Virgin Suicides (15th Anniversary Edition)
AirLPA VIRGIN SUICIDES
- Playground Love (With Gordon Tracks)
- Clouds Up
- Bathroom Girl
- Cemetary Party
- Dark Messages
- The Word Hurricane
- Dirty Trip
LPB VIRGIN SUICIDES
- Highschool Lover
- Afternoon Sister
- Ghost Song
- Empty House
- Dead Bodies
- Suicide Underground
Back in 2000, The Virgin Suicides was director Sofia Coppola’s first feature film, Kirsten Dunst’s first major screen role and the first soundtrack by Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, alias Air. The Versailles duo started to record new music by watching VHS tapes of the film rushes during the autumn of 1998. Eerie, synthetic and tempestuous, The Virgin Suicides soundtrack is also reminiscent of Alain Goraguer’s score for La planète sauvage, Michel Colombier’s atmospheric work - the dehumanized Mellotron of « The Word « Hurricane »»- and the Get Carter’s lacerated strings on « Dirty Trip ». The recording was finished when drummer and soundtrack supervisor Brian Retzell called the duo from Los Angeles. « The microphones and the amps were packed and we needed a song for the ending credits ! It happened on a saturday afternoon. We called Thomas Mars from Phoenix (credited as Gordon Tracks on the album). He wrote the lyrics, played some drums and sang on « Playground Love », remembers Jean-Benoît Dunckel about one of the most famous songs in the Air catalogue.
The Virgin Suicides premiere took place at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1999. Much to the duo’s surprise, Air’s soundtrack had been heavily edited and 80% of the recorded tracks had been abandoned in the final cut of the film. Nicolas Godin : « You can do everything with editing. That was the first big lesson. The film turned out lighter and more evanescent. I felt that we didn’t get what Sofia wanted ». Despite these regrets, The Virgin Suicides soon became a cult soundtrack and, most of all, one of the most celebrated album in the electronic performers’s fascinating discography.