Air France tease new music after debut of side project Hello Stranger

Following the quiet drop of "I Promised You A Miracle" last month, the often reticent Karlsson has been surprisingly active on social media, updating fans on what he's been up to lately and referencing a future where bandmate Henrik Markstedt might join him. Posting on the Air France facebook page, Karlsson commented: "I couldn't resist making music; it's too much fun. But I can’t putting too much pressure on myself, so I will only release songs sporadically and just have fun. Four bad songs and a good one now and then? Hopefully, Henrik is joining me later on. Have a wonderful late summer and don't forget to listen to the crickets; it's their time of year”.

Air France's contribution to the early 00s music scene was brief but significant. Signed to XL for a time, a long player from Karlsson and Markstedt never emerged but their short-lived career saw the pair integral to a sound - and very-loosely-knit scene - that overlapped with the late 00s blog house and chillwave sound. The band announced their split in 2012, announcing the end via a post on their Tumblr. "We have probably produced 7 albums since [EP] No Way Down; a UK Garage record, a house record, an r ‘n’ b record… but we’ve never been able to finish anything, nothing was ever good enough. We have tried so hard, and we truly gave it all we had. And now we have decided to stop trying, even though it breaks our hearts. But for all the reasons mentioned above, and for a thousand more, we don’t regret a thing."

Air France's history is pretty well covered in our 2013 history of the band. “I don’t regret our decision to break up”, Karlsson told Best Fit back then, “I try, however difficult it may be sometimes, to accept that life does change. But sometimes I wake up and I feel sad that we no longer exist. For me, Air France was not only a band, but more of a context in which I felt that I could be sensitive and be okay with it. In retrospect, I think that we worked so hard with part-time jobs and the music to get it all together that our inner voices started to fade way.”

Karlsson (pictured above in 2011) clarified the band's end on an Instagram post last month: "We broke up just when we were starting to become popular and right after we had signed a contract with XL Recordings in London. That probably wasn’t the smartest move. But life isn’t about being smart or calculated, in my opinion. Even though it might be an advantage sometimes I’ve heard."

Their music has been long out of print on physical, with copies of their double EP collection No Way Down/On Trade Winds going for over £150. Their parting shot "It Feels Good To Be Around You" still isn't on streaming and their last recorded output together was via a Yumi Zouma cover with their memories of one another interwoven into the song.

Hello Stranger is, says Karlsson, "a pretty unambitious project" which took shape last autumn when he released "a small bedroom song... about remembering things" named "Hug Me Honey" which you can listen to on Soundcloud. Its follow-up "I Promised You A Miracle" made it to streaming services and picks up where Air France left off, with all the hallmarks of hazy, nostalgia-fuelled summers by the sea and memories love-lost friendships. "For poetic, summer surbubian souls," Karlsson wrote on its release.

Built around a lift from Smokey Robinson’s ”Ooh Baby Baby”, Karlsson explains "the sample was originally intended to be more prominent [but[ parts of it were cut the last minutes in the mix. The voice saying 'Love is a pleasure' in the break belongs to the legendary radio host Rankin Miss P. Her radio show was amazing (you can find them at Youtube). The recurring ”ooh voice” in the song is sung by Erykah Badu and the ”bye” sample is from the movie Before Sunrise. Dangerous stuff, indeed."

On the Hello Stranger instagram, Karlsson – now a high school teacher – fills in the gaps of what he's been up to in the last 15 years. "I need to make sure my students learn something," he explains. "Otherwise, there will be hundreds of young people out there who don’t know about The Rah Band, Yo La Tengo or Evelyn King. Besides, I need projects in my life where everything doesn’t have to be perfect, where everything isn’t measured or compared. Just build on a feeling from a groove, a terrible chat up lines, endless summer fields, simple dreams. Managing a story, if you know what I mean? That’s why I’ll probably release half-finished songs, sketches, fragments, songs with only drums. Four bad songs, maybe once in a while. Who knows? Everything is open and loose."

Lead photo by Sonny Malhotra