Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon) is a classic silent film by revered French director Georges Méliès. Released in 1902, this legendary 16-minute film is widely considered one of the most important works in film history, and the very first to use science fiction as its theme, incorporating special effects that were very state-of-the-art at the turn of the 19th century. It was loosely based on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells The First Men In The Moon.

In 1993, a long-lost hand-painted color print, the only one known to exist, was rediscovered in Spain. It was in desperate condition, and so in 1999, two foundations—Fondation Groupama Gan and Fondation Technicolor—began the highly delicate preservation work of rescuing and digitizing the elements of the film. After many years of painstaking work, a magnificent restoration of the film was ready to be launched, allowing a 21st century audience to rediscover this major cinematic work.

Eager to put a contemporary spin on this classic silent film and reach a new audience, the foundations decided to approach AIR’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack, an enormous honor for French musicians, considering the film’s place in the canon of French cinema. With the aim of premiering at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, AIR set themselves a tight deadline, locking their studio doors and working around the clock to serve these classic images with brave new sounds. Complete with a new soundtrack by AIR, the film debuted at Cannes on May 11, 2011 to immediate and unanimous acclaim.

Spurred on by their work on this short movie, AIR decided to develop the project into a full album inspired by the film. Expanding the original musical themes beyond cinematic instrumentals, the album also features the vocal talents and lyrics of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand (Beach House). The band’s lunar fascinations have been evident since the beginning of their career with the release of the seminal 1998 classic Moon Safari. Now in 2012 Nicolas and JB have returned to explore the further regions of their very unique musical “space.”

Nicolas explains: “‘A Trip to the Moon’ is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound ‘handmade,’ knocked together’, a bit like Méliès’ special effects. Everything is played live … like Méliès’ film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art.”

The three producers of the restored version have agreed to let EMI release a special Limited Edition version of the AIR album Le Voyage Dans La Lune, which will be released on February 7, 2012 on Astralwerks. This will consist of the album plus a bonus DVD or digital download of the restored colorized film with AIR’s original film score, strictly limited to 70,000 global copies.

The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Music: Fleet Foxes
Album: Helplessness Blues
Director: Sean Pecknold
Animators: Sean Pecknold & Britta Johnson
Character Illustrations: Stacey Rozich
Art Assistant: Natalie Jenkins
Producer: Aaron Ball
Multiplane: Greg Pecknold
Post/Edit : Sean Pecknold
Particle FX: Britta Johnson
AE Assist: Austin Wilson
Sound FX: Shervin Shaeri
Story: Sean Pecknold
Labels: Bella Union & Sub Pop
Made in Portland, Oregon
friendlondon.tv
Made with Dragonframe

(via my co-worker PPWalker, esquire)

(credit: Paste Magazine)

There’s also an interview with Walter C. May at the Villiage Voice:

I wanted it to be simple, something really anyone could have done. We shot the video in my buddy’s garage on a Canon 5D one Sunday afternoon, and I spent maybe $100 in total, buying black bedsheets and stuff. I didn’t want to go overboard, to show that the thought really does count.

I had to block her [May's girlfriend] from my Twitter. She studies so much she doesn’t check it a lot, so hopefully she won’t notice for a while. She was also here last weekend and that was really hard. But our friends and her friends at school have all been given the gag order, so it really has to be some random way she’s going to see it.

(credit: Gizmodo)

The Japanese Popstars Feat. Green Velvet – Let Go from David Wilson Creative on Vimeo.

Directed by David Wilson
Produced by Serena Noorani and Tamsin Glasson at Colonel Blimp
Primary Illustrator – Keaton Henson

(credit: BLCKDMNDS)

In the video, Deschanel and Ward are kids talking on tin-can telephones and sending each other notes that they somehow don’t receive till they’re grown up. The romantic drama that unfolds is all depicted in the newspaper of the era, the Telegraph & Bulletin. (via)

(credit: Paste Mag)

Listen here to Venus Rising:

Conceived as a … (more) live performance to accompany a modern dance ballet, Narcissus is a testament to Bjorn Synneby and Daniel Hogberg’s creative nous, and in a modern era of listless imitation, should be cherished at the vanguard of creative pop.


Due for its world exclusive at Gothenburg’s influential dance studio Atalante in October, the ballet itself comes choreographed by Sweden’s extra-ordinary danseur Olaf Persson. Olaf and two female dancers will star in the live show and feature in a series of videos that accompany the album. (via)

Check out some of Pacific!’s older stuff here. And their remake of Don’t You (Forget About Me).

But the corner of my eye I finally see Alex Ebert, the ‘front man’ slip out of the room. He pushed a piano in the street. My heart began to pounce. Finally. It was the moment that we wanted to create for months. I pressed ‘REC’, then I let the energy take over. What happened next, I could never have imagined. (translated by google, via)

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s – A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

(credit: Stereogum & somekindofawesome)