Air

The French duo's work is full of mystical characters we don't quite know what to make of: "Sexy Boy," "Cherry Blossom Girl," "La Femme D'Argent." They're lovingly painted but just beyond our reach, vivid but surreal. It's why they haunt us. The same might be said of Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin's sound. For a decade, the band has brought an ambient vocabulary--full of strange synths and whispery vocals--to bear on deeply inviting pop melodies. It's the "chanson" vision realized in the digital era, a Gainsbourg daydream with a full palette at its disposal. On the group's latest, the lush and abstracted "Pocket Symphony," Radiohead production wizard Nigel Godrich helps them pick the colors. Led by a range of Japanese instruments, they prove to be the right ones.