Following a few EPs and some scattered MP3 one-offs, Gothenburg, Sweden-based Balearic electronic outfit Air France have announced they've broken up. Members Joel Karlsson and Henrik Markstedt issued a statement this morning (March 26) explaining that a drive to perfectionism was a major cause of the implosion, illustrated by the fact that their long-awaited full-length never materialized as they had intended.
"During the first year of Air France, somewhere in the middle of the last decade, everything seemed to come so easily. At least it feels like that right now," they wrote. "We'd meet on Friday nights to drink wine, listen to music and picture ourselves far off, somewhere on the outskirts on the big map Henrik had on his wall. The songs we made during those nights weren't really supposed to ever leave the hard drive, but somehow they did, and somehow they took us to almost all the places on that big map we had dreamt about."
While the act managed to issue two EPs, 2006's On Trade Winds and 2008's No Way Down (both of which were compiled on a physical release of the latter), Air France never ended up crafting a suitable long-player. The last Air France material to surface was last summer's "It Feels Good to Be Around You."
Air France continued: "We have probably produced seven albums since No Way Down; a UK Garage record, a house record, an r 'n' b record… but we've never been able to finish anything, nothing was ever good enough. We have tried so hard, and we truly gave it all we had. And now we have decided to stop trying, even though it breaks our hearts."
Despite feeling blue about the end of Air France, both members take with them fond memories of playing shows with Saint Etienne, getting sampled by Lil B and the friends they'd made the last few years. There is a silver lining, though, in that the two could pop up sometime in the future under a new guise, so fingers crossed, fans.
"Who knows, maybe we'll see you again in another shape. After all, we're people that never stop dreaming."
"During the first year of Air France, somewhere in the middle of the last decade, everything seemed to come so easily. At least it feels like that right now," they wrote. "We'd meet on Friday nights to drink wine, listen to music and picture ourselves far off, somewhere on the outskirts on the big map Henrik had on his wall. The songs we made during those nights weren't really supposed to ever leave the hard drive, but somehow they did, and somehow they took us to almost all the places on that big map we had dreamt about."
While the act managed to issue two EPs, 2006's On Trade Winds and 2008's No Way Down (both of which were compiled on a physical release of the latter), Air France never ended up crafting a suitable long-player. The last Air France material to surface was last summer's "It Feels Good to Be Around You."
Air France continued: "We have probably produced seven albums since No Way Down; a UK Garage record, a house record, an r 'n' b record… but we've never been able to finish anything, nothing was ever good enough. We have tried so hard, and we truly gave it all we had. And now we have decided to stop trying, even though it breaks our hearts."
Despite feeling blue about the end of Air France, both members take with them fond memories of playing shows with Saint Etienne, getting sampled by Lil B and the friends they'd made the last few years. There is a silver lining, though, in that the two could pop up sometime in the future under a new guise, so fingers crossed, fans.
"Who knows, maybe we'll see you again in another shape. After all, we're people that never stop dreaming."
