distaste and disregard for the music business. And so one vinyl copy of Music For Supermarkets was pressed, and all masters were destroyed. The auction, which took place at 10pm on the 6th of July, 1983 at Hotel Drouot, Paris, raised 69,000 French francs. (It's difficult to translate that into an appropriate figure nowadays. One of the Jarre sheet music books I own gives it a value, at the time, of £10,000. Wikipedia goes for 10,500 euros, while Google currently converts £10,000 as 12,000 euros.)
The original owner remained anonymous for some time. Eventually, it was revealed to be a monsieur Gerard, although since then the album has been resold twice. Its current location is a mystery. However, it is still possible to hear it...
Firstly, be aware that Jarre is fond of re-using themes. Never one to waste a good song, the Fifth Rendez-Vous features sections from part 3. Zoolook contains the song Blah-Blah Café, which is part 5, and the second part of the song Diva (from the same album) makes use of part 7. The Music For Supermarkets version does not feature Laurie Anderson.
The second way yields the full album, but in very low quality. Some of the more popular torrent services will no doubt help you out here, as Radio Luxembourg, shortly after the sale of the album, broadcast the work in its entirety. Jarre prefaced the broadcast with exhortations to pirate the work, and people have. Bootleg recordings are available, if you know where to look, and mp3s float about on the internet as mp3s are wont to do. But, oh - the quality! Radio Luxembourg was an AM station, and really, that makes this album one for just the keenest of Jarre fans.
Thirdly, you can find a number of cover versions. Jarre fans have taken it upon themselves to produce versions of the album as close as possible to the original. They vary in quality, and how easy they are to find. But really, if you're hunting out a rare album for an artist you're really interested in, such cover versions are little more than a sideline. What we really all hanker for is the mysterious owner to rip the whole thing and post it on the Pirate Bay! Or perhaps that would deplete the price of this little nest-egg a little too much...
The front cover features a shopping trolley, bisected by a very thin strip of Jarre. I can't help but notice that Wikipedia seems to have come across scans of the interior of the album, too. They feature a set of twelve photographs showing the creation and subsequent destruction of the album, with one final space for the owner to stick a picture of themself, proudly holding the rarest album in the world.
Sources: Wikipedia, Sensi.org, The Music Of Jean-Michel Jarre (songbook), Google.