Though their sixth album "Love 2" hasn't hit stores yet, French electronica duo Air are heading back to the studio next month, reprising their roles as film composers.  They'll be working on the music for Sam Garbaski's "Quartier lointain," a French adaptation of Jiro Taniguchi's 1998 manga, "Haruka na Machi e." This will be Air's second time working with a film score, following 2000's soundtrack to "The Virgin Suicides." That album still ranks as one of Air's best sellers to date, moving 159,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. 

As previously reported, Air's sixth studio album, "Love 2," is due October 6. Air spent the last five years constructing their own studio for the recording and return to sole production duties this time around, after working with producers such as Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) and Tony Hoffer (Beck) over the course of this decade.

"We wanted for this one to be only ourselves to produce the album, because we wanted to push the songs more," JB Dunckel tells Billboard.com. "We wanted to give the time to the songs to exist; when you work with someone, they're adding their way, their touch to a song at a second point."

"We have some really good songs; it's really emotional, warm and special," he adds.

Indeed, fans will note that Air has drifted back into the more warmly layered and textural feelings that was the hallmark of their earlier work, yet infusing the more pop direction they've taken this decade.  2001's "10,000Hz Legend" saw a shift in the band's sound, where they riffed heavily on a man-versus-machine theme, but Dunckel says those theme don't reappear this time around. 

 "For 10,000Hz it was about doing an experience with machines; doing the most psychedelic, electronic songs that we could.  But for this album, we don't play on the same idea. We don't try to be secret or strange; it's more about natural things."

Air plan to return to North America in 2010, where Dunckel says they'll play only major markets such as New York and Los Angeles.