Thomas Bangalter, One-Half of Daft Punk, Announces Solo Album
French producer, DJ and Daft Punk member, Thomas Bangalter, has announced a new solo album titled Mythologies.
Daft Punk might be over, but former member Thomas Bangalter is in his solo era. The producer and DJ, 48, has announced his forthcoming album, Mythologies, for an April 7 release. The musician has also publicly revealed his face for the first time.
Originally titled after the Angelin Preljocaj-choreographed ballet of the same name, Mythologies "finds the co-founder of Daft Punk reinventing his approach to composition," according to a press statement. The 90-minute score also “shows scant regard for conventional stylistic boundaries,” exhibiting “a love of Baroque music and traces of American minimalism.”
The ballet premiered at the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in Boredeaux, France last summer. Bangalter's album includes 23 tracks that “embrace the history of orchestral ballet music” and was originally performed alongside ten dancers. The announcement adds that over the last thirty years, the artist has "explored the world of technology" and his music now explores “humankind." A translated description for Mythologies shares that the LP “isn’t dance” but instead “stigmatises our rituals, reveals the incongruity of our postures whether they are social, religious or pagan."
Daft Punk concluded their three-decade career as a duo in 2021, releasing final album Random Access Memories in 2013. The album featured two collaborations with Pharrell Williams, "Get Lucky" and "Lose Yourself to Dance," the former song winning Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2014 Grammy Awards. At the same ceremony, Random Access Memories won Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. The former duo have since re-released a 25th anniversary deluxe vinyl reissue of their 1997 debut Homework, followed by the storyboards from their "Around the World," "Fresh" and "Burnin'" music videos.
Pre-order Mythologies here.