Nicolas Godin (born 25 December 1969) is a French musician best known for being half of the music duo

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 ...

Early life

Godin was born in Paris, Île-de-France, France, and studied architecture at the

École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles The École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles commonly referred to as the ENSAV, is a leading French architectural school located at the ancient stables of the Versailles Palace. It is an associate member of the University Paris-S ...

, along with soon to be musical partner,

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 ...

, a mathematics student. Before founding Air, Godin played in the band Orange, with others such as

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 ...

, Xavier Jamaux, and Jean de Reydellet. He and Jean-Benoît have been working together since they were teenagers in the 1980s.

Early career

At its outset, Air—a

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

for "Amour, Imagination, Rêve" (love, imagination, dream)—was a one‑person project. Godin, then an architecture student and amateur musician, was asked by a childhood friend to write a song for a compilation to be released by Source, a small French independent label. "Modulor Mix", a tribute to

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

, was recorded on Godin's

Portastudio The TASCAM Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard compact audio cassette tape. The term ''portastudio'' is exclusive to TASCAM, though it is generally used to describe all self-contained cassette-based multitrack rec ...

, and appeared on the ''Source Lab'' album in 1995. With several remixes, it was re‑released on British label

Mo' Wax Mo' Wax was a British record label founded by James Lavelle in 1992. The label was not co-founded by Tim Goldsworthy, as is often reported. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after. Mo' Wax came to recognition for being at the forefront of t ...

in 1996.

Air

Following this small success, Godin asked his friend

, a classically trained pianist, to join him in Air. Together, they produced further 'maxi‑singles' for Source, with titles like "J'ai Dormi Sous L'eau", "Les Professionnels", "Casanova 70" and "Le Soleil Est Près De Moi". Finally, in 1997, Source asked Air to record a whole album. The duo spent several months in a recording studio near

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

called Studio de Saint‑Nom, and asked a friend—freelance engineer and former Plus XXX assistant Stéphane 'Alf' Briat—to work as a sound engineer on that project. Their full-length debut

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 ...

Moon Safari ''Moon Safari'' is the debut studio album by French electronic music duo Air, released on 16 January 1998 by Source and Virgin Records. ''Moon Safari'' was re-released on 14 April 2008 to mark the album's 10th anniversary, including a bound book ...

'', released in 1998, was propelled to chart success by the singles " Sexy Boy" " Kelly Watch the Stars" and " All I Need". Its mixture of synths, strings and guitar made it a unique release in the electronica genre at the time. ''Moon Safari'' went Platinum in the United Kingdom and Gold in France.

Solo projects

On 18 September 2015 Godin released his first solo album ''Contrepoint'' (Because Music), inspired by the music of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

. Godin composed the soundtrack for French series '' A Very Secret Service'' (2015–2018). Godin released his second studio album ''Concrete and Glass'' on 24 January 2020 via Because Music.

Discography

Albums

References

External links

2010 Nicolas Godin interview
on

RocknRollDating RocknRollDating was a free online dating service in the United States and Canada focused around the idea that musical compatibility is important to relationship matches. The site generates revenue through advertising. Overview RocknRollDating ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Godin, Nicolas 1969 births Living people French male singers French pop guitarists French male guitarists French keyboardists Virgin Records artists Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres People from Le Chesnay Because Music artists