Nicolas Godin of French ambient/pop duo Air announced an expanded edition of his 2020 album Concrete and Glass will be released on June 25 via Because Music. He shared new bonus track from the record called “Another Side,” featuring We Are KING.
“Another Side” is a downtempo R&B track with vocals from We Are KING’s Amber Strother. “Minutes grow to hours/Days become whole years/When the last time you wore a smile, well you were here/The city leaves you lovelorn and you don’t know how to deal/Looking for something you can feel,” she sings. Godin’s instrumental has a funky bass groove and fittingly soulful synth chords as Strother turns to an optimistic chorus about “An open door to show us there’s another side.”
We Are KING explained, “‘Another Side’ is an ode to searching for one’s self – it’s about those moments where you need to break away and are looking for something more, sometimes on the other side of the veil. It’s a tribute to the feeling of freeing your mind – and it was so exciting to create this moment of music with Nicolas Godin, who we deeply admire.”
A music video for the track shows Strother as a video game player character called Amber the Brave, with her mutt sidekick Rio the Dalmation. The mechanics of the game show her collecting energy from futuristic flowers and traveling across the game’s world, from the desert to a train station, then on to various other locations that are mostly grounded in reality but with futuristic characteristics. The concept, 3D animation and design were created by Iracema Trevisan.
Iracema Trevisan explained the idea, “I love the interpretation of We Are KING to this song, the way they sound fierce, brave but still vulnerable. That’s where the idea for the game hero came from. I wanted to illustrate this eternal quest for something else, for ‘Another Side’ of life. It can be thrilling like finding magic doors in a virtual maze.”
Godin stated, “I’m happy that this song finally found its path thanks to We Are KING. I wrote this song a few years ago when I was just having fun with my children in the Air studio. For some reason I always thought this tune could make a good song and I decided not to give up on it. Finally after all these years, I had the extreme pleasure to hear what We are KING have done with it and will always remember that night when I heard ‘Another Side’ on my phone for the first time. It was the confirmation for me that everything comes at the right time when you let destiny guide your steps.”
Concrete and Glass is Godin’s second solo album, following 2015’s Contrepoint. His last album with Air was 2014’s Music for Museum, but the other half of Air, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, has also been releasing solo music since then. As Air, they’re best known for their debut album Moon Safari (1998).
Although “Another Side” didn’t make the original album, there were a lot of impressive artists involved with vocal contributions to Concrete and Glass, including Kate NV, Kadhja Bonet, Kirin J Callinan, Cola Boyy and Alexis Taylor. The new disc will include additional collaborations from those first three artists, the ‘K’ named vocalists.
Concrete and Glass: Expanded Edition tracklist:
1. Concrete and Glass
2. Back To Your Heart (featuring Kate NV)
3. We Forgot Love (featuring Kadhja Bonet)
4. What Makes Me Think About You
5. Time On My Hands (featuring Kirin J Callinan)
6.The Foundation (featuring Cola Boyy)
7. Catch Yourself Falling (featuring Alexis Taylor)
8. The Border
9. Turn Right, Turn Left
10. Cité radieuse
Disc 2:
1. Another Side ft. We Are KING
2. Love Theme ft. Kadhja Bonet
3. Girl Like Sally ft. Kirin J Callinan
4. Ti I Ya ft. Kate NV
5. L’Enfance n’a qu’un temps (“Another Side” demo)
6. Spring Ritournelle (“Catch Yourself Falling” demo)
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