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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZAIR (French Pop duo)French electro-pop duo. Jean-Benoît Dunckel from Versaille and Nicolas Godin from nearby Le Chesnay combined with others in a group called Orange, but the demo tapes failed to impress, so Godin went back to the drawing board and created the instumental 'Modular', released by Virgin on a compilation called Source Lab vol1 '95 which became a collector's item. 'Modular' was also picked up by British producer James Lavalle's trip-hop label Mo'Wax '96; Godin had chosen the name Air, and Dunckel came back on board for another maxi-single 'Casanova 70' mid-'96, and a third, 'le Soleil est près de moi' a year later, included on a 5-track mini album Premiers symptômes. Their stuff was soon considered super-trendy everywhere; unusually for a French group, they were even more successful outside France, so good at their high-tech creation that artists like Neneh Cherry and Depeche Mode wanted to work with them. They worked with 70-year-old techno wizard and Moog master Jean-Jacques Perry on tracks such as 'Remember' and 'Cosmic Bird'. Their first proper album was Moon Safari, recorded by David Whitaker at Abbey Road in London and released in 40 countries '98: ten tracks, mostly smooth instrumentals, also included two vocals by American Beth Hirsch, and Air's own voices on 'Sexy Boy', which Beck liked so much he made a remix of it. In latter '98 they toured eight countries including the USA. Sofia Coppola asked them to do the soundtrack for her film The Virgin Suicides 2000, and their next album was 10,000Hz Legend 2001 (with a vocal by Beck on 'The Vagabond'). Further releases included a remix album Everybody herz 2002 with loads of guest artists, City Reading (Tre Storie Western) 2003 and Talkie Walkie 2004. |