What Thomas Bangalter is actually doing now: a ballet, a CHANEL remix, a surprise Brooklyn set and a rave at Art Basel

Why is Bangalter suddenly everywhere again?

For most of the last decade the quietest robot in pop was, well, quiet. Then 2026 happened. In the space of a few weeks Thomas Bangalter dropped a full-length solo work, lent his name to a luxury fragrance campaign, walked into a Brooklyn radio booth unannounced, and signed up for a night at the biggest art fair on the planet. None of it is a Daft Punk comeback. All of it is the sound of a producer who has decided his second act is the interesting one.

The surprise came first as a 75-minute set on The Lot Radio in Greenpoint on June 8, announced only when the stream went live. He played like someone who reads liner notes for fun: Burial, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Octave One, the Greek-French modernist Iannis Xenakis, Tangerine Dream, and unreleased shapes from his own new record, before letting the closing minutes of Daft Punk's 'Contact' do the goodbye.

What is the Mirage album, and why a classical label?

Mirage - Ballet for 16 Dancers came out June 5 on Erato, a classical imprint rather than a dance label, and that choice is the whole point. The eight pieces were written for a Grand Theatre de Geneve production staged with choreographer Damien Jalet and the Japanese artist Kohei Nawa, with Xenakis's sculptural approach to sound hanging over the score. This is the same lane as his 2023 orchestral debut Mythologies: Bangalter writing for bodies on a stage, not bodies on a dancefloor.

That orchestral world is also why CHANEL came knocking. He reworked his own Mythologies cut 'Circonvolutions' for the house's new Bleu de CHANEL campaign, a film directed by Alfonso Cuaron and fronted by Jacob Elordi, pulling the strings of the original down into low, electronic territory.

"The history of music is made of fruitful partnerships and they usually last way shorter than the 28-year run that we had."

So is Daft Punk coming back or not?

No. Speaking to The Times around the album, Bangalter put a reunion firmly off the table, framed the duo's 28-year run as one of the longest partnerships music has seen, and said plainly that there are other things to explore. The next of those things has a date: on June 20 he teams with Rampa of Keinemusik for 'Warehouse Artefacts' at Art Basel in Switzerland, an immersive installation built with visual artist Julian Charriere that opens as art and tips into a five-hour DJ set once the lights drop. The helmet is off. The curiosity, clearly, is not.