Air + The Big Pink | Tracks

“Seven Stars”
Air

One of the hippest filmmakers going is one who died 74 years ago. Georges Méliès figures heavily in Scorsese’s Hugo. Now penthouse psych-pop band Air has named its new record after his 1902 film, Le Voyage dans la lune. The Parisian duo recently provided a new score for the silent short. Enchanted by the sci-fi wonder, Air expanded the work into a concept album. Like Méliès, the two are trying to whip up special effects on primitive gear. This is Air at its most organic. Drums roll like a racing heart on a launchpad. Though we never quite take off. A grand piano pounds behind twinkling synthesizers. Victoria Legrand of Beach House huskily sighs—she’s just a hair more masculine than Air’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel. “Seven Stars” brings to mind sailing in space. It’s also a brand of Japanese cigarette. Knowing these guys, that’s a likely inspiration. Their precisely measured music is like watching smoke drift off a cancer stick dangling from Gainsbourg’s lips.