Daft Punk still going strong five years after their split

It has been five years since Daft Punk released Epilogue, an eight-minute video that officially ended a 28-year career and forever changed the way a band can say goodbye. Constructed from scenes from Daft Punk’s Electroma, the clip showed the two robots walking through the desert until Thomas Bangalter activates his own self-destruct mechanism. The sequence ends with a simple caption: 1993–2021. A timeline that served as a cultural epitaph.

The soundtrack chosen was ‘Touch (2021 Epilogue)’, an emotional version of the track included in Random Access Memories. Within hours, the video became the number one trending video on YouTube and was shared by millions of fans. No words were needed, as the message was powerful.

The duo decided to disappear and, over time, hinted at their discomfort with a music industry increasingly governed by algorithms, metrics and automation. Paradoxically, the artists who humanised electronic music seemed uncomfortable in a context where the human element was beginning to fade.

Since then, their movements have been measured and consistent with their discourse. In 2023, ‘Infinity Repeating’ arrived, expanding the universe of Random Access Memories. There were also occasional collaborations and even an appearance years later in Fortnite. But the message was always the same: there will be no reunion.

Now, five years after their split, the duo has surprised their fans with a new music video for their 2005 anthem ‘Human After All’. To do so, they turned to their archives and collaborated with their long-time editor, Cédric Hervet, reusing scenes from Electroma.

The film, directed by Thomas Bangalter and Guy–Manuel de Homem-Christo, was a science fiction work without dialogue and, surprisingly, without music by Daft Punk. It followed two robots—played by Peter Hurteau and Michael Reich—on a disturbing psychological quest to transcend their metallic bodies and become human. A metaphor that, seen today, seems to anticipate their entire artistic narrative.