Paris (AFP)

The French Touch is in mourning. The emotion was immense Thursday after the accidental death of Philippe Zdar, duo Cassius, whose name was unknown to the general public but whose role in electronic music of the last twenty years was enormous.

From Laurent Garnier to David Guetta and Jean-Michel Jarre, all praised the memory of the French musician, who died Wednesday late in the day after "an accidental fall, through the window of a high floor of a Parisian building", his manager Sebastien Farran told AFP.

An investigation was opened on the circumstances of his death, entrusted to the police station of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, has been learned from police and judicial sources.

His family, including actress Aure Atika, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter Angelica, his friends producer Pedro Winter, DJ Etienne de Crécy and singer Sinclair, brother of Hubert Blanc-Francard - the other half from Cassius-- but also the Phoenix group posted on Instagram a black background as a sign of mourning. Etienne Daho shared a beautiful close-up photo of Philippe Zdar's face.

He "embodied the best of today's music, an iconoclastic imagination and a relentless sound requirement, and the family of music lost one of their very great sons", responded with AFP Jean-Michel Jarre.

Electro singer Sébastien Tellier greeted on Instagram "Zdar the Magnificent": "Thank you for all that you offered me, the magic moments in the studio, the parties, your benevolence".

"His eclectic talent, his acoustic madness, and his incredible inventiveness, impressed people's minds and excited the rooms, and the" Tsar + "of electro music left," reacted to former AFP Minister of Culture Jack Lang. always supported the development of electronic music in France.

Reaction also to the United States: the Recording Academy, which awards the prestigious Grammys, has hailed "influential creations", which "will continue to have an impact on music forever".

- Electro sound magician -

Philippe Zdar (Cerboneschi of his real name), 52, formed the duo Cassius since 1996 with Hubert "Boom Bass" Blanc-Francard (duo first known as La Funk Mob). They had met in the late 1980s through his father, Dominique Blanc-Francard, renowned producer for whom Zdar worked. Together, they first collaborated on the first albums of French rapper MC Solaar.

Their tandem became essential on the electronic scene from their first album "1999", released the same year. In the meantime, Zdar had co-signed one of the French house's legendary albums, "Pansoul", in the motorbass duo he had formed with Etienne de Crécy.

Cassius released three more albums: "Au rêve" in 2002 (with the hit "The Sound of Violence"), "15 Again", which marked a rock shift in 2006 with the hit "Toop Toop", and "Ibifornia" in 2016.

Their fifth effort, "Dreems", is due out Friday, the day the duo was to participate in a concert organized by France Inter at L'Olympia in Paris, for the Fête de la musique.

Even those who did not know his name and were not fans of electro probably heard one day without knowing a piece due to Zdar.

For beyond Cassius, he collaborated with a large number of prestigious French and international artists: Beastie Boys, The Rapture, Cat Power, Franz Ferdinand, M ...

Zdar, who had a recording studio in Paris, was indeed a sound engineer and a renowned producer. He had shaped the sound of the album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" of the group Phoenix, acclaimed by the world critics.

The death of Zdar has a generational dimension: with him, it is a part of the years 1990/2000 that goes away.

"The memories of the evenings at the Rex Club (high place of Paris electro) will remain etched in my memory," tweeted the former government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, 41 years.

The death of Zdar recalls that of another great name of French electro: DJ Mehdi, who died in 2011 at age 34 after an accidental fall to his Paris home.

? 2019 AFP