Member of French dance music duo Cassius who worked with the Beastie Boys and Kanye West falls to his death from a high window in Paris, a day before new album is released
- Philippe Cerboneschi, also known as Philippe Zdar, has died in Paris aged 50
- The musician, who formed half of Cassius, fell from a window Wednesday night
- Zdar was also a producer, working with Beastie Boys, Kanye and Franz Ferdinand
- Cassius’s fifth album, called Dreems, is due to be released tomorrow
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 evening, agent Sebastien Farran said. He was 50 years old.
Paying tribute to the musician and producer, Mr Farran told Le Monde: ‘His friends join his family in their infinite sadness. Tonight the music has lost a genius.’
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
Active in the French music scene since the 1980s, Cerboneschi founded his best-known project Cassius in 1996 with Hubert ‘Boombass’ Blanc-Francard.
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 was well-known as a producer, making music with the likes of the Beastie Boys, Franz Ferdinand and Kanye West.
He helped produce French indie band Phoenix’s breakout album Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix, released in 2009, for which he won a Grammy the following year.
He also contributed to Hot Chip’s latest record, A Bathful Of Ecstasy, which is also due to be released on Friday.
Cerboneschi was born the son of hotelier parents who ran an establishment in Aix-les-Bains, around 80 miles east of Lyon.
He initially worked as a waiter before seeing a poster of Eurythmics recording in a studio in Paris and deciding that he wanted ‘to find this magic’.
Philippe (right) has been active on the music scene since the 1980s alongside Hubert ‘Boom Bass’ Blanc-Francard (left). The pair made five albums under the Cassisus moniker
His musical career started out with him as a drummer in a speed metal band and a punk singer, before he fell in love with hip-hop and techno.
Cerboneschi picked up a job in a music studio and rubbed shoulders with the likes of French stars Serge Gainsbourg, Etienne Daho and Vanessa Paradis.
For a time he worked alongside artistic director Dominique Blanc-Francard, the father of his future musical partner Hubert, who introduced the pair.
They began making music together in 1988, producing albums for the French hip-hop artist MC Solaar, before going it alone in 1991 under the moniker La Funk Mob.
In 1996 they morphed into Cassius when they released house music track Foxxy, before working on a series of remixes.
Three years later they released their first commercially successful song Cassius 1999, which debuted in the UK Singles Chart at number 7, before releasing their first album later the same year.