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Wolfgang Flür, ex-member of the band Kraftwerk, was apparently tempted to work together. The musician, who was famous between 1973 and 1986, believed that he had worked for two songs on his new album Times (publication on March 28) with Daft-Punk co-founder Thomas Bangalter. This collaboration is part of a work with top-class co-artists such as Boris Blank (Yello) or Peter Hook (New Order). But ultimately it was not banging behind the collaborator, but someone who only spoke over social media as the musician. It is still unclear who it is actually.
“I love you, Wolfgang”
The collaboration took its harmless start when a Facebook message was given. According to his information, the sender introduced himself as Thomas Bangalter and praised Kraftwerk’s influence on electronic music and made his personal fantum clear. “We love you people. Without a power plant, we would not have found our own robot style and would not have been helmet on stage. And I love you, Wolfgang. Please, can you send me a signed album?” He supposedly wrote.
After a signed plate is actually said to have arrived at Bangalter, FLURT had proposed the collaboration for a shared track. Flür and his musical partner Peter Duggal worked on a track in which alleged contributions were integrated by Bangalter and combined with Peter Hook’s bass line. Two songs, “Über_all” and “Monday to the Moon”, landed on the album Times, whereby Bangalter was listed under the name Thomas Vangarde – a name that Bangalter’s father had also used in his musical past as an artist name.
Daft-punk archivist reveals the dizziness
After the album was released, Daft-Punk Archivary Luke Perez revealed the dizziness. Perez put on the research his website Open and revealed that Bangalt was not involved in the project. It was not only the fact that Daft-Punk members rarely comment on public or on social media, but also that Bangalter appeared under another name in the credits. Perez noticed: “Strangely enough, no one seems to know about it from Bangalter’s actual environment or to have told him until the tracks were released – even though this was known for over two years.”
Ultimately, a person from the closer environment of Daft Punk confirmed that Bangalter had nothing to do with the collaboration. “I assume that Fake Bangalter Flür’s team was able to convince that he is now calling himself Thomas Vangarde to blur his traces,” summed up Perez. It is also noteworthy that neither the Cherry Red Records label nor other participants questioned the fraud.
The duo from Daft Punk had officially separated in 2021 after her last album Random Access Memories (2013) won five Grammys. Since the resolution, Bangalter has been happy to have been active as a composer for ballet, film and art projects, while his former bandmate Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo remains active as a music producer.
The incident shows how easily identities can be pretended in the digital world – even in the music industry, where collaborations are often based on personal trust.