Thomas Bangalter Reveals The Reasons For Daft Punk Split
A large part of Daft Punk‘s allure was the mystery behind the machine. After nearly three decades of making music under their distinctive robot helmets, the pioneering French electronic dance group decided to end their career in 2021. However, member Thomas BangalterGuy-Manuel de Homem Christo and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo both hung up their mechanical gear because of technological advances.
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“[In Daft Punk,] we tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine cannot feel, but a human can,” Bangalter told the BBC. “We were always on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology… As much as I love this character, the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot.”
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They broke up, never being one to give an easy answer. cryptic eight-minute “Epilogue” video In which robots moved into the distance with one of them exploding. Neither man could explain what that meant.
Bangalter is now on his first solo venture in over 20 years. Mythologies, which began life as a ballet score performed at Bordeaux’s Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in July 2022. The orchestral album, which drops on Friday (April 7), was inspired by his late mother and aunt — both dancers, and his uncle, a choreographer. He said that after decades of making electronic dance music, he was moved to write songs that were not amplified and “didn’t require any electricity. It was just me and the scoring paper.”
It is a drastic change from the driving electronic sound of Daft Punk. Bangalter explained that it was a conscious choice. “Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters. Guy-Man and I felt that this was an important point.[uel] to not spoil the narrative while it was happening,” he said of their focus on keeping the story wrapped in mystery during their 28-year run in disguise.
“Now the story has ended, it felt interesting to reveal part of the creative process that is very much human-based and not algorithmic of any sort,” he explained, noting that the central thesis of Daft Punk was that the line between humanity and technology should be very stark.
“It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and going away from them. I love technology as an instrument. [but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves,” he said, describing their robot characters as a kind of two-plus decade “performance art installation” in the vein of beloved performance artist Marina Abramović.
In fact, one of the reasons he’s stepping away from his group’s pioneering electronic sound on Mythologies This is his concern about artificial intelligence and its impact on the creative arts, at a moment when ChatGPT, other programs, are creating music, literature, and creative facsimilies, that are difficult to separate from human-made efforts.
“My concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence go beyond its use in music creation,” he said.
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