Daft Punk Have Split After 28 Years
Daft Punk has announced their split with an eight-minute video titled Epilogue, excerpted from their 2006 film, Electroma. After 28 years of producing some of the most influential and popular electronic music ever, the French duo is calling it quits.
Their farewell clip features Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo — donning their signature space helmets and leather jackets. The video sees one of the members remove the other's jacket to reveal an energy pack. The other ominously touches a button on the pack. Watch the video below to see what happens.
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk in Paris in 1993. Their first single, “The New Wave,” released in 1994, followed the next year by “Da Funk.” That track became a European hit single and set the tone for their debut album, Homework, which came out in 1997 and also featured the dance classic, “Around the World.”
The duo released their second album, Discovery in 2001 and around the same time, began donning their now-iconic robot helmets. Tracks including “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” cemented the pair as pop heavyweights. Their dominance only solidified with their third album Human After All, followed by their live LP Alive 2007, and the Tron: Legacy soundtrack album.
“Get Lucky” featuring Pharrell Williams was the lead single of their 2013 album Random Access Memories. It catapulted them back into the charts in 2013, selling millions of copies globally and earning the duo two Grammys. Their follow-up single “Lose Yourself to Dance,” also featured Pharrell. The same year, they were also credited with co-production on several tracks on Kanye West’s Yeezus, including “On Sight,” “Black Skinhead,” and “I Am a God. All up, Daft Punk was nominated for 12 Grammy awards and won six. They've been involved in a number of film projects including Interstella 5555, Tron: Legacy, and Electroma. Daft Punk's rep broke the news to Variety but declined to say whether they'll continue working together under different names or whether other new projects are in the works, though there is rampant speculation that the announcement will mark be the beginning of a new project.