Former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür tricked into working with imposter pretending to be Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter
Former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür was reportedly tricked into working with an imposter pretending to be Daft Punk‘s Thomas Bangalter.
On Friday (March 28), Flür released his latest album ‘Times’, which supposedly featured some collaborations with Bangalter. Flür, who was Kraftwerk’s drummer from 1973 to 1987, has been involved in music since his departure, releasing his first solo record in 2015.
However, Flür had teased a Bangalter collaboration for the last two years. Upon its release last Friday, it has been revealed that Flür unknowingly worked with an impersonator instead.
According to The Daft Punk Historian (via Stereogum), word of the album first appeared in a February 2023 interview with Blitzed Magazine. There, Flür and musical partner Peter Duggal claimed a Facebook account with Bangalter’s name complimented their latest release, 2022’s ‘Magazine 1’ through a private message. Upon discovering Bangalter was part of Daft Punk, Flür and Duggal asked to collaborate with Bangalter.
Duggal would later share a photo of the interview, writing that “cool things [were] emerging from the collaboration with Thomas Bangalter.” However, he mysteriously deleted the tweet a few days later, with fans speculating the collaboration had fallen through.
In January 2024, Flür doubled down on the collaboration, saying that the album would arrive September that year. ‘Times’ did not arrive then, but in January this year, it was announced the record had been pushed back to March 2025 instead.
The album, which was released through Cherry Red Records, released its tracklisting that same January, which listed collaborations from someone named Thomas Vangarde. ‘Vangarde’ was a fake surname Bangalter’s father previously used himself to preserve his anonymity; fans therefore deduced that Bangalter may have taken a similar approach since Daft Punk’s breakup in 2021.
Flür went on to expand on the supposed collaboration in an interview with Ben Cardew (via Stereogum), saying: “He sent me a message on the social media. He had just heard the Magazine 1 album and he was furious about it…He said, ‘It’s so wonderful. Can I have a signed album? I collect albums but it must be signed personally from you. We love you guys. Without Kraftwerk we would not find our own robot style, being on stage with the helmets, you know. And I love you Wolfgang. And please, can you send me [an album]?
“[Afterwards] I asked him, “Could I invite you to be on a track because I’m just working on the theme, on space, I’m a space fan.” And he said, “Oh I’m also a space fan. I already have an idea, Wolfgang. Maybe you can use it? Give me two days, I must find it. I must not play something new. I think it is exactly what you can maybe use.” So he sent me something and it was not really fitting in the musical key. But we changed the key and we corrected it a little bit, with the tempo. But we could very, very much use it in the middle part, together with the bass line of Peter Hook. And it fitted very well.”
However, upon ‘Times’ and its release last Friday, a member from Daft Punk’s team announced on social media that ‘Thomas Vangarde’ was not in fact the real Bangalter.
“PSA: recently a “Thomas Vangarde” was credited on Wolfgang Flür (of Kraftwerk)’s latest album, and it was assumed/reported that this was an alias of Thomas Bangalter,” they wrote. “This is confirmed false!! Unfortunately it is not Thomas of DP on the project and news otherwise is inaccurate.”
‘Thomas Vangarde’ is still listed as a collaborator on streaming platforms.
PSA: recently a "Thomas Vangarde" was credited on Wolfgang Flür (of Kraftwerk)'s latest album, and it was assumed/reported that this was an alias of Thomas Bangalter. This is confirmed false!! Unfortunately it is not Thomas of DP on the project and news otherwise is inaccurate
— Artie
NEW PLUSH
spring break (@sodasprouts) March 31, 2025
Bangalter has made some music since Daft Punk’s split, albeit apparently not with Flür. He scored a ballet entitled ‘Mythologies’, with its accompanying album arriving April 2023. Bangalter also scored DAAAAAALÍ!, a movie about esteemed painter Salvador Dalí. Its soundtrack dropped on February 7, 2024.
Meanwhile, Daft Punk’s session drummer has claimed that the duo have a “lost album” that’s supposedly “coming out of the locker”.
The post Former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür tricked into working with imposter pretending to be Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter appeared first on NME.
Alex Rigotti
NME
