Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: AIR (1996)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
Before they released their chart topping album Moon Safari in 1998, AIR released an EP on Mo’ Wax thanks to a partnership between James Lavelle and AIR’s record label Source.
AIR had started as a solo project in 1995 when Nicolas Godin was asked to contribute to the Source Lab compilation released by Source, a French record label run by Philippe Ascoli. The compilation was released in September 1995 and also featured contributions from La Funk Mob and Motor Bass.
Godin’s contribution, Modulor Mix, was also released as its own 12" alongside two remixes in November 1995, and afterwards he invited his friend Jean-Benoît Dunckel to join AIR, making the group a duo. In mid-1996 Source released the second Source Lab compilation, this time featuring contributions from Daft Punk, and Dimitri From Paris alonside Cassanova 70, the first AIR song to feature Dunckel.
With AIR’s popularity growing, Modulor Mix was licensed to Mo’ Wax in the UK who re-released it with new cover artwork by Will Bankhead. In August 1996 the Mo’ Wax release just missed out on the Top 100 UK Singles Chart, rising to #125, and in October a remix from the Modulor Mix 12" appeared on Mo’ Wax’s Headz 2A compilation, which reached #30 on the UK’s Compilations Chart.
On October 16 1996 AIR signed an album deal with Source and began preparing what would become Moon Safari. The album was recorded between September 1996 and March 1997, with Source meanwhile releasing AIR’s collaboration with Jean-Jacques Perrey, Cosmic Bird, on Source Lab 3, and another single Le Soleil Est Près De Moi, featuring a remix by Dan The Automator.
When the album recording was complete mixing was finalised in October 1997 and AIR expected the album would be released in England by Mo’ Wax, but as they later explained this didn’t quite go to plan. Jean-Benoît Dunckel spoke with Test Pressing in 2016:
…we did Moon Safari and we went to Mo’ Wax to listen to the music and they liked it very much. James Lavelle said ‘yeah, it’s going to be huge, I love it’ and there was an assistant next to him, and he was almost dancing — but he had really a strange face on him, he was smiling, really glad but he was thinking about it. Like, he was not feeling very well but… shutting his mouth like he had something to say. So we had lunch with James then we said goodbye, went downstairs and ordered a taxi and the assistant came with us. He said, “you know, the album is amazing but the label [Mo’ Wax] is bankrupt — don’t sign with us otherwise you’ll spoil your success”. So we said okay. We waited and then…we had a big meeting with Virgin [London].
Virgin convinced AIR to sign with them, and Moon Safari was released in January 1998, entering the UK Album Charts at #6 where it peaked . The album would stay in the Top 100 Album Chart for 28 weeks, with a total of 110 weeks over the next seven years as the album re-entered and exited the chart repeatedly.
In particular the single Sexy Boy was a hit in the UK, reaching #13 in the Singles Chart, and it was promoted with a video directed by Mike Mills. Jean-Benoît Dunckel explained that they liked Mills’ photograph of a monkey on a white background, and they had kept the image in mind when they met to discuss creating a video.
The photograph had been part of Mike Mills’ exhibition Dolce Visualis which had toured the world from 1996–1997. The exhibition was sponsored by Mo’ Wax, and Mills’ photographs were also collected and released by Mo’ Wax in a package called A Visual Sampler which featured the monkey photograph on its cover.
Following Moon Safari, AIR released their soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s film The Virgin Suicides in 2000. The soundtrack reached #14 in the UK Album Charts, and was received well by the press. NME awarded it 8/10, Rolling Stone 3/5, and Muzik 4/5 who closed their review by writing, “So, no ‘Moon Safari Pt II’ yet, but this should keep you more than happy in the meantime.”
AIR’s next album, 2001's 10,000 Hz Legend, came as a surprise to fans, as it moved away from the kitschy “upbeat pop” of Moon Safari, and instead embraced a “darker” sound, not quite the Moon Safari Part II some fans expected. Still, 10,000 Hz Legend reached #7 in the UK Album Charts, their highest performance yet until the release of their next album Talkie Walkie in 2004 which reached #2.
