Member of French dance music duo Cassius who worked with the Beastie Boys and Kanye West falls to his death through a high window in Paris
Philippe Cerboneschi – known to many by his stage name ‘Zdar’ and who formed one half of French dance act Cassius – has accidentally fallen to his death in Paris.
Cerboneschi fell through the window of a high Parisian building on Wednesday night, his agent said. He was 50 years old.
Active in the French music scene since the 1980s, Cerboneschi founded his best-known project Cassius in 1996 with Hubert ‘Boombass’ Blanc-Francard.
Philippe Cerboneschi, known to many as Philippe Zdar and one half of French dance act Cassius, has accidentally fallen to his death from a window in Paris aged 50
The pair have released four albums to date – 1999, released that year; Au rêve in 2002, 15 Again in 2006, and Ibifornia in 2016.
Cassius’s fifth album, called Dreems, is due for release this Friday.
Aside from Cassius, Cerboneschi had become known as a super-producer in recent years, making music with the likes of the Beastie Boys and Franz Ferdinand.
He also helped produce French band Phoenix’s breakout album Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix, released in 2009, for which he won a Grammy the following year.