Hanging With Air
The French band Air brings the rhythm and echoes of Paris.
May 24, 2007 -- So this is what those Pink Floyd boys meant when they told us to breathe, breathe in the air. Breathe in deep, indeed. It could be the only way to wrap your head around the indie-tronica lullabies of the Parisian pop geniuses Air.
The band, a two-man crew, consists of John-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin. Their sound however, is more difficult to name.
"Our music is like a Frisbee, but it never lands," Godin tells ABC News Now's "The Mix." It's as good an explanation as any.Dunckel is less esoteric — or maybe more?
"Air is an entity," he says. "It is not about our faces or characters. It is its other universe." "If a cabdriver asked me what type of music do you play? Well …" Godin pauses to consider the answer. Then he laughs. "I have no idea."
Air first spun Frisbee-like into the mainstream in 1998. That's when the video for "Sexy Boy," a top single off Air's masterpiece "Moon Safari" first made the rounds on MTV Europe.
The star of the music video, the "sexy boy" as it were, was actually a stuffed monkey. At times small and friendly, due for a hug and a peck, he turns with the crush of a menacing bass into a monster stalking the New York City skyline. Statement of intent — or four minutes of indie pop posing? You decide.
The video's not hard to find. Images of Godin and Dunkel's faces are much better hidden. They don't appear on any of their album covers. Instead, they sign their work with a moody swagger. Haute-hop we'll call it, for lack of a less-chic term. It was this strange mix. Think fairy tales cut with Kafka, which first drew the attention of Sofia Coppola.
Beguiled by the boys' tunes, Coppola commissioned Air to record the soundtrack for her film "The Virgin Suicides."
"She has a very original way of making soundtracks," Godin says. "She likes little bits of everything. So we don't know what it's like to score everything. We do music for special scenes."
Air wrote and recorded each of the 13 tracks on the soundtrack. The movie was is an indie-house noir hit and bought Coppola her own credibility.
