Daft Punk, the iconic French electronic music duo comprised of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, have confirmed their breakup.
The duo made the announcement in the form of an eight-minute video shared to their social media pages on Monday morning. Aptly-titled Epilogue, the video dated for today (2/22/21) is an excerpt from the band’s 2006 Electroma, where the two masked musicians share a parting moment in their trademark robot outfits and helmets before one of them explodes.
The video closes with “1993 – 2021” emblazoned across the screen and a final shot of the lone member walking into the sunset.
Daft Punk’s publicist also confirmed the duo’s breakup to Pitchfork on Monday but did not give a reason for their decision to split. Watch the full Daft Punk breakup announcement video below.
Daft Punk – Epilogue
[Video: Daft Punk]
Daft Punk had not released any new music over the past eight years since their Grammy-winning Random Access Memories arrived in May 2013. They did collaborate with The Weeknd on a pair of top 10 singles “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming” from his 2016 Starboy album, and were reportedly tapped to score the soundtrack to TRON 3.
The duo first rose to fame in the late 1990s in the French house scene, combining elements of funk, techno, disco, synthpop, and more with the club sounds of their home. Though the group released just four conventional studio albums (not counting their Tron: Legacy soundtrack in 2010), each one is considered a landmark album in dance music, and each of the group’s massive touring productions has been effectively canonized in contemporary live music lore.
In 2013, after an eight-year gap, Daft Punk released their most recent album, Random Access Memories, a disco-inspired masterpiece that went on to top the Billboard 200 on the way to an RIAA Platinum certification in the U.S. The album’s lead single,”Get Lucky”, which features Pharrell Williams, has become one of the best-selling digital singles of all time and topped singles charts in more than 30 countries around the world. The album picked up several Grammy Awards in 2014, including “Album of the Year.”
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[H/T Pitchfork]