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Wolfgang Flür, who played with electronic pioneers Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987, was reportedly the victim of an elaborate hoax at the hands of someone who claimed to be Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter. According to a Daft Punk archivist who shares news about the band under the umbrella of The Daft Blog, a recently released collaboration credited to Bangalter actually has nothing to do with him at all.
“He sent me a message on social media,” Flür recently told journalist Ban Cardew, who wrote the book on Daft Punk’s Discovery. “He said, ‘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]?”
Flür explained that after a bit of back and forth, they began to tease the idea of working on a song together. A few days later, the person sent Flür an audio track that was incorporated into a song that was already underway.
While internet scams are certainly pervasive, the infamously anonymous nature of the members of Daft Punk complicated things even more. After first mentioning the collaboration in an interview in 2023, Flür doubled down the following year, teasing an album with Bangalter among its credits, listed as Thomas “Vangarde.”
This sparked suspicion from folks like the person behind The Daft Blog, but “Vangarde” was a stage name used by Bangalter’s father at one point, making it all the more possible that it was simply a working name being leveraged here by the artist.
“Red flags [were] being raised but I’m not sure how something like this could have gotten so far had it actually not been Bangalter,” The Daft Blog recalled. “This is being mentioned in interviews and being pressed on vinyl and making headlines… surely it has to actually be Bangalter.”
But alas, in the interview with Cardew, it was revealed that Flür had never met up with the person claiming to be the Daft Punk member. What started as a fan seeking a signed Kraftwerk album apparently spiraled into something much bigger once the two started chatting back and forth. Why stop at a free album when a collaboration was on the table?
While the identity of this Thomas Vangarde is still something of a mystery, the song turned out to be a bop. It was included on Flür’s new album, Times, and released into the world three days ago.
English (US) · 