Jean-Benoît Dunckel (who hails from the very bourgeois town of Versailles, near Paris) and Nicolas Godin (who hails from neighbouring Le Chesnay) were both born in 1969. The pair, who was enthusiastic music fans from an early age, became friends in the playground of the Lycée Jules Ferry, where they were both at school in the early 80's. Jean-Benoît and Nicolas soon went on to develop a passion for electro music and before long the duo went on to form the group Orange, teaming up with a couple of other musicians who would make a major name for themselves on the 90's French music scene - Etienne de Crécy (of Motorbass fame) and Alex Gopher.
The foursome soon set to work in a makeshift home studio, recording a series of demo tapes, which they hiked around the major French labels. Unfortunately, Orange's first demo tapes failed to impress and no-one offered the group a recording deal. Nicolas was particularly discouraged by this setback and left Orange soon afterwards, to go off and study architecture for a few years. However, Nicolas did not abandon his music career entirely - far from it, he would continue to spend every moment of his spare time locked away in his studio, experimenting with synthesisers. Nicolas also began composing and before long he had amassed enough material for a new demo tape. In 1995 he contacted Virgin, putting forward an instrumental track entitled "Modulor". The label was so impressed by the track that they decided to include it on an up-coming compilation album "Source Lab vol1". The Virgin compilation, which featured a mix of mainly instrumental tracks ranging from techno and trip hop to pop and easy listening, proved to be a huge hit with music fans when it was released in November 95. (Indeed, "Source Lab vol1" soon became a sought-after collector's item).
Casanova
"Modulor" - a tribute to Nicolas's architect hero Le Corbusier - stood out from the other tracks on "Source Lab vol1" and it was soon picked up on by the hip British record producer James Lavelle. Indeed, Lavelle liked Nicolas's contribution so much that he released "Modulor" on his famous trip hop label, Mo'wax, in August 1996. Nicolas (who was already recording under the name Air by this point) soon went on to cause a bit of a stir on the U.K. music scene. In fact, "Modulor" went on to score a big hit with British music fans - and its catchy electro beats were soon heard on the BBC!
Meanwhile, back in France, Nicolas had met up with Jean-Benoît Dunckel, his old musical accomplice from the Orange days. After the failure of the band's first demo tapes, Jean-Benoît had gone in to education, embarking upon a career as a maths teacher. But he had not abandoned his earlier musical ambitions completely and continued to do stints as a pianist in a local bar every now and then. Jean-Benoît had received a far more classical musical training than Nicolas (spending several years in piano classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Versailles) and it was he who would add the melodic touch to Air when he and Nicolas decided to team up as a duo.
In the summer of 96 Air returned to the studio to begin work on a second maxi single, released in July of that year. "Casanova 70" - as the title suggests - was heavily influenced by 70's French "variété" sounds (from Michel Polnareff to Jo Dassin!). It also owed a great debt to early French electro hits such as "Pop Corn". Air's catchy retro-futurist style, which turned even the naffest old French pop tunes into the ultimate cool, proved an instant hit with British music fans. Indeed, the duo's "French Touch" was considered extremely hip on the other side of the Channel.
Cosmic Bird
Riding high on the wave of this success, Air returned to the studio the following year, releasing their third maxi single, "le Soleil est près de moi", in July 97. This catchy new single - purely instrumental like Air's first two singles - was featured on the duo's mini 5-track album, "Premiers symptômes", which was released around the same time.
By this stage Air had started to cause a serious stir on both sides of the Channel and, following a series of rapturous reviews in the music press, a number of major international stars (such as Neneh Cherry and Depeche Mode) were soon clamouring to work with the whizzkids of French electro-pop. Air also went on to team up with Jean-Jacques Perry, a veteran of the French electro music scene. 70-year-old Perrey, renowned for his avant-garde performances on the Moog (the dinosaur of the synthesiser family), was only too happy to work with the young duo and the trio spent many fruitful sessions in the studio together, recording tracks such as "Remember" and "Cosmic Bird".
On 15 April 1997 Nicolas and Jean-Benoît locked themselves away in a studio in Versailles to begin work on their debut album. Two months later they emerged with the highly accomplished "Moon Safari" - released in no less than 40 different countries (!) in January 98. The 10-track album was mainly a mix of smooth electro-pop instrumentals, fusing moody Moog sounds with melodic strings (recorded in the legendary Abbey Road studios with the no less legendary David Whitaker). "Moon Safari" also included three songs - "All I Need" and "You Make It Easy" (featuring vocals by the talented young American signer Beth Hirsch) and the hit single "Sexy Boy" (which featured vocals by Air themselves).
