Le Voyage Dans La Lune [CD+DVD]

Air | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 7, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: CD+DVD
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B0069K3836
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,315 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Astronomic Club

2. Seven Stars

3. Retour sur terre

4. Parade

5. Moon Fever

6. Sonic Armada

7. Who Am I Now?

8. DĂ©collage

9. Cosmic Trip

10. Homme lune

See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Le voyage dans la lune (version originale couleur restaurée) (DVD)

Editorial Reviews

Deluxe Edition includes DVD. 2012 release from the French duo. Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon) is a classic silent film by revered French director Georges M‚liŠs. 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. 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Air delivers again February 7, 2012

By R. Solis

Format:MP3 Music

Haunting and imaginative and don't know what else. I'm glad that there are bands out there like Air when I get tired of hearing the same humdrum...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Love2, but Overdue February 12, 2012

By Brian M. Murphree

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought the CD/DVD copy, so for some reviewers here, I can add my two cents having not downloaded it. Video Review is further down.

Music:
This isn't the next installment from Talkie Walkie, Pocket Symphony, or Love2--Not even close. Air changes direction frequently, which is one of the things that should open our minds up to what they will do next. Think of this collection as another soundtrack, which it really is. If you like The Virgin Suicides soundtrack, you can set your expectations as such, and come into this with a fresh set of ears. Don't sample it---LISTEN to it; all the way through. It's a concept.

If you don't want another sound track, fortunately, there are a couple of thematic "singles" that you may be pleased to repeat by themselves and add them to your iTunes playlist. I particularly like Seven Stars and Parade. Much of the rest is a landscape, met with a few urgency themes. I won't spoil too much more, but again, if you take this album as more of a soundtrack to an old film as interpreted by Air in their realm, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Lots of Air elements, with some fresh and appealing directions, but at times transparent to the point you forget that Air is actually performing this music.

Give it a solid chance and I think you'll be pleased. I don't see many Air fans disappointed. If you find that you're a critic, and are looking for a solid followup to Love2 or another 10,000Hz Legend, this isn't going to totally get you moving. If you don't have any expectations at all, you'll quickly believe Air has put a lot of the right kind of effort into this and have created a new escape The Virgin Suicide fans have wanted for years!

Video:
Some have said the video quality was poor. Maybe so for the download version (I can't say), but considering that this film is 110 years old, originally shot in Black&White, then hand-painted to color, lost then found many years later, I didn't find that necessarily to be the case. But I bought the DVD version. Watching it on a Dell 30" LCD monitor I can easily see the limitations of the original work restored, but not exactly the CODEC quality. I think the DVD Codec conversion was fine. The disclaimer tells that there was some damaged parts of the film, which had to be restored and digitally recreated from the Black&White film. Between this and the fact that the hand-painted color from back then couldn't have been Technicolor by any means. I think I would have preferred the Black&White film digitally colored over the hand-painting, but the authenticity of the paint presents a sort of campy-ness Sci-fi fans would prefer.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Download the Movie February 16, 2012

By frankebe

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I first heard a bit of this music playing along with the movie, I did not like it at all. However, after seeing the complete film and hearing the music in context, I have changed my view and find most of the music fitting to the action and fun to listen to. I especially like the grandiose sounds to the entrance of the astronomers in scene 1, and the aliens-and-chase music. I also thought the sleeping-on-the-moon music was nicely evocative of an other-worldy dreamlike experience. There are a few miscalculations: for example, there is a violent explosion on the moon but no musical comment; then several seconds later, when nothing much is going on, AIR plays a loud and obnoxious machine-gun noise. This baffles me, and it's very annoying. There are a few other moments that I dislike where the musicians seem to be shouting "We're great artists because we rebel against beauty and good taste", and taking attention away from the film, but overall the musical settings (and the occasional well-placed sound-effect) are appropriate, enjoyable and memorable. (I do wish they had done SOMETHING with the sound when the space-ship hits the moon in the eyeball.)

Do not download the movie if you want to see a decent transfer of the film. Just buy the CD/DVD. I saw the movie in a theatre at a film festival and the quality on the DVD here is so close to original theatre-projection that I cannot tell any difference at all.

The movie itself has been much acclaimed as "restored", but it is still pretty ragged. Parts of it, especially the first two scenes and the last, are quite a chore to watch. During these scenes, I feel like I'm white-knuckling the edges of my seat, wondering when the film is going to break. For these shots, I wish that those in charge had simply tossed the original color print and inserted a colorized version of the best-existing black-and-white prints. They did do some colorizing where the original was simply too broke to fix, and when they do this, it is GREAT WORK, so don't underestimate modern colorization.

The CD album in this release has extended versions of the soundtrack. I am not a particular fan of AIR, but I found the music a pleasant and amusing one-time-through listening experience. If you like their electronica style, are not overly-critical about whether or not AIR is repeating itself, and do not require notated concert music to feel satisfied that you haven't wasted your listening time, you'll probably enjoy this.