Pitchfork

Pull out those obnoxious Nextel talkie walkies and report the following to everyone on your call list: According to a Billboard.com interview with Air member JB Dunckel, the French duo is almost done with its upcoming studio album, which is slated for an early 2007 release on Astralwerks. Also, Dunckel will put out a solo record via Astralwerks on September 19.

Dunckel's solo debut will be released under the moniker Darkel. Dunckel told Billboard.com that the name was inspired by the black keys on a piano: "Most of the tracks contain some piano, and the chords are on the black keys most of the time, because I like the sound of that. Also, it was made very late at night. You have this attraction for the blackness, the space."

For Darkel, Dunckel recruited a few friends to cover bass and "a little bit of guitar." The artist handles vocals for eight out of the album's ten tracks. Its other two songs are "sort of" instrumentals, Dunckel told Billboard.com: "Most of the instruments are acoustic, but I like to treat and process them."

The tracklist includes "TV Destroy", a number about "destroying your TV when it's getting on your nerves," "My Own Sun", which focuses on Dunckel's belief that "inside your heart you have your own sun shining," (puke!) and more. The full tracklisting is as follows:

01 Be My Friend
02 At the End of the Sky
03 TV Destroy
04 Some Men
05 My Own Sun
06 Pearl
07 Earth
08 Beautiful Woman
09 How Brave You Are
10 Bathroom Spirit

As for Air's as-of-yet-untitled follow-up to 2004's Talkie Walkie Dunckel told Billboard.com, "It's another direction, for sure. It's different, but it's Air. We like to change all the time. If we don't change our sound, we'll be dead. People who like our music like to discover new things. They're curious. They have some cultural musical background also, so they want to be surprised."

The record features several guest musicians, none of which have been announced at this point in time.

As previously reported, the pair wrote the music for French singer/actress Charlotte Gainsbourg's new album, 5:55, due August 28 in Europe and September 4 in the UK. A North American date has not yet been set. The duo also contributed to the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's forthcoming film Marie Antoinette, which hits the big screen on October 20.