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AIR 'Le Voyage Dans La Lune'

Limited Edition Box Set

The Vinyl Factory / EMI

Availability: In Stock

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£ 200 Add to Cart

Product Details:

Limited to only 300 copies worldwide, each hand signed by AIR, this beautiful collectors box set edition of the band's critically acclaimed new album contains exclusive artwork, four 180-gram vinyl records and a DVD of the classic silent film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, that inspired its creation.

Released in 1902, this legendary 16-minute film by Georges Méliès is widely considered one of the most important works in film history, and the very first to use science fiction as its theme, incorporating special effects that were very state-of-the art at the turn of the 19th century.  It was loosely based on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells The First Men In The Moon, and was recently brought to millions around the world at the heart of Martin Scorcese's Oscar-winning feature film Hugo.

In 1993, a long-lost hand-painted color print, the only one known to exist, was rediscovered in Spain. It was in desperate condition, and so in 1999, two foundations—Fondation Groupama Gan and Fondation Technicolor—began the highly delicate preservation work of rescuing and digitizing the elements of the film. After many years of painstaking work, magnificent restoration of the film was ready to be launched, allowing a 21st century audience to rediscover this major cinematic work.

Eager to put a contemporary spin on this classic silent film and reach a new audience, the foundations decided to approach AIR’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack, an enormous honor for French musicians, considering the film’s place in the canon of French cinema. With the aim of premiering at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, AIR set themselves a tight deadline, locking their studio doors and working around the clock to serve these classic images with brave new sounds. Complete with a new soundtrack by AIR, the film debuted at Cannes on May 11, 2011 to immediate and unanimous acclaim.


Spurred on by their work on this short movie, AIR decided to develop the project into a full album inspired by the film. Expanding the original musical themes beyond cinematic instrumentals, the album also features the vocal talents of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House). The band’s lunar fascinations have been evident since the beginning of their career with the release of the seminal 1998 classic Moon Safari. Now in 2012 Nicolas and JB have returned to explore the further regions of their very unique musical “space.”


Nicolas explains: "'A Trip to the Moon' is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound 'handmade,' knocked together’, a bit like Méliès' special effects. Everything is played live … like Méliès' film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art."

 

Product Details:

* Bespoke cloth covered box with AIR logo foiled on front cover
* 4 x 180-gram heavyweight vinyl records, containing the AIR album
* 4 x bespoke record sleeves with screen printed UV finish, each featuring exclusive artwork of the hand-painted coloured still frames taken from the film 
* Exclusive art print of iconic Le Voyage Dans La Lune moon image taken from the hand-painted coloured still film frame, hand numbered and individually signed by Nicholas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel of AIR
* DVD of the restored 15-minute film, housed in bespoke pochette with artwork taken from Le Voyage Dans La Lune

 

Available to order now.

 



Georges Méliès, the pioneering silent filmmaker celebrated in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, made one of the first sci-fi films in 1902, Le Voyage Dans La Lune. Over a century later his French compatriots Air were commissioned to write a soundtrack for a new print of it; this album takes the 15-minute score and expands it into an atmospheric album. Kitsch space music and groovy psychedelia give it an escapist swing; taut basslines evoke action sequences as the astronauts battle spear-waving lunar savages. Ominous drums and jungle noises hint at the film’s not-so-innocent context: it was made in the aftermath of one of the most bloody episodes in French colonial history, an expedition to West Africa that caused a scandal in Paris for the severity of its atrocities.
Financial Times

Having successfully premiered the work at last year's Cannes Film Festival, they then set about expanding its 14 minutes to album length, without betraying its mood. Rumbling tympani and portentous keyboard parts reflect the dramatic endeavour, while electronic bleeps float weightlessly across tracks like "Seven Stars", and staccato buzzing synth lines lend and nervous energy to "Sonic Armada". "Parade" is like a prog-rock funfair, while the spacious chord-washes and sinister synth gamelan give "Cosmic Trip" the feel of an early Pink Floyd space-scape from A Saucerful of Secrets. Pleasingly, it's all comically cosmic, as befits the host movie. 
The Independent

Le Voyage Dans La Lune still feels like a sci-fi adventure while striking a delicate balance between scene setting atmospherics and catchy melodies...captivates with its sense of atmosphere, drama and melodic capabilities.
Drowned In Sound