World-renowned electronic music act Daft Punk are breaking up after 28 years. The French DJ producer duo comprised of Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo hinted at the decision in a theatrical video, and their publicist later confirmed it.
The nearly eight-minute video, excerpted from their 2006 film Electroma, depicts the two artists wearing their iconic robot costumes walking out into a remote desert. One takes off his jacket to reveal a control panel on his back that the other uses to arm a bomb, which detonates and blows the first one up. The text “1993-2021” is then displayed before an extended shot of the second robot walking into the sunset.
Daft Punk publicist Kathryn Frazier confirmed the duo’s split to Pitchfork. No reason has been given at the time of writing.
Who Were Daft Punk?
Building upon the “French touch” house music movement, Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk five years after meeting in 1987. They released their debut single, “The New Wave,” in 1994, and they would later remix it as “Alive,” which appeared on their 1997 debut album, Homework.
Tracks like “Da Funk” and “Around The World” helped Daft Punk introduce a highly influential style of electro funk to the world, as did “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” from their 2001 effort, Discovery. As the years wore on both their musical output and public appearances became fewer and farther between, but they rode back into to the mainstream spotlight off the success of “Get Lucky” from their 2013 album, Random Access Memories.
Neither Thomas Bangalter nor Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo have indicated any future plans for their solo careers at the time of writing.