While 10,000 Hz Legend is said to have alienated many of their fans, Talkie Walkie found a common ground between AIR’s previous albums, and the album likewise found greater success. The album did well around the world, as well as the bands homeland, reaching #3 on the French Album Charts, their highest performance in the French Charts yet.
Following Talkie Walkie AIR next collaborated with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her 2006 album 5:55. The album reached #1 on the French Album Charts, and #78 in the UK, receiving fantastic press. But this was not AIR’s first collaborative album, as between 10,000 Hz Legend and Talkie Walkie they collaborated with the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco for City Reading. The album featured new original music by AIR soundtracking Baricco’s reading of his poetry, and is probably their least known release from this period.
In 2007 AIR released their next album Pocket Symphony, which featured contributions from their 5:55 collaborators Neil Hannon and Jarvis Cocker, as well as Charlotte Gainsbourg on a digital only bonus track The Duelist. The album was their best selling in the USA, and reached #40 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, their highest performance yet, while in the UK it reached #22.
For their next album, 2009’s Love 2, AIR made an album featuring no guest artists, and the album has a shift in tone from the moodier Pocket Symphony, with Love 2 often more upbeat. Reviews were moderately positive, and the album charted well in France and the UK. Following Love 2’s release AIR continued to tour, but their follow up releases have mainly consisted of soundtrack work.
AIR followed 1999's The Virgin Suicides soundtrack by scoring Mike Mills 2000 film The Architecture of Reassurance, which featured a song called Crickets. Then in 2006 both Godin and Dunckel appeared briefly in Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoniette, with the soundtrack also featuring an instrumental version of AIR’s Il Secondo Giorno, which had previously appeared on City Reading. 2010 also saw the band contribute a soundtrack to the film Quartier lointain, but outside of one song this hasn’t be released commercially.
AIR’s next album appeared in 2012 with the release of Le Voyage Dans La Lune, a new soundtrack to the 1902 Georges Méliès silent film of the same name. The album was released wideley and entered the charts in many countries, peaking at #57 in the US, #35 in the UK, and #17 in France.
This was followed by a soundtrack to Aksel Hennie’s 2013 film Pioneer which was later given a partial online release, but has not been officially released as a physical album.
Their most recent release was 2014’s limited vinyl only Music For Museum, with only 1000 copies pressed. The album is mostly ambient and completely instrumental bar one song which features vocals by Guillemette Foucard.
In 2016, while discussing 2012’s Le Voyage Dans La Lune, Nicolas Godin talked to Trax about the future of AIR:
I believe that it’s Air’s future, working on projects where we’re useful. Because in our records we’ve already said what we had to say. If today our music can be used for projects like Voyage sur la lune, projects of this scale, we would be pleased…Artistically, Air today wants to renew itself and we want to make an album to the standards of the previous ones. So the group is on stand-by for a record, where there’s less expectations, less desire, and less at stake...
Outside of AIR, both members have released solo albums and contributed to side projects. Sometimes these sound like they could have come from an AIR album, with Jean-Benoît Dunckel’s output in particular sounding very AIR-like, while other times they are quite different.
Jean-Benoît Dunckel has been the most prolific of the duo outside of AIR, releasing his first solo album as Darkel in 2006. In 2018 he released his second solo album H+, this time under his own name, which was followed by 2019’s Mirages album with Jonathan Fitoussi. Outside of these, Dunckel also released an album as Tomorrow’s World with Lou Hayter in 2013, and an album as Starwalker with Bardi Johannsson in 2016.
Jean-Benoît Dunckel has also created several soundtrack scores, and in 2020 he soundtracked the documentary Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and Francois Ozone’s new film Ete 85, which is due for release in September following the films July release in France.
Nicolas Godin on the other hand has been quieter, having released two solo albums since 2015, beginning with the Johann Sebastian Bach inspired Contrepoint. Like Duckel, Godin has also worked on soundtracks, and in 2018 his soundtrack for Au Service De La France was released as an album, and in 2020 Godin’s second solo album Concrete And Glass saw release, with a tour due to resume shortly.
While AIR may currently be on hiatus, both Godin and Dunckel are continuing to release new music, and AIR’s live performances such as their 2017 appearance at the Sydney Opera House are available for everyone to watch online, meaning even if we can’t get out we can at least continue to experience the best of AIR right now.
