AIR FUTURE CHANCES Air are on their way back. 'Pocket Symphony' could well be the album to make or break the French duo but Jean-Benoit remains confident in their work. As he explains, they haven't recorded their masterpiece just yet. "I actually listened to 'Moon Safari' recently." Jean-Benoit Dunckel, one half of Air, is on the phone from somewhere in France. Sitting in a crowded café, above the noise of customers and clanging cutlery, he tries his best to chat about the album that launched his career. I can barely hear what he's saying but we manage. "It was about ten days ago at a dinner. A friend of mine asked 'Do you mind if I put this on?' and I said I didn't. I still can't react to it properly because I'm listening to every detail. But there was something magical about that album." With his production partner Nicolas Godin, Dunckel has set up a life-long journey with Air. With literally dozens of pale imitators trying to jump on the bandwagon over the years, it's something of a miracle that the pair are still going from strength to strength. Not only that, but Dunckel tells me that Air have a "gameplan" for themselves for the future. It's a rather simple goal: perfection. "We want to create more beauty. I don't feel proud of what I did in the past and we want to reach the point in our career where we do our masterpiece. One day, I would want to do the one incredibly beautiful track. You know, the one track people could refer to. I don't know whether we have already done it so we are always searching for that track. That search is not finished at all. It's like when you try to win a race, you try to do the best that you can." With a new album on their hands, this year could see a new resurgence for Air. After the largely forgotten 'Talkie Walkie' was released in 2004, many thought that the end of Air might have come sooner rather than later. But with 'Pocket Symphony', the duo's fifth album proper (or sixth or seventh, counting collaborations), Dunckel and Godin once again employed the services of legendary producer Nigel Godrich. "We try to make every album different when we're recording as Air. Because Air has become somewhat of an entity, we try and have a lot of modern sounds in our work and try to make it improve each time. We try to not imitate or copy our early work. We're always trying to go somewhere else. We really admire Nigel because he's really talented. Nigel uses Air to know more about music and we use Nigel to learn more about recording. We love learning about the production side of things. In a way, we are thinking more and more of a way to integrate with Nigel Godrich and the way he does things." Considering the first single, 'Once Upon A Time', is the most exciting track they've done in years and the album features the sounds of Japanese floor harps and Jarvis Cocker, Dunckel's confidence in the future of Air might just be warranted. And that's what Air is all about - the future. Regardless of how many millions of people have played 'All I Need' at their wedding or been frustrated by the computer voice of 'How Does It Make You Feel?', Dunckel and Godin don't make a habit of looking backwards. "We don't listen to our earlier work. I have to admit, I don't remember some of the titles of the tracks that we've done. You know why? Because I don't want to be judged by what we've done in the past." So, apart from death and taxes, Dunckel can only confirm that the future of Air will consist of more soundtrack work with Sofia Coppola and a continuing search for that perfect song. On a strange note, this type of future makes him a little sad. "Air will be an endless journey. We've been around for so long that I'm a little afraid it's the only thing I can do now. I mean, ten years ago I could maybe paint a picture or something else. But by recording all this music and having this life, I don't feel connected to normal life anymore. I can't go back. I'll be a musician until I die and that's really sad. If I wanted to do anything else, it's too late." David Rayfield March 5 is the worldwide release date for 'Pocket Symphony' - the album is out via Virgin / EMI. back to top ^

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