Air

Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin met as architecture students in Versailles, a Parisian suburb whose name is synonymous with opulence, so it’s fitting that their work together as Air would be as sumptuously appointed and meticulously crafted as a palace chamber decked out in gold leaf and plush velvet. Its early EPs slotted loosely between the era’s downtempo and French house. But with Air’s 1998 debut LP, Moon Safari, the duo set itself apart with its space-age fixations and blissfully atmospheric touch. Air’s cinematic inclinations have made the two members key collaborators of director Sofia Coppola—they scored 2000’s The Virgin Suicides and contributed to other films of hers—and yielded unusual projects like 2012’s Le voyage dans la lune, an accompaniment to a legendary silent film from 1902. In 2021, Air celebrated the 20th anniversary of 10 000 Hz Legend with a spatialised version for Dolby Atmos. “That is what we wanted to do in the beginning,” Dunckel told Apple Music. “We want you to listen to this kind of space everywhere.”