Thomas Bangalter's first solo album in two decades.
Thomas Bangalter, one of the two members of pioneering French electronic music duo Daft Punk, has announced his first instrumental solo album and revealed his face, albeit in the form of a realistic sketch.
Daft Punk famously kept their faces hidden as they performed concerts and made public appearances wearing elaborate helmets that became iconic and synonymous with their image.
Early in their career as a duo, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo released some blurry photos of themselves, but quickly adopted an air of mystery about their identity.
Thomas Bangalter's new album is titled 'Mythologies' and will be released on April 7 via Erato/Warner Classics.
It is a work originally commissioned by choreographer Angelin Preljocaj for his ballet of the same name and presented for the first time by the Orchester National Bordeaux Aquitaine in Bordeaux, France.
The performance premiered last summer, in collaboration between Ballet Preljocaj and the Orchester National Bordeaux Aquitaine, which presented the music of Thomas Bangalter under the direction of Romain Dumas.
The ballet is an exploration of contemporary rituals, as well as how foundational myths shape the collective imagination.
According to a related press release, Thomas Bangalter's music for 'Mythologies' is not based on his electronic and dance music background.
In fact, Preljocaj reportedly approached him about the work just as Bangalter was ardently wanting to write a piece for one orchestra. In the 90-minute project, the Daft Punk co-founder "shows little respect for conventional stylistic boundaries" and taps into his love of baroque music, adding traces of American minimalism.
The story of "Mythologies" began in the fall of 2019, when Angelin Preljocaj invited Thomas Bangalter to write the music for a new work that would be the culmination of a multi-year collaboration with the Bordeaux National Opera.
The work was to be performed by ten dancers from the ballet troupe of the Bordeaux National Opera and another ten dancers from Preljocaj's troupe, as well as the opera orchestra.
In recent years, Thomas Bangalter has focused heavily on creating soundtracks. He has written the music for the 2017 Latvian film Riga (Take 1), Gaspar Noé's 2018 horror film Climax, and the 2022 French film En Corps, which coincidentally has a female dancer as its subject. ballet.
He has also done minor production for artists such as Arcade Fire and Matthieu Chedid, who goes by the stage name -M-.
In 2021, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo announced that Daft Punk was disbanding after an iconic 28-year run on the electronic music scene. At the time, however, the band had already been inactive for eight years, having released their last album, 'Random Access Memories', in 2013.
