Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon are indisputable architects of the French Touch - the emotive house music conjured from looped samples with an inimitable Gallic flare that emerged from Paris in the mid 90s. In 2022 these two originals will present their first ever collaboration as Braxe & Falcon in the form of the Step By Step EP. The release represents a sublime distillation of their shared musical essence. Both Braxe and Falcon, who are cousins, had pivotal collaborations with Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter - Falcon with Bangalter as Together, Braxe with Bangalter as Stardust. Braxe went on to release a dazzling catalog of upper cuts, and Falcon served as co-producer/writer on “Contact,” the explosive closing track of Daft Punk’s 2013 megalith Random Access Memories. With no formal training Braxe & Falcon started out making music with samplers, which inevitably gave way to an obsession with the magical, microscopic moments in the songs of others that could be flipped and transformed into something new and intoxicating. Their passion for the process remained and they set out to recapture the naivety, the imperfections and the joy of their first adventures in music. The EP opens with “Step By Step,” an ecstatic vocal drone with a pleading chord progression of syrupy synthesizer. The production alone is hypnotic, and with the addition of vocals from noted French touch fan Panda Bear the track transcends to something completely majestic, resplendent in its glowing, lush simplicity.