Air - Le Voyage Dans La Lune (+DVD)

Air have always had a filmic feel to their music, my favourite of their releases is still their debut EP - ’Premiers Symptômes’, which has beatifully warm 70’s analogue sensibilities. Air of course did the score for Sofia Coppola’s ’The Virgin Suicides’ film (2000), so apart from writing cinematic-style music, they already have a pedigree in soundtracks.

I might be a little biased, as I have loved the ’Le Voyage Dans La Lune’ film for a long time - for which Air’s quirky, analogue-sounding - fully live instrumentation soundtrack is absolutely perfect. I love their live percussion - tom tom, kettle and snare drums on several tracks. ’Astronomic Club’, ’Parade’,’Sonic Armada’ and ’Lava’ are the standout cuts alongside the Victoria Legrand sung ’Seven Stars’.

Some of the rest are simply mood pieces or short interludes, but I’m not sure the ’Au Revoir Simone’ featured ’Who Am I Now?’ really fits in - it’s a little tuneless and not really thematically in keeping with the rest of the album - sounds a litle like an offcut that was just slotted in as a last minute filler. Their are obvious Air touches on most tracks,and even a little Ennio Morricone on last track Lava, but this is not a typical Air album.

For me it works best as twin-pack with the restored version Georges Méliès film - it does not work quite as well as a stand-alone effort, and in many ways is more of an Air curio or collector’s item. Fans of Air and Georges Méliès should be well satisfied though - does not quite get a top ranking - album’s too short really, not sufficiently strong on its own merits - and contains that one oddity in the form of ’Who Am I Now?’.

Tracklisting:

1. Astronomic Club 3:13
2. Seven Stars - Feat. Victorial Legrand 4:23
3. Retour Sur Terre 0:33
4. Parade 2:33
5. Moon Fever 3:34
6. Sonic Armada 5:05
7. Who Am I Now? - Feat. Au Revoir Simone 3:01
8. Décollage 1:38
9. Cosmic Trip 4:10
10. Homme Lune 0:18
11. Lava 2:53