Air

Two students of astrophysics and architecture walk into a bar on the moon. This sounds like the beginning of a joke — but in the waning light of the 20th century, it really happened, leaving a serious imprint on pop culture.

On January 16th 1998, Air released Moon Safari, an album which catapulted Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel to the uppermost rung of electronic music’s ladder. Here were two 20-somethings with just a single prior EP under their belts, yet they exuded on tape the confidence and pedigree of seasoned pros. Godin and Dunckel were blessed with the ability to intuit pop songcraft which could, and did, captivate mass media: Moon Safari contains a universe. Today, the record’s legacy is canonical, but at the time of release, its multi-million success was far from assured.

25 years on, it’s not hard to alight upon why “Moon Safari” has stood the test of time. It’s a mood you want to live inside of forever. It’s a revelation. It’s conversation pit music for a better future. In 2024, AIR perform “Moon Safari” live for the first time ever