On 9 December 2002, Hansen was fatally hit by a truck while riding her bicycle in London. Writer Pierre Perrone said that her “playful nature and mischievous sense of humour came through in the way she approached the backing vocals she contributed to Stereolab and the distinctive harmonies she created…
Read More
In 2000, Air composed the original score for Sofia Coppola ‘s debut film The Virgin Suicides . Shortly after the release, the band would go on to produce their second studio album, 10 000 Hz Legend , which released on 28 May, 2001. The album features American musician Beck as…
Read More
In 2002, as they were planning their next album, Stereolab started building a studio north of Bordeaux , France. ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions ; a compilation of BBC Radio 1 sessions was released in October. In the same year, Gane and Sadier’s romantic relationship ended.
Stereolab’s seventh album, Sound-Dust (August 2001), rose to number 178 on the Billboard 200. The album also featured producers McEntire and O’Rourke. Sound-Dust was more warmly received than Cobra and Phases Group. Critic Joshua Klein said that “the emphasis this time sounds less on unfocused experimentation and more on melody…
Read More
Their sixth album, Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night , was released in September 1999. It was co-produced by McEntire and Jim O’Rourke , and was recorded with their new bassist, Simon Johns. The album received middling reviews from critics and peaked at number 154 on…
Read More
Released in September 1997, Dots and Loops was their first album to enter the Billboard 200 charts , peaking at number 111. The album leaned towards jazz with bossa nova and ’60s pop influences. Barney Hoskyns wrote in Rolling Stone that with it the group moved “ever further away from…
Read More
The band’s fourth album, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (March 1996), was a critical success and was played heavily on college radio . A record that “captivated alternative rock”, it represented the group’s “high-water mark” said music journalists Tom Moon and Joshua Klein, respectively. The album incorporated their early krautrock sound with…
Read More
Nicolas Godin studied architecture at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles , and Jean-Benoît Dunckel studied mathematics, before forming a band in 1995. Before founding Air, Dunckel and Godin played together in the band Orange with others such as Alex Gopher , Xavier Jamaux and Jean de Reydellet. The…
Read More
In January 1994, Stereolab achieved their first chart entry when the 1993 EP Jenny Ondioline , entered at number 75 on the UK Singles Chart . (Over the next three years, four more releases by the band would appear on this chart, ending with the EP Miss Modular in 1997.)…
Read More
Stereolab introduced easy listening elements into their sound with the EP Space Age Bachelor Pad Music , released in March 1993. The work raised the band’s profile and landed them an American record deal with Elektra Records . Their first album under Elektra, Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements , was…
Read More