French electronic duo AIR will bring audiences to space this fall during a North American tour honoring the 25-year anniversary of their beloved 1998 debut, Moon Safari.
The pair, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, will play the album in its entirety during the 19-date tour, which starts Sept. 25 in Vancouver and ends Oct. 30 in Austin, Texas. See the complete schedule below.
Presale tickets go on sale March 7 at 10 a.m. local time, with general tickets on sale 10 a.m. local time on March 8. The tour will hit largely 2,000- to 5,000-capacity venues and follows AIR’s current sold-out European tour behind the anniversary. The tour announcement follows last Friday’s release of a demo version of Moon Safari‘s “New Stars in the Sky.”
Released in January 1998, the album marked a breakout moment for the electronica genre and earned wide critical acclaim.
While making it, Godin says that “my obsession was to do something timeless, so I focused very hard not to put things in the music production that would date the album. And during the process, many times we felt we were visited by something magic, we felt blessed during some takes; and also when I was listening to the radio, I couldn’t figure how people were making hit singles. It was not in my skills so if you can’t make a hit, the best other option is to make a classic.”
“Before we decided to do this tour, we went to a rehearsal room for three days to see if it was technically possible to perform the entire album,” Godin continues, “and as soon as we started to play the first notes of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ or ‘La Femme d’Argent,’ we had a thrill.”
The tour will not feature Moon Safari vocalist Beth Hirsch, who helped forge the album’s dreamy, sexy atmosphere on “All I Need” and “You Make It Easy.” But Dunckel says the pair has “made some arrangements to deliver the soul of these tracks” through their use of a vocoder. “I think that the new arrangements are working on stage,” he continues. “We feel the singer singing without her singing.”
Reflecting on the album’s legacy, Godin says the soothing nature of the album is another reason it’s endured. “We are extremely blessed to have recorded this music, and to be able to share it with the audience so long after its release is a gift of life for us,” he says. “In these troubled times, it’s a nice time capsule from the last century when we were more innocent and optimistic.”
“I think this album is a little bit medicinal,” Dunckel adds. “It heals people’s wounds. Like the wounds I had at the time we made it. That’s what melancholic music does to you isn’t it? The melancholia into the music swallows the listener’s melancholia because the musician and the listener are talking to each other as in a therapy conversation or in a dream.”
Of the original tour behind the album, Dunckel recalls realizing the album “was really working when we toured in the U.S., and in Spain. People were really enjoying the shows and they were so happy to see us for real. I felt it in the audience voices.”
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