Word: hz
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...This week one of the twin pioneers of this pop renaissance releases an eagerly-awaited second album. Air's 10,000 Hz Legend is a sprawling baroque extravaganza. In 60 minutes of multifaceted music, it sparkles with unlikely references: Pink Floyd, cult sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick, Eric Satie, White Album-era Beatles, German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk and the Beach Boys are all in there somewhere. But there's also impeccably modern production and the latest computer technology. Air transcends its influences to create something dazzlingly unique. The duo from Versailles - a well-off suburb west of Paris...
...same could be said of Air's approach to music. 10,000 Hz Legend is a record that could never have been made in Britain or America. Although it occasionally nods politely in the direction of rock'n'roll, the album has clearly been produced by people for whom Claude Debussy will always remain more important than Chuck Berry...
...strength of 10,000 Hz Legend, you have to wish them well. By distilling our musical memories into something unmistakably - and compellingly - modern, Air has made the 21st century look a very attractive place to be. You'll never have heard anything remotely like it, but then it's not every day you come across what the French call a chef d'oeuvre...
Passau (July 27-Aug. 18) started its "European Weeks" with the hazy purpose of furthering European integration. That purpose was soon neglected, but the festival shows signs of thriving anyway, partially because of Passau's picturesque location at the confluence of the Inn, the Hz and the Danube. This yearns highlights: a performance of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony by the Bamberg Symphony under Joseph Keilberth; Bruckner's C Major Organ Prelude, played on the cathedral organ; two evenings of ballet danced by the Ljubljana Slovene National Opera and Ballet on the banks of the Danube...