Album review

Air

Talkie Walkie

Paris 

30/01/2004 - 

So here it is, the album electro fans have been awaiting with bated breath! Air, the hip Versailles duo who took the international charts by storm with their debut album Moon Safari in 1998, are back in the spotlight with Talkie Walkie, a gossamer-light opus scored with filmic overtones.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin touched down on the music scene in ‘98 with their debut offering Moon Safari, an album which garnered rave reviews from international critics - and found itself rather hastily classified as part of the French Touch (a media-invented catchphrase invented to cover dance music across the board). Yet Dunckel and Godin’s luminous compositions stood out from their contemporaries’ from the start, Moon Safari sounding way more ambitious and sophisticated than other albums of the day. Air’s debut offering went on to score a huge hit with both the public and the critics, racking up impressive sales of over three million worldwide. Within months of the album’s release, the hip electro double act from the chic Parisian suburb of Versailles acquired cult status in the electro world.

The buzz around Air soon reached beyond French borders and the Versailles duo found themselves in great demand. Sofia Coppola (daughter of Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola) approached the electro twosome in 2000, commissioning them to write the soundtrack for her first film, Virgin Suicides. Air experimented with a darker melancholic style on their first film venture, coming up with an atmospheric tour de force which increased their burgeoning popularity when it was released as an album. Air soon returned to the studio to start work on their official second album, 10 000 HZ Legend, released in 2001. Intoxicated by their new star status Dunckel and Godin pulled out the big guns on 10 000 HZ Legend, recruiting a dream team of international pop stars. (The guest list included Beck on vocals and harmonica and Jason Falkner on guitar and bass). However, the tracks on Air’s second prog-rock inspired album veered between the bombastic and the frankly uninspired.

Caught up in the whirlwind of the music business, Dunckel and Godin soon found themselves upon a non-stop tour-and-promotion schedule which whizzed them round the planet at lightning speed. In 2002 they resurfaced in the charts with Everybody Hertz (a compilation featuring remixes of 10 000 HZ Legend by everyone from The Neptunes to Mr Oizo). Then, leaving some time for the hype to die down, the duo branched out in search of new inspiration in 2003, composing music to accompany the Italian writer Alessandro Barrico’s spoken-word tales (City Reading/Tre Storie Western) and the score for Angelin Preljocaj’s ballet Near Life Experience (currently on tour).

Talkie Walkie

Having taken time out to learn from past mistakes, the indefatigable French duo have now come storming back into the music news with Talkie Walkie. This third studio album will immediately strike listeners as more intimate and revealing than its predecessor. Air have honed their musical style down to its bare essentials on their third album and Talkie Walkie sounds all the better for it. From the opening notes of Venus, the duo launch their haunting otherworldly soundscapes shot through with Moog synthesisers and Fender Rhodes. The tracks on the new album range from the dreamy Mike Mills (a tribute to the man whose artwork appeared on their first album cover) to the mysterious and moody Another Day (with its reminiscences of Virgin Suicides). But Talkie Walkie also includes its fair share of limpid pop songs (highlights being Cherry Blossom Girl and Surfing On A Rocket). And the other bonus is that all tracks on the album are underscored with elegant string arrangements by Michel Colombier (famed for his work with Gainsbourg and Madonna).

Dunckel and Godin confirm their fascination with film on Talkie Walkie (and it should be mentioned in passing that the work of French film music composer François de Roubaix has exerted an obvious influence on the duo’s compositions to date). The compelling whistle-along tones of Alpha Beta Gaga (apparently destined for Madonna’s last album but turned down at the last minute) pay a masterly tribute to Ennio Morricone. And the album closes with Alone In Kyoto, a haunting moment of reverie included on the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola’s new film Lost In Translation. Talkie Walkie stands as the complete antithesis of 10 000 HZ Legend and boasts no major name stars on the guestlist (although Jason Falkner and Beck’s drummer Joey Waronker do put in a brief appearance on Surfing On A Rocket).

Interestingly enough, for the first time in their career Godin and Dunckel have chosen to perform their own vocals, singing on seven out of ten tracks on their new album. Following the guidance of their new producer Nigel Godrich (famous for his work with Beck, Radiohead and Travis), the duo have narrowed their focus down to concise and efficient verse-chorus songs and at the same time broadened their instrumental horizons to include banjo-picking on certain tracks.

The cover of Talkie Walkie finds Godin and Dunckel posing suavely in front of a table of mathematical formulas, looking for all the world like two sleekly-groomed scientists in search of the perfect pop song: Judging by the contents of this serenely dreamy new album, Air have hit upon that perfect formula. One thing’s for sure, the Versailles duo can certainly pride themselves on having delivered the first good album of 2004!

Air Talkie Walkie (Virgin) 2004

Marion Guilbaud
Translation : Julie Street