It’s not really their fault, but there’s something about Air, something about their ineffable aura of prickly French hauteur, that will forever suggest the background music for a particularly hip European hotel lobby, circa 1998.
Perhaps fearing the same thing, Air auteurs Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin have nominally updated their mix of gentle, Bacharach-meets-Jacques-Brel electronica. In addition to the usual parade of guest vocalists and exotic instruments (solinas, voice pads, infinite variations on the synthesizer), Pocket Symphony has a distinctly eastern feel: Several tracks feature Japanese stringed instruments (notably kotos and shamisens), though the effect is subtle, and already familiar to anyone who heard Air’s contribution to the Lost In Translation soundtrack.
Pocket Symphony is an exercise in mournful minimalism, its taste for diaphanous, Eno-like soundscapes rivaling anything on the duo’s classic Moon Safari, which isn’t to say it’s anywhere near as good. It’s slipperier and closer to pure background music than anything the duo has done previously: It’s heavy on atmospherics, light on memorable melodies.
The great, torpid “One Hell Of A Party” serves up the world’s saddest piano, plus a subdued Jarvis Cocker on vocals. Sounding quite similar is “Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping”, with the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon on vocals. The fine “Mer Du Japon”, bolstered by tambourines and synthesizers and a strong backbeat, sounds almost perky by comparison.
