Between Daft Punk's astronaut gear and Air's analog synth-driven Moon Safari, French electronic musicians have historically shown great nostalgia towards the old space age. Continuing the trend is this soundtrack to a marvelously restored color version of George Melies' pioneering 1902 film about space travel (recently re-canonized in Martin Scorcese’s Hugo). At 31 minutes, this set is double the film's length, so alongside score instrumentals like the twitchy trip-hop jaunt "Sonic Armada" is non-film filler like "Seven Stars," a piano-driven countdown with Beach House's Victoria LeGrande. Like her collaborators, she sounds like she was weaned on Dark Side of the Moon.

Listen to "Sonic Armada":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“IRM”

Fashioned to mimic the sound of a magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, "IRM" (the French designation for the brain scan) grew out of Gainsbourg’s love of the sound of the clickety-clack of medical machinery. The IRM album project also marked the fulfillment of two goals for the singer: to document a traumatic experience, and to record an album with Beck. Though her co-creator and producer didn’t necessarily know the details of her water-skiing accident and resulting cerebral hemorrhage (which lead to the IRM of the song's title), he somehow knew how to handle the material. "Beck had a way of guessing what I was thinking and feeling without me telling him," said Gainsbourg. "We never discussed these things explicitly."