Nicolas Godin (born 25 December 1969) is a French musician best known for being one half of the music duo

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

Early life

Godin was born in Paris, Île-de-France, France, and studied architecture at the

École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

, along with soon to be musical partner, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, a mathematics student. Before founding Air, Godin played in the band Orange, with others such as Jean-Benoît Dunckel,

Alex Gopher Alexis Latrobe (), known professionally as Alex Gopher, is a French mastering engineer, electronic musician and producer. He worked as a sound engineer at Translab Studio, notably for Angèle, Clara Luciani, Lomepal, -M-, Mr. Oizo, Gesaffelst ...

, Xavier Jamaux, and Jean de Reydellet. He and Jean-Benoît have been working together since they were teenagers in the 1980s.

Early career

Contrary to popular belief, the name of the band Air does not stand for "Amour, Imagination, Rêve" (love, imagination, dream), but rather for description of their music which the duo describes as "airy" (in French ''aérien''). In the beginning, it was a one‑person project. Godin, then an architecture student and amateur musician, was asked by a childhood friend to write a song for a compilation to be released by Source, a small French independent label. "Modulor Mix", a tribute to

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

, was recorded on Godin's

Portastudio Portastudio refers to a series of Multitrack recording, multitrack recorders produced by TASCAM beginning in 1979 with the introduction of the TEAC Corporation, TEAC 144, the first four-track compact cassette-based recorder. A TASCAM trademark, "p ...

, and appeared on the ''Source Lab'' album in 1995. With several remixes, it was re‑released on British label

Mo' Wax Mo' Wax was a British record label founded by James Lavelle in 1992. The label was not co-founded by Tim Goldsworthy, as is often reported. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after. Mo' Wax came to recognition for being at the forefront of t ...

in 1996.

Air

Following this small success, Godin asked his friend Jean-Benoît Dunckel, a classically trained pianist, to join him in Air. Together, they produced further 'maxi‑singles' for Source, with titles like "J'ai Dormi Sous L'eau", "Les Professionnels", "Casanova 70" and "Le Soleil Est Près De Moi". Finally, in 1997, Source asked Air to record a whole album. The duo spent several months in a recording studio near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

called Studio de Saint‑Nom, and asked a friend—freelance engineer and former Plus XXX assistant Stéphane 'Alf' Briat—to work as a sound engineer on that project. Their full-length debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' Moon Safari'', released in 1998, was propelled to chart success by the singles " Sexy Boy", " Kelly Watch the Stars" and " All I Need". Its mixture of synths, strings and guitar made it a unique release in the electronic music genre at the time. ''Moon Safari'' went platinum in the United Kingdom and gold in France.

Solo projects

On 18 September 2015, Godin released his first solo album ''Contrepoint'' (Because Music), inspired by the music of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

. Godin composed the soundtrack for French series '' A Very Secret Service'' (2015–2018). Godin released his second studio album '' Concrete and Glass'' on 24 January 2020 via Because Music.

Discography

Albums

References

External links

2010 Nicolas Godin interview
on RocknRollDating * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godin, Nicolas 1969 births Living people French electronic musicians French keyboardists French male composers French male guitarists French male singers French pop guitarists Virgin Records artists Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres People from Le Chesnay Because Music artists Air (French band) members