2019. One day in August, the 19th. In the 18the arrondissement, rue Caulaincourt. It is 5:40 p.m. when a man falls from a balcony, surprised by the breaking of the guardrail. Philippe Cerboneschi, known as “Zdar”, dies instantly, at the age of 52.
How can we tell the story of Cassius, who will perform this Sunday evening, September 8, at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, without starting with his tragic end? The pioneering duo of French Touch had just celebrated their twentieth anniversary and had projects to sell up their sleeves. But this sudden disappearance marks the end of the group and its other half, Hubert “BoomBass” Blanc-Francard, remains inconsolable.
So that year, the end of summer was shrouded in darkness. On August 21, 2019, two days after the tragedy, the duo was due to release Dreems, a dancing and sunny album just composed and recorded in three months with the desire to reconnect with success – the previous, ambitious one Ibifornia, was a moderate success. The titles thus bear the stamp of their beginnings, that of instinctive music, of rhythm that snaps and notes that stick.
A story of joints
To talk about Cassius’ early years is to tell the story of a meeting and an obvious fact, those between Hubert and Philippe, and to evoke… a story of joints.
The first was born in Paris in 1968 into a family of musicians – his father, Dominique Blanc-Francard, was a famous Parisian producer when […] Read more