Photo Credit: Chris Jortiz / CC by 2.0
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter announces a solo album and publicly reveals his face for the first time.
Thomas Bangalter, half of the legendary French electronic duo Daft Punk, has announced his first orchestral solo album and publicly revealed his face for the first time — as a realistic illustration.
Although they released some photos of themselves early in their career, Daft Punk quickly adopted an anonymous profile. They famously appeared in public wearing elaborate robot helmets, including their performance at the 2014 Grammy Awards, where they won album of the year for Random Access Memories, their final LP.
Bangalter’s new album, Mythologies, releases on April 7 on Erato/Warner Classics. It was initially commissioned for the ballet of the same name by the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, which premiered by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Romain Dumas.
“As a substantial lyrical work, Mythologies finds the co-founder of Daft Punk reinventing his approach to composition,” says the announcement, describing that the 90-minute score “shows scant regard for conventional stylistic boundaries” and reveals “a love of Baroque music and traces of American minimalism.”
The album first began in the autumn of 2019 when Angelin Preljocaj invited Bangalter to write the music for a new project to mark the culmination of several years of collaboration with the Opéra National de Bordeaux. The ballet is intended for ten dancers from the Opéra National de Bordeaux’s ballet company, along with ten others from Preljocaj’s own company, accompanied by the house’s resident orchestra.
Mythologies Tracklist
- I. Premiers Mouvements
- II. Le Catch
- III. Thalestris
- IV. Les Gémeaux I
- V. Les Amazones
- VI. L’Arrivée D’Alexandre
- VII. Treize Nuits
- VIII. Danae
- IX. Zeus
- X. L’Accouchement
- XI. Les Gorgones
- XII. Renaissances
- XIII. Le Minotaure
- XIV. Eden
- XV. Arès
- XVI: Aphrodite
- XVII. Les Naïades
- XVIII. Pas de Deux
- XIX: Circonvolutions
- XX. Les Gémeaux II
- XXI. Icare
- XXII. Danse Funèbre
- XXIII. La Guerre