Thomas Bangalter, formerly of the acclaimed musical duo Daft Punk, has announced his first solo album. The orchestral work is titled Mythologies. The announcement comes alongside Bangalter shedding the iconic helmet he wore as part of Daft Punk and revealing his face to the public for the first time, albeit in the form of a drawing. The new album spans 90 minutes and, per a press release, “shows scant regard for conventional stylistic boundaries. The body of work reveals a love of Baroque music and hints to traces of American minimalism, its brief phrases subjected to a process of progressive variation. A nuanced and colorful work, Mythologies is the outcome of a lengthy journey.”
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According to that same press release, Bangalter has been working on his project since 2019, “when Angelin Preljocaj invited Thomas Bangalter to write the music for a new work that was to mark the culmination of several years of collaboration with the Opéra National de Bordeaux. The piece was intended for ten dancers from the Opéra National de Bordeaux’s ballet company, ten others from Preljocaj’s own company and the house’s resident orchestra. This invitation arrived at the very moment that Bangalter was itching to write for a full orchestra.”
The release continues, “The form, the stakes and the creative process involved in Mythologies are all radically different and represent a new stage in Bangalter’s development over the last thirty years of writing, composing and performing music, during which time he has explored the world of technology and the relationship between humankind and machines in his seminal work with Daft Punk. This score does not draw on the resources of electronic music but instead involves the large-scale traditional force of a symphony and, as such, it embraces the history of orchestral ballet music in a gesture that is both personal and collaborative.”
Mythologies, arriving on April 7th, is comprised of 23 “scenes.” Here’s the 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
