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Nevertheless, Coppola knew what she wanted and, pressed for time, Godin and Dunckle returned to the studio for a\u00a0weekend. In need of vocals, they turned to the only singer they knew, fellow Versailles native and Phoenix frontman, Thomas Mars, who in a\u00a0twist of fate no one could have anticipated, Coppola would later end up marrying. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We showed Thomas the scene where \u200b\u2018<\/span>Highschool Lover\u2019 plays,\u201d Dunckle recalls. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It was in the scene where you have Trip Fontaine lying on the floor with Lux and there\u2019s this theme playing in the background. So that\u2019s why he was thinking about \u200b\u2018<\/span>playground love\u2019 when he wrote the lyrics\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Eager to separate his cameo appearance from his band, Phoenix, Mars assumed the moniker of Gordon Tracks and, working alongside saxophonist Hugo Ferran, Air created the song \u200b\u2018<\/span>Playground Love\u2019 based on the instrumental \u200b\u2018<\/span>Highschool Lover\u2019<\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>which permeates much of the score. Though Godin was initially hesitant, it would eventually serve as the album\u2019s opening track; an enduring piece of cinematic music that reflects the film\u2019s themes, while standing alone as its own melancholic love\u00a0song.<\/span><\/p>\n With recording complete and Air unable to record new material due to touring commitments, Coppola found herself in something of a\u00a0predicament. Having already excised much of the novel\u2019s more graphic content with a\u00a0view to reshaping the film into a\u00a0more romantic story, much of Air\u2019s darker material no longer fit. Working with music supervisor Brian Reitzell, Coppola set about splicing select tracks to picture in a\u00a0manner more akin to needle drops found elsewhere in the film, alongside period songs from the likes of ELO<\/span>, Styx, Al Green and The Bee\u00a0Gees.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Maybe she wanted to have something more close to the picture, but we didn\u2019t have the time to do that,\u201d Dunckle muses. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We had just a\u00a0video tape player and hard drives to record the music\u2026 All we could do was create a\u00a0piece of music and give it to her, and she had to cut it to the picture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With 2025<\/span> marking the 25<\/span>th<\/sup> anniversary of the album\u2019s release, Godin and Dunckle decided to revisit the recordings and create a\u00a0redux version using the original stems for each instrument. They soon discovered that they had lost several hard drives from the original recording sessions. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We didn\u2019t realise that it could become an interesting, well-known album,\u201d Dunckle laughs. \u200b\u201c<\/span>But in cinema 50<\/span>% of movies are lost, so doing some safeties is really important. It\u2019s part of your job as an artist to take care of your art and to save it and to regularly do some digital copies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The duo set about painstakingly reconstructing the missing elements. \u200b\u2018<\/span>Highschool Lover\u2019 had to be re-recorded entirely from scratch using the same instruments, equipment and musicians. \u200b\u2018<\/span>Suicide Underground\u2019, an ominous, pensive track built around a\u00a0demo of the film\u2019s narration, was rebuilt with only the original drum stems for reference, while its dialogue, originally sampled from a\u00a0VHS<\/span>, had to be separated from the original master with AI<\/span> before being added to the new\u00a0mix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>We did like Peter Jackson to extract the vocals from the record,\u201d Godin explains with a\u00a0smile. \u200b\u201c<\/span>With half the other tracks it was just one instrument, or maybe two, that were missing. In the past when we used to record on tapes, you didn\u2019t lose anything, but now with the computer and the hard drives and the safeties, we still lost that\u00a0stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While they share names, Air\u2019s album remains a\u00a0tantalising glimpse of what might have been \u2013 a\u00a0collection of darker soundscapes that found themselves without a\u00a0home as Coppola\u2019s vision evolved. While only \u200b\u2018<\/span>Playground Love\u2019, the instrumental \u200b\u2018<\/span>Clouds Up\u2019 and numerous variations of the ethereal \u200b\u2018<\/span>Highschool Lover\u2019 are present in the final edit, it remains a\u00a0fascinating snapshot of a\u00a0band exploring new sonic possibilities that would go on to shape their\u00a0sound.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I don\u2019t know if our soundtrack is good or not, but in my opinion, to do something kind of remarkable and noticeable, you have to be a\u00a0little bit off,\u201d\u00a0Dunckle states modestly. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The soundtrack is a\u00a0little bit off. It sounds like another thing on the album, but it pulls the feeling of the movie into something kind of different.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n