Hear Me Out: Air created the ultimate ambient bliss with ‘Remember’
Considering I was only three at the time, my memory of the landmark year of 1998 is rather blurry, but its place in ambient music history remains anchored, for that’s when Air released Moon Safari.
The ten-track album, which is without question their magnum opus, paved the way for countless other creatives after them. Whether or not it directly influenced those trying to find that sweet spot between electronica, lo-fi and dream pop, the record opened doors that allowed listeners such as myself to access certain emotions like never before. This prompted more and more artists to try and elicit those same feelings from their audiences, so the contributions of the French duo mustn’t ever be taken for granted.
A spotless tracklist from head to toe, Moon Safari is a sample platter that is confusingly coherent despite its broad range. While songs such as ‘Sexy Boy’ and ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ are relatively upbeat compared to the rest, loungier cuts like ‘All I Need’ and ‘Ce matin-là’ are more characteristic of the LP’s overarching traits of spacey, tranquil and delicate.
However, amid all these sounds, and positioned right in the middle of the album, is ‘Remember’. By extension of its central placement, this song absorbs the project’s many elements and condenses them into one unit, resulting in a tour de force that is just as overwhelming as it is spectacular.
In addition to the talk-box-processed repetition of the word remember, which forms a majority of the 11 words in the song, we hear the phrase “Souviens-toi, ce jour là, toi et moi”, which translates to “Remember that day, you and I”. Ultimately, it’s a pedestal to longing, and there’s really no two ways of looking at it, but it’s the sonics that are responsible for the breathtaking atmosphere of the cut.
The incredible thing about sounds that bring about complex emotions is that the experience isn’t exactly logical or rational; you almost involuntarily let your guard down and allow yourself to feel whatever arises from within. For some, it might be through the comfort of proactively clinging to the memories that make life worth living; to me, it’s the sense of defeat brought about by a person’s permanent absence.
There’s an inescapable despondency inherent to the core theme of the track that notes memories belong in the past, but ‘Remember’ encourages the healthy approach of immersing oneself and feeling the intensity of the sadness thereafter to come out better on the other side, without spelling it out in too many words.
In September, the two-piece from Versailles performed Moon Safari at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as part of their international tour to celebrate the album, assisted by the venue’s orchestra for an added symphonic radiance to a setlist that didn’t need any enhancements to begin with; a gift more than generous to catch the breath of any Air fan.
Sure enough, the live interpretation of ‘Remember’ combined with the enchanting light work and the venue’s iconic bandshell rims eked out the song’s charm in a uniquely mesmerising way. Whereas I’ll most likely never witness magic like that again, I’m grateful to have experienced it once and remember it forever.
