Air: Le Voyage Dans La Lune

     

      In 1902, La Voyage Dans La Lune, a silent film about a trip to the moon, was released to the masses.  Now, 110 years later, Air decided to colorize and remaster the short film, and lend their talents to create an appropriate soundtrack.   Air's downtempo, spaced out M.O. is the perfect rocket fuel to facilitate the trip to the moon.
      Air did a wonderful job tweaking their sound to fit the movie.  Where many artists will pick and choose songs to score a soundtrack, Air clearly composed the songs with the movie in mind.  Air thickened their sound, using beefed up layering to empower the silent film.  La Voyage Dans De Lune shows that, even though Air has created and set the bar for lounge music, they are not afraid to experiment with their sound.  The ambitiousness of the band is tangible throughout the album.
    A few issuea arise with this new album.  Air released a full length, albeit very short, album to a 15 minute silent film.  The result is a tendency for songs to meander on before sputtering out of gas.  The songs fail to hold their strength for their entire length.  Conversely, being a soundtrack, this album floats from one sonic theme to another, and lacks the typical Air focus and cohesion.  While listeners will certainly applaud Le Voyage Dans La Lune's experimentation, its tread on multiple emotions and sounds will leave the heavy Air fan seeking more a more grounded thesis.  La Voyage Dans La Lune is a great album, and will certainly be a notable 2012 release.  In the catalog of Air albums, however, this will fall short of a classic.

*Fans of the Smashing Pumpkins will enjoy watching the film Le Voyage Dans La Lune,  as it serves as the premise of their 1996 Breakthrough video masterpiece, Tonight, Tonight.