Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, aka Daft Punk, reportedly recorded an album's worth of material in 2018. Why is this news? Because the duo parted ways in 2021. And before that, their last completed release, 2013's Random Access Memories, collected five Grammy Awards in 2014. So, what is happening?
Daft Punk, perform at Sydney's NeverEverLand in 2007.
In an interview with alt.news 26:46 — a student-run television program at Southern Illinois University— RAM session drummer Quinn spoke about not only his involvement in providing varied amounts of percussion (his specialty) with the pair, but also that he was among the last to sign on for RAM... but the first to begin work for this "unreleased" album.
Daft Punk Drummer Reveals Unreleased 5th Album | alt.news extras
Quinn also mentioned that he's been "checking in" with the pair to see if any or all of the material will actually see the light of day. While the logical progression would have been for this collection of songs to drop sometime after 2013, the Daft Punk duo has been noticeably silent in recent years. Their wins at the Grammy Awards in 2014 (and performance with Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams and Stevie Wonder on "Get Lucky") were gratifying and surprising. However, aside from intermittent collaborations, notably on The Weeknd's singles "Starboy" (the duo's only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "I Feel It Coming" in 2016, Daft Punk as we know it stopped.
Stevie Wonder & Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky ( Medley ) Live Grammy Performance
There have been various anniversaries observed in the ensuing years, with the last release being November 2023's Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition), a curious addition to the Daft Punk catalog as a re-imagination of the original minus percussion. In 2023, Bangalter emerged with a solo release of an orchestral score, and revealed in a New York Times interview that artificial intelligence was one of the components for stopping Daft Punk, adding, "the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot."
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Quinn, in his interview, stated that he did have permission from Bangalter and Homem-Christo to freely speak about the unreleased abandoned project. There is the possibility of the material being released at some point, but until Daft Punk makes that known, the future is still in "discovery."
