Tuesday, November 29th 2011

News:  Air

Air Return To The Moon With ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune’

By Fernando Scoczynski Filho

It’s been quite a while since we last posted any news about French electronic duo Air – and the term “French electronic duo” has only grown more popular since then. Having last released their album Love 2 in 2009, the group has just announced a new record for 2011, in the form of an expanded soundtrack to the George Méliès film Le Voyage Dans La Lune (or A Trip To The Moon in the US).

As the press release states, the 14-minute silent film from 1902 “is widely considered one of the most important works in film history, and the very first to use science fiction as its theme.” After a painstaking restoration of the only hand-colored print of the movie to survive, Air were approached to compose a modern soundtrack for it – an invitation they immediately accepted, being fans of the film’s importance to their country. While the restored A Trip To The Moon premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the duo was inspired enough to write a full-length LP based on the concept of the film.

Entitled Le Voyage Dans La Lune, the record is an appropriate return to the lunar theme, considering that the band’s first release was entitled Moon Safari. Nicolas Godin, one half of the duo, said about the new album: ”A Trip to the Moon is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound ‘handmade,’ knocked together, a bit like Méliès’ special effects. Everything is played live. We used the mellotron for the sound effects, an ancestor of the synthesizer which you could find in all the English theatres: like Méliès’ film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art.” It will also feature vocals by Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand, from the group Beach House.

The tracklisting to Le Voyage Dans La Lune is as follows:

1. Astronomic Club
2. Seven Stars
3. Retour Sur Terre
4. Parade
5. Moon Fever
6. Sonic Armada
7. Who Am I Know?
8. Décollage
9. Cosmic Trip
10. Homme Lune
11. Lava

The album will be released on February 7th, 2012, with a special release also containing a DVD/digital copy of the restored film. And for those unfamiliar with the film, it was the main source of inspiration to Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight Tonight video.