(Virgin/EMI)

French duo follow their mothers’ advice: if it ain’t broke, add Jarvis Cocker and a shamisen.

Air, the French duo best known for Moon Safari, have wandered down many different, unorthodox paths in their journey towards this album, yet, amazingly, they tie together these sonic threads to make it a masterpiece. Album opener Space Maker sounds like a short catch-up for the uninitiated: it has the relaxed pace of Moon Safari, the prog-rock flourishes of both 10,000Hz Legend and their score for The Virgin Suicides, the acoustic guitar that drove City Reading, and the songwriting of Talkie Walkie. But Pocket Symphony is more than a sonic victory lap – and, from the second song onwards, the album takes the template laid by Space Maker and builds upon it to take the band into new territory. The most novel thing about the album is its extensive use of traditional Japanese instrumentation, yet this is not added in a sloppy, extraneous fashion – rather, the shamisen and koto are so perfectly in tune with Air’s aesthetic in songs such as Mer Du Japon that their addition seems blindingly obvious in retrospect. Aside from this, the only other aural shock that may register is the presence of guest vocalists Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon (with whom Air collaborated on Charlotte Gainsbourg’s wonderful album 5:55). This may seem like a criticism, but it’s not – given that Air have proven themselves great composers and forerunners of the French music scene, more of the same can’t be a bad thing. Simply put, Pocket Symphony deserves to go down as Air’s triumphal return to their musical home. Welcome back, boys.

*****

CHAD PARKHILL

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