Nicolas Godin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nicolas Godin
Godin at the Deauville American Film Festival in 2011.
Background information
Born	(1969-12-25) 25 December 1969 (age 55) Le Chesnay, Île-de-France, France
Genres	Electronic, downtempo, space rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, vocals, vocoder, harmonica, shamisen, koto, drums, banjo
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Virgin, Because Music
Associated acts	Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Pierre Rousseau, Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Orange

Nicolas Godin (born December 25, 1969) is a French musician. He is famous for being one of the two members of the electronic music group Air.

From Architecture to Music

Nicolas Godin was born near Paris, France. He went to college to study architecture, which is the art of designing buildings. At school, he met Jean-Benoît Dunckel, who was studying math. They would soon become music partners.

Before creating Air, Godin and Dunckel played in a band called Orange with some friends. They had already been making music together since they were teenagers in the 1980s.

The Start of Air

The band's name, Air, doesn't stand for "Amour, Imagination, Rêve" (which means Love, Imagination, Dream in French), as many people think. Instead, the name describes their music, which they call "airy" or light.

At first, Air was just Godin's solo project. While he was still a student, a friend asked him to write a song for a music collection. Godin recorded a song called "Modulor Mix" on his personal recorder. The song was a tribute to a famous architect named Le Corbusier. It was released in 1995 and became a small hit.

Forming a Duo

Because of this early success, Godin asked his friend Jean-Benoît Dunckel to join him. Dunckel was a skilled piano player. Together, they started making more music for the French record label Source.

In 1997, the label asked them to create a full album. The duo spent months in a recording studio near Paris to create their first album.

Success with Moon Safari

Air's first studio album, Moon Safari, came out in 1998. It became a huge success, especially because of hit singles like "... Boy", "Kelly Watch the Stars", and "All I Need".

The album mixed synthesizers, string instruments, and guitar in a new and unique way. It became a platinum album in the United Kingdom and a gold album in France, which means it sold a very large number of copies.

Solo Career

Besides his work with Air, Nicolas Godin also creates music on his own.

In 2015, he released his first solo album, Contrepoint. The music on this album was inspired by the famous classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Godin also wrote the music for a French TV show called A Very Secret Service.

In 2020, he released his second solo album, titled Concrete and Glass.

Discography

This is a list of Godin's solo albums and how well they did on the music charts in different countries.

Albums

See also

In Spanish: Nicolas Godin para niños