Air | |
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Air performing in England, 2010
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Background information | |
Origin | Versailles, France |
Genres | Downtempo, space rock, electronica |
Years active | 1995–present |
Labels | Astralwerks/EMI France |
Associated acts | Orange, Phoenix |
Website | www |
Members |
Nicolas Godin Jean-Benoît Dunckel |
Air (stylized as AIR on their album covers) is a music duo from Versailles, France, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel.
Air's critically acclaimed debut album, Moon Safari, including the track "Sexy Boy", was an international success in 1998. Its follow-up, The Virgin Suicides, was the score to Sofia Coppola's first movie of the same name. The band has since released the albums 10 000 Hz Legend, Everybody Hertz, Talkie Walkie, Pocket Symphony, Love 2 and Le voyage dans la lune.
Nicolas Godin studied architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles, and Jean-Benoît Dunckel studied mathematics, before forming a band in 1995. Before founding Air (erroneously considered as an acronym of Amour, Imagination, Rêve, which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream), Dunckel and Godin played together in the band Orange with others such as Alex Gopher, Xavier Jamaux and Jean de Reydellet. The former two subsequently contributed to remixes of tracks recorded by Air.
Initially, Godin worked alone, recording a demo with members of Funkadelic as his backing band before releasing his first entirely solo effort, "Modular Mix", which featured production by Étienne de Crécy.