Jean-Benoît Dunckel (JB) holds what is probably a rare distinction. He studied mathematics before forming his band, Air, in 1995 with Nicolas Godin. Not only is he smart, but he’s also charming, witty and a composer of considerable grace. And he has reason to be content. Air’s electronic moods and atmospheres have graced five sublime studio albums and the duo’s work has found a place in modern culture through its consistent use as backdrop on television shows. They have also composed specifically for films. There are few better modern soundtracks than their beautiful, dark yet richly evocative sophomore album, The Virgin Suicides, for Sofia Coppola’s serene film, and the soundtrack to the excellent Scarlet Johansson/Bill Murray flick, Lost In Translation, contained several contributions from Air.

Then there is the name itself: Air … is a backronym for Amour, Imagination, Rêve which translates to Love, Imagination, Dream. And, yes, that is backronym. It is a phrase that is constructed “after the fact” from a previously existing word or abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or an acronym. So now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s sweetly switch continents to France and Paris where the capital is shivering through winter. JB has a place on the north side of town, near the North Station which apparently is a very important station, in fact, he says, the No 1 station in Europe. Lines end, merge, takeoff and link from there.

JB has just returned from a holiday in the south of France that included some skiing and is now visiting the studio daily. “One day I work on a song then I might get rid of it. Sometimes it’s annoying but I like it. It’s a chance to pass an entire day making music which is what I enjoy.

“I see all my friends going to work in offices. Some are working for big companies and have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. It’s really bad; it can kill you. In music, sure you have some pressure but it’s also art. Every day you work creatively, it is a much better way to be.”

By the time Air reach Australia for the 2008 V Festival, recording of the follow up to 2007’s Pocket Symphony will be underway in the band’s new studio, hopefully for a release date of late 2008.

“The last album was really about something peaceful and calm,” JB says. “A work in the zen musical attitude but for the new one we want to change again. I didn’t like so much the cold aspect of the last one. I want to do something warmer, more dirty in its feel, blacker. I want more soul in it.”

Some of this will come about through the band’s songwriting process. Rarely do you find anybody who can talk so coherently and in such detail about how you get a song together as JB.

“We might have an idea on piano and guitar and we’ll bring it into the studio and start recording. Then it can go anywhere.

“Sometimes we’ll start with a song and then begin deleting parts and because of that it changes into something different. We record all the time as we try to find new paths. When anything you add doesn’t work anymore you know you’re done.

“You need to break the song for it to succeed. For instance, the verse might be great but the chorus might be awful so we delete the chorus and then try to create a new chorus and that can take a year or more. Sometimes the song will wait until the next album. The longest a song has waited for a new chorus is two years. That was Sexy Boy.” But that seems like a very easy song, one that to the ear is a pop bounce with flowing lyrics. “Aah, yes, but it was complicated. It sounds simple now but sometimes the simplest things are the hardest; sometimes we do a song and composition and recording takes just four hours and others can take two years because they are complicated and because there are no vibes and we cannot get into them.

“The important thing about composing is to be inspired. You bring a universe to a song. It can be the sounds themselves, the chords, the words, everything. It is a projection in your imagination into your culture.”

JB admits to be completely surprised by the way film and television too to Air’s music. He thinks it’s because while it’s emotionally soothing it’s very empty in the way it moves. That leaves the people using the music as the soundtrack to a scene room to fill in the detail.

And there probably more soundtracks to come. “It is something we’ll probably do by default,” he says. “If Air doesn’t work for us any more in pop music in the future then we’ll do something special - we’ll move into underground pop and electronic music, become very experimental. Who knows, but there are plenty of possibilities.”

It appears something will be in the Air for a long time to come.