According to the press release for Contrepoint, “AIR have not split up.” Nicolas Godin, one half of the French duo, goes on to say: “We weren’t surprising ourselves anymore… I’d made a statement with AIR and I wanted to go back to the classical world, to grow up musically; to renew myself.” What that actually reveals about his attitude towards the supposedly still-extant AIR is moot, but the result is Contrepoint, his first solo album. It is based around the music of Bach.
It’s best to ignore the silly opening cut, “Orca”, a synth-and-metal hybrid reminiscent of a speed-induced Rush and begin with track two, “Widerstehe doch der Sünde”. Somewhat clichéd references to the ubiquitous Glenn Gould (who is heard speaking an audio snippet) are also a distraction as Godin has come up with what could be a soundtrack or library music album from anywhere between 1969 and 1975. Contrepoint is a classically inspired, retro-futurist confection which reverberates as a Gallic counterpart to the giallo soundtracks of Stelvio Cipriani and Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, as well as the French library music composers Nino Nardini and Roger Roger.
The album is peppered with spoken and sung vocals in German and Italian. There is bubbling, funky bass guitar, rattling percussion, xylophone (“Bach Off”), excursions into jazzy Braziliana (“Club Nine” and the Caetano Veloso-ish “Clara”), the rubber-band bass and swooping, pulsing strings of Melody Nelson-era and “Manon” Serge Gainsbourg (“Widerstehe doch der Sünde”). Contrepoint is a hugely enjoyable, stylish and terrifically assured exercise, and a testament to Godin's musical literacy. But, whatever his intentions, it is not a bridge which, when crossed, leads into the classical world.
Overleaf: watch the video for “Widerstehe doch der Sünde” from Nicolas Godin’s Contrepoint
Watch the video for "Widerstehe doch der Sünde" from Nicolas Godin’s Contrepoint