A Short History of Air (The Band)

When Air released 'Moon Safari' in early 1998 it was hailed by many as the crowning achievement of the 'French Touch', the realization of everything that French house and hip-hop had been working towards since the late eighties when DJ Laurent Garnier left the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester and set up his own club nights in Paris. From that starting point, French dance music got a new lease of life, and after a decade of trying, finally rid itself of the spectre of Europop. In 1991 MC Solaar put out hi debut album 'Qui Seme le Vent Recolte le Tempo', assisted by the production team of Boombass and Zdar. This pair later began recording their own material as Cassius but not before Zdar had teamed up with Etienne de Crecy in Motorbass to release the highly influential 'Pansoul' album on their own Solid label. De Crecy also masterminded the development of long-serving scenesters Alex Gopher, Daft Punk and, ait for it, Air. There's certainly a case to be made for a whole scene going on in Paris but it's important not to lose track of the music when coming up with what appears to be a neat little creative subculture. True, Jean-Beniot Dun-ckel and Nicolas Godin did attend the same college as Etienne De Crecy and formed a band called Orange with Alex Gopher, but while dance culture may have had some influence, it's not central to their musical project.

Orange was a fairly traditional set-up of guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. They were an indie band. You had to listen closely to realize that Dunckel and Godin were experimenting with classical modes of playing, and it's that subtlety that has carried forward Air today. Philosophically they can relate to Mirwais' punk and folk experiments during the 1980s, particularly his time in France's premier punk band Taxi Driver, and this is complimented by a love of music by Brian Eno, Soft Machine and Pink Floyd. It could even be argued that their approach to composition continues a tradition of 'musique concrete', a form of electronic music in France begun by Pierre Henry, the instigator of sampling, back in the 1950s, and developed by industrial bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, who used tape manipulation and looping skills to create montages of sound. Hip-hop artists have followed suit, and the Dust Brothers and Beck are the most recent exponents of built music. The thing is, Air are just as keen to play melodies and incorporate folk styles in their music so that it sounds futuristic and unreal, traditional and organic all at once. It's a balance that requires patience and skill. Playing live is not top of their agenda; composers first, producers second and performers third seems to be their mantra.

Their deby single 'Modular Mix' was released at the end of 1995, co-produced by De Crecy and issued on the Solid label. It's now available on 'Premiers Symptomes' alongside seven other early EP tracks which demonstrate Air's knack fro making the kind of music that never actually existed in the sixties but sounds like it should have done. There's an array of old keyboards and some impressive cameo solos scattered across the collection. The final track, 'Brakes On', is a fantastic. Heavy chugging basslines, pastoral acoustic guitar, 'Penny Lane' trumpet, high end synth solos, an array of samples and any number of whooshes and splooshes. When 'Air Safai' followed in 1998 it brought Air and the burgeoning French scene to an international audience. The relentlessly beautiful 'La Femme D'Argent' gives way to the mathematically precise pop of 'Sexy Boy' and by the third track, 'All I Need', it's clear that Air have taken pop music to the next level. The track puts together the fragile honesty of Beth Hirsch's folky vocal and acoustic guitar, with cold, considered, contrived electronica - the two sides of the long fought authenticity debate settled once and for all. The acoustic real and the electronic hyperreal perfectly synthesized at last. The Chemical Brothers had tried it with Beth Orton a couple of years before on 'Alive Alone'. A good effort yes, but on 'Moon Safari', Air nailed it.