Томас Бангальтер: Француз музыкантының өмірбаяны мен шығармашылығы

French musician (born 1975)

Thomas Bangalter (tɔmɑ bɑ̃ɡaltɛʁ; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and composer. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, alongside Guy Manuel de Homem Christo. He has recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, as well as a solo artist. Bangalter's work has influenced a wide range of artists in various genres. Bangalter owned the music label Roulé until its liquidation in 2018. He began playing the piano at the age of 6, taking lessons from a music staff member of the Paris Opera. Bangalter has stated that his parents were strict in keeping up his practice, for which he later thanked them. His father, Daniel Vangarde, was a songwriter and producer for performers such as the Gibson Brothers, Ottawan and Sheila B. Devotion. As expressed by Bangalter, "I never had any intention to do what my father was doing".

Bangalter met Guy Manuel de Homem Christo while attending the Lycée Carnot school in 1987. They discovered their mutual fascination with films and music of the 1960s and 1970s, "very basic cult teenager things, from Easy Rider to the Velvet Underground." They and Laurent Brancowitz eventually joined to form an indie rock trio called Darlin', in which Bangalter performed bass guitar. Bangalter felt that "It was still maybe more a teenage thing at that time. It's like, you know, everybody wants to be in a band." which inspired Bangalter and de Homem Christo's new band name. In 1996, Bangalter was in a group known as Da Mongoloids, consisting of Armand Van Helden, Bangalter, and Junior Sanchez, under the record label Strictly Rhythm. They created the song "Spark da Meth", which was their only song. Vangarde was thanked for his efforts in the liner notes of Homework. The title of the album is partially attributed to the fact that Homework was recorded in Bangalter's bedroom. As he remarked, "I had to move the bed into another room to make space for the gear." A different act called Spacedust released a re recorded version of the track, titled "Gym and Tonic" under East West Records to wider commercial success. "Gym and Tonic" became a number one single in the United Kingdom shortly after "Music Sounds Better with You" had peaked at number two in the same chart. During 1998, Bangalter and de Homem Christo collaborated with Romanthony in what would become the first of the Discovery sessions. In 2005 Daft Punk released their third studio album, Human After All. As de Homem Christo noted, "Every album we've done is tightly linked with our lives. [ ] The internal, personal stuff Thomas went through during Human After All made it closer to where he was at the time". Bangalter was the sound effects director for the 2009 film Enter the Void, his second work with filmmaker Gaspar Noé following Irréversible. He initially had been approached by Noé to compose the soundtrack of Enter the Void, but Bangalter was preoccupied with work on the Tron: Legacy score at the time. Bangalter instead provided various clips of drones and ambiance for the film to be accompanied by music by other artists from the 1960s and 70s. He is billed in the credits as sound effects director, and the film features his track "Désaccords" originally composed for Irréversible. In 2011, Bangalter directed and choreographed a short film featuring Élodie Bouchez that served as an advertisement for the fashion line Co. A year later, Bangalter scored the short film First Point directed by Richard Phillips and starring Lindsay Lohan. In 2013 Bangalter and Homem Christo released their fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. One of the collaborators on the album, Giorgio Moroder, recalled that the duo had a perfectionist approach; he had recorded his vocal contribution on multiple microphones despite the fact that only Bangalter would notice the difference. In 2016, Daft Punk produced and co wrote two songs from The Weeknd's third studio album, "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming," the former of which became the duo's first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In June 2017, Daft Punk also produced and co wrote a single for the Australian electropop band Parcels. The single would be Daft Punk's final released production. Bangalter was one of the producers on Arcade Fire's album Everything Now, which released July 2017. In 2018 he worked with Noé again, providing two tracks for the film Climax, including the previously unreleased “Sangria.” He also co produced and co wrote two tracks from Matthieu Chedid's 2019 album Lettre infinie, while also mastering the album. Later in 2018, Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond revealed that they and Bangalter returned to the studio to work on a remastered version of "Music Sounds Better with You" for the song's twentieth anniversary. Bangalter's label Roulé was liquidated the same year. The remaster released on 28 June 2019.

On 22 February 2021, Daft Punk released a video announcing their breakup. Upon request for an official statement regarding the disbandment, Bangalter released a handwritten note quoting the Daft Punk song "Touch" alongside a clip of the 1936 film Modern Times, in which one character tells another to smile before they both walk away into the distance. Friend and collaborator Todd Edwards clarified that Bangalter and Homem Christo remain active separately, and that Bangalter in particular was looking into potential solo projects. The two still share a studio and equipment. In July 2021, it was announced that Bangalter's first major solo project following Daft Punk's split would be providing the score to a French ballet titled Mythologies, presented by Ballet Preljocaj. The 90 minute ballet, premiering in July 2022, features direction and choreography by Angelin Preljocaj and original music by Bangalter, with musical direction by Romain Dumas. The ballet premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, with the show having plans to tour. An album version of the score was later announced for release on vinyl and CD in April 2023 by Erato Records. During the promotion of Mythologies, Bangalter spoke to several news outlets about the solo project, Daft Punk's anniversary releases, and the duo's split. He noted that he would eschew his robotic persona, citing concerns in AI and technological developments: "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." The press release of Mythologies included a drawing of his unmasked face by Vulture Magazine illustrator Stéphane Manel, and contemporaneous interviews feature Bangalter without a costume. In November 2023, Bangalter worked with the French artist JR and choreographer Damien Jalet on a unique art project called "Chiroptera" presented in front of the Place de l'Opera. Bangalter worked on creating music, with Jalet choreographing over 150 male dancers in front of a cave display. It is the second act of an operatic art series JR has been working on. It was performed to the public for free twice on the evening of November 12. Bangalter composed the music for Quentin Dupieux's film Daaaaaalí! which premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and will have a wide release in 2024. Bangalter's original score was released on streaming services and on a limited 10" vinyl via Ed Banger Records in February 2024. Bangalter will appear on the 2024 solo album Time from former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür.

Bangalter is married to French actress Élodie Bouchez, with whom he has two sons named Tara Jay (born 2002) and Roxan (born 2008). In 2004, they took up residence in Beverly Hills, California, due to Bouchez's Hollywood career and Bangalter's own interests in filmmaking. It was reported that Bangalter had quit DJing in clubs due to developing tinnitus in 2002, saying, "I've given up because I want to protect my ears." Orde Meikle of Slam later stated that Bangalter had sufficiently recovered from the condition, stating that "he had a bit of a scare and thought he'd damaged his ear and had to take obviously reasonably drastic steps to see how bad the damage was".