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A molecule of air is invisible and weightless and evasive to the hands grasp. Like the early singles of French band Air. Translucent and dreamlike and dispersed into the world between '95 and '97. Virtually impossible to get hold of. Until now. Premiers Symptomes is a collection of the gentle, fluid, langour of Air's first, perfectly formed, pieces. Featuring seven pre-Moon Safari moments in the evolution of Air. It includes "Modular," their musical gift to Le Corbusier's hypothetical Modular Man with its effervescent scrolls of Rhodes, like oxygen bubbles rising through water. "Casanova 70," a soothing , beatless ode to filmic sensualism. For "Californie": "We were imagining a man in the desert in California" says Jean Benoit Dunckel, "He was walking a lot and and he wanted to drink and he had no water. He is very thirsty and near to dying, suddenly he sees the long wide sea in front of him and he is very happy." Produced before they had a studio, in Nicolas Godin's compact apartment, somewhere on a steep street in old Paris, these eloquent tracks articulate the innocence of Air's beginnings. "Premiers Symtomes was a sort of experimentation," muses JB. "It was a special, special time. When we made this record it was with very little equipment and we were completely unknown." With the release of the album Moon Safari in January '98, everything changed. Selling 800,000 copies worldwide, it established Air as THE defining arthouse meets lounge-chic soundtrack stylists of the late '90s. The singles "Sexy Boy" and "Kelly Watch The Stars" propelled the duo into the Top 20. Songs like "All I Need" and "You Make It Easy" introduced us to the tender vocal talent of Beth Hirsch. A critically acclaimed world tour followed. But as international celebrity beckoned, they refused to comply. Returning instead to their laboratory-studio to craft further expeditions into intergalactic soundworld. "We are dreamers, we want to keep some celebrity for later." JB explains. It was only natural that Air, the band who scored the music to the sweetest movies of your imagination, should create a real cinematic soundtrack. When Sofia Coppola heard Moon Safari, they got a call. Nicolas and JB subsequently spent two months producing the score for her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides twisted tale of teenage macabre. "It's a very intense film and the music is very like that, very dark. Dark but deep." JB views it as a marked evolution of the Air aesthetic. "Moon Safari was like a teenager sound, now it's more like the sound of men. I think we have to be extreme, to push ourselves further, to be more dirty, to be more real." The Virgin Suicides will be the first release on their new Record Makers label, scheduled for release in early 2000. New artists and producers unearthed by Air are due to field future releases. Flowing easily from the pastoral naive of Premiers Symtomes, to the pop poignancy of Moon Safari, to the millennial noir of The Virgin Suicides: Air have proved themselves far beyond notions of a louche French sound that's easily defined. And collaborating with live musicians forced them to reassess the way they worked on tour and they continue to stuff their rustic studio with rare keyboards, delay boxes and drum kits to explore sound further. It's important to remember how Air began. Meeting at college in Versailles through fellow French producer Alex Gopher. Playing indie rock together in a band named Orange. Jean Benoit, who'd studied classical piano at The Conservatoire, went on to become a physics teacher and Nicolas an architect. Now, at 29, with worldwide success, they have found themselves returning to their origins. "I've tried to discover new styles of classical music," says JB, "I try to work on my piano and not be too far from it. I take my inspiration from it. It is my secret." Treasure the moments from Air's early epoch on Premiers Symptomes. For they are the carefree imaginings of a band whose dreams are all about to come true. Tracks like "J'ai Dormi Sous L'Eau," slow, hypnotic, warm and muted in soundrange are like the amniotic sleep that happens in water before emergence and birth. And you can hear the beginnings of Moon Safari in these multi layered instrumentals: delicate patterns that overlap, pause and begin anew, like "Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi," worked on with intensity over days and nights, written in three parts. "We are interested in harmonies and the emotions of the chords and the melodies," affirms JB. You can hear. So before you move forward, take a nostalgic look back. Back to some of the most subtle and beautiful singles to hit record stores in recent years. You may never find the originals of Modular and Casanova 70 now, but on Premiers Symtomes, they're within easy grasp. |
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