Air

Air is the name of several acts, including a French electronic duo and a Chicago jazz group. The jazz group is a trio rooted in Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and active from 1971 to 1986. It forms from within the Muhal Richard Abrams Sextet and takes its name from the members’ zodiac signs.

Chicago jazz trio

The trio consists of Henry Threadgill on reeds, hubcaphone, and percussion; Fred Hopkins on bass; and Steve McCall on drums. It forms when Threadgill is commissioned by Columbia College to score and adapt Scott Joplin’s music for a centenary tribute performance. The group first performs around Chicago while still working with Abrams’ circle, which also includes Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and Wallace McMillan. It reunites in New York in 1975 and begins recording under the name Air for labels including India Navigation, Nessa, Black Saint, and Novus.

McCall leaves in the early 1980s, and the group continues as New Air with Pheeroan akLaff joining in 1982. Under that name, it records several albums, including Air Show No. 1, which features Cassandra Wilson on vocals. Andrew Cyrille later replaces akLaff. The trio is later overshadowed by the separate careers of its members, with Threadgill leading groups such as Sextett and Very Very Circus, and Hopkins becoming a frequent bassist for Threadgill, David Murray, and Hamiet Bluiett. McCall retires from touring around 1980 and dies in 1989.

French electronic duo

The French group Air consists of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, who attend school together in Versailles before forming the duo in 1995. Their releases include Premiers Symptômes, Moon Safari, The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, 10,000Hz Legend, Talkie Walkie, Pocket Symphony, and Love 2. The duo also writes a soundtrack for the restored Georges Méliès film Le Voyage Dans La Lune, and it contributes music used in commercials and television, including Nissan’s Armada campaign, a Levi’s jeans advert, and BBC Two’s Top Gear films about exotic sports cars.

Air works with a range of guest artists, including Beth Hirsch, Françoise Hardy, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gordon Tracks, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon, Dave Palmer, Earl Harvin, Steve Jones, Vincent Taurelle, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Its music draws on 1970s synthesizer sounds and also shows influences from artists such as Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, and Serge Gainsbourg. The group also uses studio instruments such as Moog synthesizers, the Korg MS20, Wurlitzer, and vocoder in live performance, often reworking album tracks into extended or altered versions.