AIR: electronic progressive born in France

If you think that French alt.proggers Air aren’t worth the drawbridge that Rick Wakeman rides across, think again. Not only do they perform in cloaks, they sound like they belong on Planet Prog.
But if you were to believe the hype, you’d think that the duo exist in dreaded coffee-table ego-space, next to Massive Attack, Morcheeba and Zero 7. True, 1998’s debut album, Moon Safari, is a chill-out album par excellence. 

But instead of releasing a traditionally-styled follow-up to their breakthrough set, Nicolas Godin and J.B. Dunckel issued a largely instrumental soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s debut film, The Teenage Suicides. It wasn’t just prog, but goth-prog to boot. 

Next came 10,000Hz Legend, another seismic shift in the band’s mission statement, which saw them using synthesizers more explicitly — and even unattractively — than hitherto. Beck guests on one track and, at points, it sounds very 1972 again, while ‘People In The City’ is a stuttering, pulsating synth-wash with robo-feminine vocals. How Alan Parsons Project can you get?

Air then became embroiled in another soundtrack (Lost In Translation) and made what many saw as a return to coffee-tablism (Talkie Walkie). But under the surface, the prog-rocking remains. ‘Venus’ (named after the planet, for prog’s sake) is moody, pacy rocking, while the duo ape 10cc on ‘Run’, with its multi-tracked husky vocals. They even enlist the help of the latterday Alan Parsons on production duties — Nigel Godrich; the man who took Radiohead from the realms of wannabe Britpoppers to lauded politician-botherers. 

Air are one of the many tendrils of alt. prog’s ever-burgeoning tree, and much more than just the BJH with a French twist that they’ve been labelled. The mere fact that they are Gallic even adds to their prog mystique.

"Sing Sang Sung" is a track from their (not so prog) album "Love 2" (2009).

DISCOGRAPHY:

Studio Albums:

Moon Safari (1998)

10 000 Hz Legend (2001)

Talkie Walkie (2004)

Pocket Symphony (2007)

Love 2 (2009)

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (2012)

Soundtrack albums:

The Virgin Suicides (2000)

Music for Museum (2014)

Extended plays: Premiers Symptômes (1997)

Collaborative albums: City Reading (Tre Storie Western) (2003)