JB Dunckel

Half of the French touch group Air, Jean-Benoît Dunckel (also known as JB Dunckel) has turned his attention to several solo projects and film composition. Born in Versailles (Yvelines), France, on September 7, 1969, he joined Nicolas Godin in the group Orange and studied mathematics to become a teacher. In 1995, he reunited with his friend to form the electronic music duo Air, which enjoyed international success with the albums Moon Safari (1998), 10,000 Hz Legend (2001), Talkie Walkie (2004) and the soundtrack to the film The Virgin Suicides (2000). In 2006, he created his first personal project under the name Darkel, followed by further albums with Air and the composition of soundtracks for the films Cyprien (2009), Summer (2015), Swagger (2016) and K.O. (2016). Meanwhile, Jean-Benoît Dunckel teamed up with English singer Lou Hayter to record an album under the name Tomorrow's World (2013), then with Icelandic musician Bardi Johannssonn for Starwalker (2016). After continuing in the electro-pop style with the solo album H+ (2018), this vintage keyboard specialist produced Mirages (2019), a more atmospheric collection, with Jonathan Fitoussi. Further film music is added to his discography, for the films Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Été 85 and Poissonsexe in 2020, followed by the ambient-toned solo album Carbon (2022) and the soundtrack to the film Normale (2023). In 2024, the album Paranormal Musicality takes the musician into a different style, that of classical composition for acoustic piano. It reached No. 6 in the classical music charts in France and No. 11 in the UK. The same year sees the publication of the music for the show Möbius Morphosis, recorded with the Maîtrise de Radio-France and choral conductor Sofi Jeanin. In 2026, JB Dunckel released a string quintet version of Paranormal Musicality, entitled Paranormal Music Chamber.