''Darkel'' is the debut solo

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by French musician Darkel (

Jean-Benoît Dunckel Jean-Benoît Dunckel (born 7 September 1969) is a French musician best known for being one half of the French music duo Air, along with Nicolas Godin. In the 1980s, he formed the band Orange with Alex Gopher, Xavier Jamaux and Jean de Reydellet ...

), one half of the French

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

. It was released in September 2006 (see

2006 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006. Specific locations *2006 in British music *2006 in Irish music *2006 in Norwegian music *2006 in South Korean music *2006 in Swiss music Specific genres * 2006 i ...

Critical reception

''Darkel'' was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 55 based on 18 reviews. In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, critic reviewer Heather Phares wrote: "''Darkel'' doesn't differ greatly from his work with Air - it's got the same mix of epic synth passages and sexy, starry-eyed pop, and his wispy, almost androgynous voice would be unmistakable in almost any setting. Sometimes ''Darkel'' seems in danger of floating away on its flights of fancy, suggesting that Godin gives some of Dunckel's more whimsical ideas some grounding when they work together as Air." Dorian Lynskey at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said: "Without his band's usual deep-pile arrangements, these twinkling melodies and synth-prog twiddles sound rather insubstantial; TV Destroy is tinselly new wave that would struggle to destroy a teabag." At ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', Marc Hogan explained: "While several of the songs evoke the woozy romance of Air's slower tracks, the usual aplomb of Dunckel's day job is lacking, so many fans may want to hold out for the new Air album due next year."

Track listing

Single

At the End of the Sky was released as a single with two additional tracks. #"At the End of the Sky" – 4:12 #"Bunny Girl" – 4:37 #"Stay" – 3:01

Personnel

*Stephane "Alf" Briat – Mixing *

Alex Gopher Alexis Latrobe (), known professionally as Alex Gopher, is a French mastering engineer, electronic musician and producer. He worked as a sound engineer at Translab Studio, notably for Angèle, Clara Luciani, Lomepal, -M-, Mr. Oizo, Gesaffelstein ...

– Mastering *Laurent Griffon – Bass,

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Earl Harvin –

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Hi-Five – Cover Art *Dayan Korolic – Bass *Anthony Mccann – Photography *Valérie Sonnier – Cover Photo

Release details

References

External links

Official websiteDarkel
at MySpace.
Darkel
at

.
Review of "Darkel" on Subculture Magazine
{{Authority control 2006 debut albums Astralwerks albums