Air's debut album scored an instant hit with the music press. Indeed, critics were soon falling over themselves to praise its light, poppy melodies, its excellent production and its retro-yet-oh-so-contemporary sound. Needless to say, "Moon Safari" soon went rocketing to the top of the U.K. charts and the "French Touch" soon spread to the U.S.A., taking the American charts by storm. "Sexy Boy", the first single release from the album, sold extremely well (especially outside France) and soon went on to score a major hit in club-land. Indeed, "Sexy Boy" reached semi cult status when hip young American musician Beck stepped in to make his own remix of the song.
"Kelly Watch The Stars", the second single release from "Moon Safari", proved just as successful when it was released in May 98. Needless to say, the world was soon in the grip of Air-mania and the young French duo was given the Red Carpet treatment everywhere they went. Air's popularity soon reached such heights that the legendary French pop diva Françoise Hardy agreed to record one of the duo's songs ("Jeanne"). And in February 98 Air was invited to appear on the famous British TV music show Top of the Pops (The ultimate accolade for a French pop group!).
International stars
Bowing to popular demand, Air embarked upon a major international tour in the autumn of 98, kicking their concert dates off in Seattle (the American capital of grunge!) on 11 October. The tour proved phenomenally successful in the States - and what was really surprising was that the capacity audiences who turned out to see the duo were mainly made up of American fans rather than Air's French compatriots!
After bringing the house down at eight venues in the U.S.A., Air flew home on 27 October - and promptly kicked off the European leg of their tour. The duo played gigs in no less than 8 different countries. And they caused a major stir in Paris when they performed at La Cigale on 7 November.
On 20 February 1999 Air triumphed at the Victoires de la Musique (the French Music Awards), winning the award for Best Techno/Dance Album of the Year for their best-selling album "Moon Safari". Meanwhile, the duo’s album sales soon went on to top the 900,000 mark and – an amazing feat for a French band - 9/10 of these album sales were outside France! Later that year Air, recognised as one of the leading bands in the new French electro movement, were contacted by the American director Sofia Coppola who invited the duo to record the soundtrack for her new film "The Virgin Suicides" (due for release in April 2000). Given the increasing media buzz around the French duo, Air’s record company (a division of Virgin) went on to re-release "Premiers symptomes" on CD, vinyl and cassette in August ’99. Meanwhile, " le Soleil est près de moi" – a track which Air had originally recorded in 1997 – was remixed by Money Mark, Buffalo Daughter and Heinrich Muller.
Air becomes a legend
Three years after their best-selling debut album, "Moon Safari", Air released their long-awaited follow-up, "10,000Hz Legend". Released in May 2001, the album confirmed the French duo's international reputation and proved a big hit with music fans worldwide. Critics were more divided on the subject of Air's new album, however. While many praised the French duo's musical erudition and deft fusion touch, others dismissed "10,000Hz Legend" as a pretentious work and complained that it was all style and no substance.
Criticisms aside, there are no denying that "10,000Hz Legend" features an impressive list of guest stars such as the American singer Beck (who supplies vocals on the haunting track "The Vagabond"). As far as musical influences go, Air's second album taps into a whole range of sounds that influenced Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel's youth – namely, disco, folk and full-on psychedelia.
Air played one live gig in Paris just before the onset of summer 2001 and, in the autumn, the duo's French fans were treated to an extensive tour. In February 2002 a remix album was released. Following close upon 10,000 Hz. "Everybody hertz" also featured a long list of famous guest artists, such as Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk, Mr Oizo, and Modjo, to name but a few.
Talkie-Walkie
2003 turned out to be a year of musical experimentation for Air. In March, the Versailles duo released "City reading (tre storie western)", an 8-track album which featured Italian author Alessandro Barrico reading passages from his book "City." Then, in May, Jean-Benoît and Nicolas branched out in a new direction, composing music for a ballet by the French-born Albanian choreographer Angelin Prejocaj ("Near Life Experience.)" Meanwhile, Air also found time for a spot of live performance. On 22 April 2003, the duo joined Californian pop agitator Beck on stage for two songs when he appeared in concert at Le Grand Rex in Paris.
At the beginning of 2004, Air’s eagerly-awaited third album, "Talkie-Walkie," finally hit record stores. Recorded in collaboration with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and arranger Michel Colombier, “Talkie Walkie” was hailed as a sensitive but mature pop masterpiece. Following the release of the album, Jean-Benoît and Nicolas hit the road for a major French and international tour which included dates across Japan, the U.S. and the U.K.
Thanks to RFI Musique
