Daft Punk announce split after 28 years
Daft Punk; one of the most influential and popular groups to emerge in the past 30 years; has announced their retirement via a video titled “Epilogue” posted Monday morning. The duo’s longtime publicist, Kathryn Frazier, officially confirmed the split to Variety and declined to provide further details.
In the clip, musicians Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo; dressed in their iconic robot costumes; bid each other farewell in the desert, before one of them self-destructed.
Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993, helping to define the French touch style of house music.
Daft Punk have retired after 28 years, announcing the news with an eight-minute video titled “Epilogue” https://t.co/dZ9dkVJ7NW pic.twitter.com/Vx2fF5Ulgy
— Dancing Astronaut (@dancingastro) February 22, 2021
Their debut album; 1997’s Homework, was a dance music landmark; featuring classic singles “Around the World” and “Da Funk.” By the release of its follow-up, Discovery, in 2001, the duo had taken to making public appearances in the robot outfits that became their trademark. The singles “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” cemented them as global superstars. Their imprint in the popular imagination continued to deepen in subsequent years, with records including the third album Human After All, live LP Alive 2007, and the Tron: Legacy soundtrack album.
In 2013; Daft Punk released Random Access Memories, an album dedicated to living instrumentation and the American roots of funk and disco. It went on to win numerous Grammy Awards and cemented Daft Punk as legends of genre-blending pop music. It would be their final album.
A standout of Daft Punk’s early career included the anime film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. It told a visualized narrative of their album Discovery in partnership with legendary Japanese studio Toei Animation and manga artist Leiji Matsumoto.
