Thursday, August 27, 2009

Air - La Femme d'Argent

Air is an amazing French duo known for their ambient electronic music featuring lots of synth effects. A lot of people might recognize their track "Alone In Kyoto" from the Lost In Translation soundtrack.

La Femme d'Argent is my favorite track of theirs because it's so well-textured. Have a listen (the video is an unofficial fan-made video but it's set to video footage of a streetcar going down the street in 1905 San Francisco, one year before a massive earthquake - it's an interesting video on its own merits):



I'm especially in love with this track because when I saw them live in 2004, they did an extended version of it with a mind-blowing 10 minute-long guitar solo that culminated in a rolling crescendo. The combination of the music, the synchronized lighting effects and the smoke from the fog machine literally left me and everybody else in the crowd in a trance. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

I highly recommend checking out their debut album, Moon Safari, because it's easily their best work.

4 comments: