Pioneering French producer Philippe 'Zdar' Cerboneschi dead at 52

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    Thu, Jun 20, 2019, 03:32
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  • The Cassius cofounder accidentally fell out of the window of a high-rise building in Paris.
  • Pioneering French producer Philippe 'Zdar' Cerboneschi dead at 52 image
  • Philippe "Zdar" Cerboneschi has died. The influential French producer accidentally fell through the window of a Parisian building on the evening of June 19th, his agent Sebastien Farran told the Agence France-Presse (as reported by Le Monde). Though he was perhaps best known for Cassius, his duo with Hubert Blanc-Francard, Zdar's recording history reads like a who's who of French pop music. He worked with Serge Gainsbourg, MC Solaar, Phoenix and countless others over the course of his career. After he and Blanc-Francard established themselves as hip-hop and downtempo producers with La Funk Mob, he went on to pioneer the French Touch sound as one-half of Motorbass (with Etienne De Crécy) as well as Cassius. Active since the '80s, Zdar was increasingly known as a super-producer in recent years. He received a Grammy for mixing and producing Phoenix's 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and everyone from Franz Ferdinand to Robyn worked out of Zdar's Motorbass Studio. He also worked with Beastie Boys. A new album from Cassius, Dreems, is scheduled for release on Friday. Zdar also had a hand in the latest album from Hot Chip, also set for release June 21st.
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