It’s summer and that makes me think of Air France. And I guess they are thinking of us too because they’re coming to New York to DJ an event at the MoMA on July 17th.

Air France is Henrik Markstedt and Joel Karlsson. They are signed to the record label Sincerely Yours, founded by The Tough Alliance.

Music blog The Line of Best Fit got a rare glimpse into the incredible duo last month in their native Gothenberg. Check out the interview here, a must-read if you are even slightly intrigued with AF…

Here’s an excerpt:

When No Way Down, the duo’s second EP, came out nearly two years ago, it received rave reviews both Stateside and in the UK, but in Sweden went pretty much unnoticed. “It didn’t bother me at all”, Henrik says, “I had other problems to think about.” …“‘No Excuses’ was supposed to be called ‘No Apologies’, but ‘apologies’ is not a very nice sounding word, we thought. We wanted to question why people try to tell themselves that certain things have to be in a certain way, and for me it was a problem that I was so polite when I was younger.”

TLOBF also reports on something we’re sad to hear:

“Some new Air France material is expected in September. But don’t count on it.”

So for now, enjoy some of their classics:

Air France: June Evenings

Air France: ‘GBG Belongs To Us’

Collapsing At Your Doorstep is one of my all time favorite tracks, June Evenings and No Excuses are also ones to check out.

Le Miel du Mois (monthly mixtape on Et Musique Pour Tous) first started in May 2009. When the site temporarily got shut down in June 2009, the May tape was lost as was a ton of amazing EMPT content. The site was re-born in July 2009, and since is bigger and better, but Le Miel du Mois: Mai was never re-posted, until now…

Track List:

Metric - Help I'm Alive (The Twelves Remix)
Air France – Collapsing at your Doorstep
Passion Pit – The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix)
White Rabbits – Percussion Gun
Bad Veins - The Lie (Acoustic)
Royksopp – What Else is There (Ministry of Sound Remix)
The Golden Filter - Solid Gold
Chairlift – Planet Health
Amadou & Mariam – Sabali
Moby – Shot in the Back of the Head
Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy (Air France Remix)

We’ve put together our “Best of” list — forthebeat’s 9 of ‘09, featuring 9 original tracks and 9 remixes. Not all of these debuted in 2009, but this list is comprised of our favorite tunes we couldn’t stop repeating, all year long.

Our friends over at Et Musique Pour Tous have compiled the list into an 18 track, candy for your ears, end of year mixtape.  Head over to EMPT and download here.  In no particular order, the track listing:

White Rabbits – Percussion Gun
Delorean – Deli
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll (A Trak Remix)
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
Sleigh Bells – Ring Ring
Whitest Boy Alive – Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
The xx – Crystalized
The Virgins – Rich Girls (The Twelves Remix)
Miike Snow – Sylvia
Telepathe – Chrome’s On It (Gold Panda Remix)
Florence and The Machine - Cosmic Love
Sebastien Tellier – Roche (Breakbot Remix)
La Roux - I'm Not Your Toy (Jack Beats Remix)
Air France – Collapsing At Your Doorstep
Lykke Li – Dance, Dance, Dance
Florence and the Machine – You’ve Got the Love (The xx Remix)
Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
The xx – Shelter (Them Jeans Drum Edit)

One of EMPT’s fans, KIKI, left an extensive comment list that is nothing short of amazing, describing how each track makes her feel.  Some incredible highlights here:

track 3: I fucking love a-trak. and the word alchemy. at 2:28 I’m jamming with steph in a club and then we’re at the beach and then in a plane….by about 4:25 we’re at hiro.

track 6: YESSSSSSSSSS. NO WORDS. JUST PARTY MOVES AND PARTY DRESSES. SEQUIN ONES. black sequins, and spaghetti straps and champagne and a disco ball and jumping on banquettes. and falling in love or out…

track 8: I wish I could walk around nyc with songs like this blasting from a boom box on my shoulder.

track 9: saturday afternoons during ny winter with no real sunlight and rain and snow and walking down the street with a hat and mittens and loving whats in your ears and loving strangers.

track 13: repeat. repeat. repeat. repeat. repeat. repeat. repeat.

track 14: whatevsky.

track 18: dance party in slow motion. or steph doing the running man…..

“No excuses left, waiting to fail, but not quite yet”

They are “seldom heard” and almost like a beautiful, distant dream, but December changes everything.  Swedish electro-pop duo Air France is coming… playing in Chicago for 3 days in a row, from Dec 31 thru Jan 2, at Empty Bottle.  For now, this seems to be the only overseas stop, aside from a show in Toronto on  Dec 28 at the Drake Hotel. No Way Down is the band’s second EP, released in 2008.  Songs “June Evenings,” “Collapsing at Your Doorstep” and “No Excuses” are among the best…

Get lost in your thoughts/running in the sand/fall asleep in the ocean/the way summer feels on your face track:

Air France – Collapsing At Your Doorstep

Amazingly, heavenly, beautifully, lovely, what it feels like to dream (KC is going to kill me for being cheesy but I don’t care) track:

Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy (Air France Remix)