Air will bring to Cascais the tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Moon Safari, the iconic album with which they debuted in 1998. This album established them as a cult band and influenced many others in various electronic subgenres. The French duo is one of the main highlights of Ageas Cooljazz, in an edition where the festival also celebrates a milestone – its 20th anniversary. The concert is scheduled for July 9th, the same day Marwan and Lana Gasparøtti will perform (tickets cost between 30€ and 35€). In light of this special return to Portugal, we interviewed Nicolas Godin, who forms Air with Jean-Benoît Dunckel.
With this tour, you are celebrating the 25th anniversary of *Moon Safari*. Obviously, it was a major milestone for you. Did this album completely change your lives?
Yes, it changed everything. Let's say that black turned to white [laughs]. Before *Moon Safari*, I was a student, I had never performed a concert in my life, I knew nothing about the music industry, and suddenly we had made this huge album. It was a big shock to discover all of this and go on tour, start giving interviews to the press... Because I was more of a studio guy. It was a huge life change.
Was it something you expected when the album was finished?
I think I was feeling something... On the night we made "Sexy Boy", I said to myself: this is it, this is what's going to change everything. The album was released four or five months later, but during that period I already knew we were going to have great success, that it would be incredible. You could feel the energy in the studio, in the speakers, you could sense that something was happening that was bigger than us.
Was there a moment early on that made you realise, after the release, that the album would go far and become as significant as it has?
No, we were just discovering things. We were a group of friends. We were still in a small, familiar world amid this big milestone. Our agent was a friend from Versailles, other artists like Daft Punk and Phoenix were our friends, so we were still integrated into a small group of people who were friends and trusted each other a lot. It was like a team. And it wasn't very commercial music, so it was very surprising. It was a good time when you could make slightly special music and still have commercial success. It was a good era for the music world because there was space for a middle class like us. You didn't have to be a big star. You could do your own style of music and it was something good. I don't think that exists anymore.
And was that the moment you realised you were going to make music your life?
Yes, for some reason I could feel within myself that I would have inspiration for more albums – and that's what happened. After that, we couldn't stop our musical flow. Maybe until *Pocket Symphony* (2007) or the album with Charlotte Gainsbourg, *5:55* (2007). After that, it became more difficult to create. But until then, it was very smooth and easy.
What inspired you to compose and create Moon Safari? What were your references?
I think it was really the nostalgia of childhood. An innocent time. But it's a paradox because, in making Moon Safari, we knew we were ending our innocence. Moon Safari was the death of our innocence, and yet it is a testament to it. It ended up destroying it, which was very cruel.
It became an acclaimed album, considered a pioneering work that laid the foundations for downtempo and other electronic and ambient music genres. Do you feel that the recognition has been fair over the years?
Yes. At the beginning, sometimes, we were just considered a band with some hype... There were even people who thought we were just DJs. But then it was understood that we were good musicians and composers. Right now, I don't feel misunderstood, but in the beginning, there were moments when I did feel that way. That's why we did the soundtrack for *The Virgin Suicides* [Sofia Coppola's film, 1999] after Moon Safari, with very obscure music, to show that we also had a dark side and weren't just that hotel lounge music.
Was it a matter of time?
The good thing about time is that, when I made Moon Safari, I wanted to build something timeless. And now, over 20 years later, you have that answer. Because it's still refreshing, it has proven to be truly timeless. Time is the confirmation that I made the right decision when I was recording Moon Safari.
And how has it been to play these songs live again, with this special tour?
It's very strange because when you make an album, you start with your best song. But when you do a concert, you usually put your best song at the end. And we, when we go on stage, do exactly the opposite. That is, we start with “La Femme D’Argent,” “Sexy Boy,” or “Kelly Watch The Stars”... The best ones. After that, it becomes very strange [laughs]. But since the album is so iconic, people stay with us until the end, so it's all good.
And, obviously, some of these songs never left your concert setlist; but there are others that have returned now.
Yes, it is very strange to play some of these songs for the first time. It's good because, in the last two tours we did, we were more or less always playing the same setlist, so it was very refreshing to play different songs now.
For artists like you, who have always remained active in search of new sounds and possibilities, how do you feel about nostalgia? Because not everything is necessarily positive when you're more connected to the past. Sometimes there are albums so iconic they can overshadow the rest of the work built over the years.
In the beginning, it was very difficult for me to play the songs as they existed on the album because I was always looking for new experiences and different sounds. It's only in the last five, six, or seven years that I have really accepted the way things were recorded. Only now do I accept that it was done that way and that there is nothing we can change, and it would be stupid to alter things now. But on the first Moon Safari tour, we were playing the tracks in a completely different way. The 1998 tour was quite disappointing because people didn't recognise the songs as they existed on the album. I was told it would be impossible to recreate the album. So, to hell with it, I'll play it differently. But maybe that was a mistake because people were frustrated. Not anymore though. Now we play them with the original arrangements from the recording, but it took me 20 years to accept that these were the best arrangements for the songs.
Are you excited to bring these songs to Cascais?
Of course, I did my studies with a Portuguese friend who now lives in Lisbon but studied with me in Versailles. He’s one of my closest friends, I was with him last week in London, he came to see us at the Royal Albert Hall and he’ll also be in Cascais. And my wife is Brazilian, her family speaks Portuguese, so I’m always with her family... I know Brazil is not Portugal, but there is a connection because of the language. And I also talk to my dog in Portuguese [laughs]. My wife speaks to the dog that way, so I just repeat the same words [laughs].
Ageas Cooljazz, Hipódromo Manuel Possolo, Cascais. Wed, 31st of July. 30€-35€