Two astrophysics and architecture students walk into a bar on the moon. It sounds like the beginning of a joke - but at the end of the 20th century, it actually happened, leaving a serious mark on pop culture. In January 1998, Air released Moon Safari, an album that catapulted Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel to the top rung of the electronic music ladder. Here were two young men in their early 20s, with only a single previous EP, but who exuded the confidence and pedigree of seasoned professionals. Godin and Dunckel were blessed with the ability to intuit pop songs that could, and did, captivate the media: Moon Safari contains a universe. Today, the record's legacy is canonical, but at the time of its release, its multimillion-dollar success was far from assured.

Before long, Air's downtempo influence was easy to detect everywhere. Through Moon Safari, Air infected some of the great visionaries of the late 20th century - David Bowie, Madonna, Beck - and influenced leading figures of the new era - including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kevin Parker and Sofia Coppola, whose creative relationship with Air became as synergistic as that of Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch (another fan). 25 years on, it's not hard to see why Moon Safari has stood the test of time. It's an environment you want to live in forever. It's a revelation. It's a conversation song for a better future.