MUSIC REVIEW: AIR - 'LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE'

Back on the Moon, Years After Their 'Safari,' to Soundtrack a Classic Film

By: Andrew Shaw

February 7, 2012

(Astralwerks) This week, the highly acclaimed French electronica duo, Air, released their seventh studio album, La Voyage Dans La Lune (trans. A Trip To The Moon). The album was inspired by the legendary film of the same name.

La Voyage Dans La Lune is a classic silent film, originally released in 1902. It was made by French director Georges Méliés and is considered one of the most significant films in movie history. It weighs in at 16 minutes long, it was the very first sci-fi film, and it used the sharpest of cutting-edge effects to slice through all technological restrictions of the era. Visually enigmatic, historically significant, and cultishly adored, the film, since its release, has been referenced and revered throughout art history and pop culture. In 1993, the only known color print of the movie, once considered lost forever, was rediscovered and painstakingly reconstructed. The two organizations responsible for the film's restoration – Foundation Groupa Gan and Foundation Technicolor – decided that it was time to reintroduce the film to modern movie lovers, and so called in Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicoloas Godin, aka Air, with the commission of spinning modern tunes into a new soundtrack.

Air is the perfect outfit for the project, much beloved in their native France, known for their retro-futuristic approach to electronica; creating atmosphere as much as literal sense, it seemed to make sense to make them musical protectors of the Franco-sensibility of cinematically ancient modernism. Previous work on The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette soundtracks also established them as expert interpreters of filmic emotions. Here, on La Voyage Dans La Lune, retaining a very particular integrity was essential; this was film, but it is also something bigger.

Working to a tight deadline designed to meet with the film’s scheduled screening at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Air reportedly locked themselves in a studio and remained there until the tunes were complete.  With this release comes an expanded set of tunes, longer than the film's 16 minutes, and what’s on offer is a kind of rebooted, extended journey – as if we don’t just trip to the moon, but also orbit the thing, and our own planet, before returning.

Of course, much of what happens here is dictated by Méliés’ vision; Air simply express the tensions, excitements, release, and wonder of the original tale, but their signatures still permeate the entire collection, proving what an excellent marriage this project is. The best of all parties is brought to the (lunar) surface and is celebrated with a timeless style. The atmosphere has a kind of refreshingly haphazard feel, and there’s a sense that the live recordings were captured to retain essence, if not usual perfection of electronica. Measures are sometimes ‘off’ and a little grainy -- very much like the film stock; they wonderfully lack high-definition, but they’re certainly high-charisma.

Released as a full album with accompanying DVD or digital download of the colorized film, the expanded project features the voices of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand from Beach House. The addition of vocals to an otherwise otherworldly collection is a smart move; we find ourselves rooted back in humanity, after so much mystery and newness, it’s nice to find an umbilical chord back to a personable scale.

Despite the miniature degrees of surrealism that Air so obviously enjoys about the project, there are moments of exceptionally grounded funk. “Sonic Armada” sounds like a jam session in which the musicians forget themselves. It’s a dizzying, deliciously breathless escapade that arrives like something we weren’t quite ready for on 1998’s Moon Safari. If the sense of apprehension in timpani-heavy “Astronomic Club” had you wondering if this was a journey you were psychologically prepared to take, this is the track that rewards bravery.

For fans of Air, this is an obvious must-have release. For film fans or art history students, this latest release of the movie and updated modern tunes is yet another point of reference in the life of a piece of art which still retains its magic. Aside from the academic interest in this project, there is something of the human condition that is also detailed. Wonder is never lost, the sense of exploration should be encouraged, and a certain reverence for art and ideals of quality should be preserved and incorporated into our modern world, when some people have become lamentably acclimatized to space travel.

Standout Tracks: “Sonic Armada,” “Moon Fever,” “Cosmic Trip”

For Fans Of: Daft Punk, Big Pauper, Tycho