Album review

Air

The Electro Odd Couple from Versailles

Paris 

01/06/2001 - 

Three years after the phenomenal success of their debut album Moon Safari (which sold a staggering 1 million copies!) and a year after the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's movie The Virgin Suicides, Air are back in the music news with a second album entitled 10.000 Hz Legend. We caught up with France's hippest electro duo and found them witty, sharp-talking – and far from modest!

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin greeted the world's media in a Paris photo studio earlier this week for a day's non-stop promotion of their new album. As radio and TV journalists from the four corners of the world fought for air time with the duo, we limbered up with our questions. But when Nicolas Godin stomped into the room a few minutes later, he cut me short with an unexpected, contemptuous opening. "Hang on! Don't say anything for a minute. Let me guess the questions you're going to ask. 'Why's the new album called 10.000 Hz Legend? How did we end up working with Beck? Is our second album just that little bit darker than the first?" Somewhat taken aback, I meekly replied, "Actually, I was hoping to be a bit more original than that!"
So there we are, with me established as the nice accommodating journalist and Air as the petulantly pedantic pop stars, we can get the interview off the ground. Opening gambit: After having scored a phenomenal hit with Moon Safari and then The Virgin Suicides, how does it feel to be releasing a new album on the international music scene? Are you feverishly excited or horribly anxious?
"Well, we've been around long enough now – bringing out an album's a bit routine for us these days!" says Nicolas, causing an outbreak of smirking and general hilarity. "We've done our work as far as the new album's concerned and the whole thing's out of our hands now. As for the question of releasing 10.000 Hz Legend internationally, we had to. You can't restrict yourself to a national framework these days. New albums have to come out on the international market!"

Air certainly don't suffer from the age-old French inferiority complex when it comes to music. Far from limiting themselves to their home ground, the duo are confidently poised for world domination – in fact, as we speak, several hundred cassettes of 10.000 Hz Legend are being shipped off to India! "The thing is, we see ourselves first and foremost as musicians not 'French' musicians," says Nicolas, "And all the more so as French music doesn't particularly evoke anything special for us. Let's face it, it's always been mediocre – apart from Gainsbourg, of course!"
As far as musical influences go, Air's new album flees French clichés and taps into the 70s for inspiration (as they did on all their earlier work). Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon period appears to have been a guiding influence, although Nicolas is tetchily unforthcoming on the subject. "Well, that was obviously the case on Virgin Suicides," he snaps, "But I don't think there's anything on the new album. If there is, it certainly wasn't intentional!"


The two former schoolfriends from Versailles actually go way beyond a simple rehash of the music they listened to in their 70s childhood. But the heavy psychedelic influences on 10.000 Hz Legend are guaranteed to transport listeners back to that time zone. "OK, I think it's fair to say there's a lot of psychedelia going on on the new album," says Jean-Benoît, "but it's never gratuitous. We really tried to sit down and distil meaning into the music and lyrics. When we tried the pieces out on the piano, we wanted them to sound bizarre – not discordant or anything, just bizarre!"
Did the duo do anything weird and wonderful in the studio to conjure up such a bizarre atmosphere? What exactly went on in the studio when they were making the new album, in fact? "Not much really!" admits Jean-Benoît, "We're actually pretty autarkic. We pay a lot of attention to what's going on around us in the studio though - and we don't mind nicking ideas from our mates! The thing is, musicians often come up with really good ideas but they don't know how to develop them. We do! Having said that, though, I really hope other people nick ideas from us and sample and copy our music. That would be the greatest compliment of all!"

Stuck-up bastards?

Has success gone to Air's collective head, we ask ourselves? Apparently so, but you can't deny the fact that the French duo have made a definitive impact on the electronic music scene, sweeping the board with their impeccable melodies, silky-smooth arrangements and infallible sense of aesthetics. Nevertheless, had the duo actually expected to score such a phenomenal international hit with their debut album? "Yes, of course," quips Nicolas, "We knew we'd produced a really quality album. I mean, Moon Safari's not exactly shit, is it? I actually thought our sales would be even higher!"
Hang on a minute, aren't we getting just a little bit pretentious here? "Yes, I'd say we are," quips Jean-Benoît, "But you have to believe in yourself and have a lot of ambition if you want to succeed in this business. If you're not pretentious, you end up getting lost in the crowd! What's more, given what the French music scene's come up with to date, if you don't believe in your talent, it's all over before you start. Yes, Air have come up with a totally new sound and yes, we're going to do our utmost to impose it on radio and TV. I'm not saying what we do is always top quality, but one thing's for sure – and that is that our sound is new and original!"
No beating about the bush there, then! "Actually, it's all just a bit of role play really," admits Jean-Benoît suddenly letting his mask drop for a moment, "The thing is, in the course of our interviews we've come to develop these characters for ourselves. Because when it comes down to it, we'd rather come across as a pair of stuck-up bastards rather than have people think we're totally bland. I'd rather people had a strong emotional reaction to us than none at all. After all, if you can't be loved, be hated – it's not so bad!"

In fact, while the duo are adulated and idolised abroad, they keep their feet firmly on the ground in France. "I'd say we're known but not recognised," says Nicolas, "And that's the way we like it. That's what I love about electronic music, in fact. I love the fact it's not like pop music and there's a real anti star-system going on. It's great. I can walk down the street in France without anyone recognising me. That can be weird too – it makes our success seem totally unreal sometimes."
"Actually, I think one of the reasons behind our success abroad," confesses Jean-Benoît, "is that we speak pretty bad English and that gives us a certain charm. We don't always use the right words in English interviews and that makes our answers sound a lot more poetic - or psychedelic even! A bit like the new album really … Another reason for our success across the Channel is that the English are really into pop and they're always on the look-out for anything that sounds a bit strange and out of the ordinary!"
Strange, psychedelic and definitely out of the ordinary, Air's new album might well be described as an electronic UFO freshly landed on the planet Earth. Musically astute listeners may well remark certain similarities with another major French electro release this year (Daft Punk's Discovery, in case you're wondering). But, in our humble opinion, 10.000 hz Legend is the album that will age the better of the two. One thing's for sure, we haven't heard the last of "the stuck-up bastards" from Versailles yet!

French article: Willy Richert
Translation: Julie Street

Homepage photo courtesy of Ora Ito / Source

New album: 10.000 Hz Legend Ref 473113 - Virgin France /Source Records