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Interview
by Jesu Dega
23-1-2004
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| Air: 'Talkie Walkie' & ten steps 2 h... |
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Resonating Air noir
Air - The French musical charmers cast another spell
Air’s new album ‘Talkie Walkie’ starts in an electro pop-romantic mood with ‘Venus’, sounding equally wistful and grandiose, before they travel much broader areas that are distantly related to their debut album, ‘Moon Safari’. The cinema-sized ‘Run’, the playful quasi-classical piece ‘Mike Mills’, the poptastically funky whistle-along ‘Alpha Beta Gaga’…
Then, the psyche-electropop of ‘Surfin’ On A Rocket’, the elegiac beauty that is ‘Biologocial’, ‘Alone In Kyoto’ - their contribution to Sofia Coppola‘s film ‘Lost In Translation’… All the ingredients we love Air for are present and yet remaining - diverse and stubbornly looking for brave new ways of expressing them.
Thus, guests vocalists are gone to be replaced by (mainly) Jean Benoit Dunckel’s plaintive crooning and the rich strings of Michael Colombier (arranger of choice to Serge Gainsbourg, Barbra Streisand and Madonna) and mixed by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich to add a bit of an edge. Still, their cannon of a couple of studio albums and as many soundtracks, retains its Frenchness as your favoured fromage et vin.
There is a lot of scope to JB Dunckel and Nicolas Godin’s concoction that is a heady mix of nostalgia, minimalism, futurism, strings, orchestral swoops… Their music has always been an aesthetic statement and not merely a functional piece of work. Do they still try to obey the same principals?
“We’ve always been seen as futurists,” JB Dunckel is a more eager talker, “but we simply want to make music that is atmospheric as well as cinematic and pleasant to listen to. We like old things and old instruments because they have some warmth that gives music some different quality.”
Sound trek sans fronter
Air add more crumbs of hope to lift us above the routine cultural consumption that, hopefully, can appear from any direction. Just over five years ago the French combo showed that no nation should be dismissed on its previous record. ‘Moon Safari’ contained enough ingenuity to atone for decades of Charles Aznavours and Johnny Hollidays. This year’s model, ‘Talkie Walkie’, confirms that they are a force sans frontier capable of making another album their compatriots Daft Punk could only wish for!
JB and Nicolas met at a college in Versailles and had a stint in an indie rock band, Orange; JB, who’d studied piano at The Conservatoire, went to become a physics teacher and Godin an architect. But the music-bug had struck and the two regained the ‘bug’ that resulted in a worldwide success of ‘Moon Safari’. Probably not difficult to turn one’s knowledge into an advantage.
“No, no,” JB protests with all his Gallic passion, “it is the opposite. You have to unlearn everything to work in this medium. It is not based on the same principals as the classical music and that’s something I find very intriguing. It is a big thrill to work the way you are not taught to.”
“Pop music,” Godin finally chips in knowingly, “is more like architecture; you go through different stages to get to the final result. People ask us what music we make and I don’t know; it is music… Well, I know it is not dance music and I’m surprised we had success in clubs. Our songs tend to be slower and led by melody and that’s not what’s played in clubs.”
He should know as the two made their earliest recording, while employed in their respective jobs, in Nicolas’s bijou flat; these recordings were issued under the ‘Premiers Symptomes’ title.
Immortal muscle
Having made music that was in search of visuals, Sofia (daughter of Francis Ford) Coppola asked them to create the soundtrack for her excellent directorial debut ‘The Virgin Suicides’. It was appropriately dark music to compliment the movie’s teenage macabre topic. That experience obviously pointed the way to the ‘10,000 Hertz Legend’ that presented darker but also deeper sounds. To continue their international success…
“The reason more and more French music,” JB offers an informed view, “is that more Britons go on holidays abroad and with the opening of Channel Tunnel more people travel. That and, probably, we learnt how to make some interesting music. I’m not talking about Air, but about French people who can make music that has international pop appeal.”
The release of the new album was somewhat blighted with their label (Virgin/EMI) taking time to make its collective mind up about re-signing them and the two principle members were quite outspoken about the lack of “a more long-term vision of things.”
Well, as it turns out - they do have and, it’s been confirmed, Air have happily inked another contract with the British major label. And it is just because this two are the real music lovers and not fame-chasers who, after the ‘Moon Safari’ sucess, withdrew from the impending celebrity status into their sonic laboratory.
“We are dreamers,” JB explains with a shrug, “and we want to keep on searching for new and exciting things. We can save some celebrity for later.”
The Frenchmen are so humble that they don’t even mention composing music for a ballet, when quizzed on other projects. Entitled ‘Near Life Experience’, it is due to run at the Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, from 20-22 May. Air have written entirely new music for the project.
The ballet, by French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, is “an exploration of different physical states linked to transcendental experiences”, according to the Theatre info. [Tickets are £10-£30 on www.saddlerswells.com or 08707 333 900.]
Jesu Dega
23-5-2005
Air’s ‘Talkie Walkie’ is released 26 January 2004 on Virgin
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