Daft Punk called it quits a few years ago. That said, we’ve been seeing a lot of them lately. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is on the new Rosalía album, Daft Punk’s Interstella 5555 anime had a one-night theatrical run last year, and the “Daft Punk Experience” recently hit Fortnite.
Speaking of the latter, Fortnite developer Epic Games just partnered with Daft Punk and Magnopus for a new video for “Contact,” the closing track from Random Access Memories. It stars the iconic robot duo drifting through space and navigating environments that look like an iTunes visualizer on steroids.
DJ Falcon, a co-producer on the song, said in an interview shared in 2023:
“Basically, we had the track ID, I’d say, 10 years before they went into the studio for Random Access Memories. I remember working at this studio with them, we spent a day working on something, doing some arpeggio to add on the track. I think they were forcing themselves to be in a situation where they had to learn. They keep moving forward all the time. I think it’s part also of the process, to keep experimenting. They’re always searching for some magic moment, and when it’s happening, it’s kind of a release.”
He added of the song causing studio equipment to malfunction, “I remember looking at Thomas [Bangalter], we looked at each other and we just said nothing. We just had a little smile on our face. We left the studio without saying anything like the whole thing was natural.”
Watch the new “Contact” video above.