He composed the cult music for Drive: Kavinsky is dead

The French DJ and producer, a major figure in the electro scene, died at the age of 50.

Some captivating electro notes to accompany Ryan Gosling behind the wheel, crossing the sleepy city…

Forever, Kavinsky will be associated with Drivethe film by Nicolas Winding Refn released in 2011.

The French musician, whose real name was Vincent Belorgey, died this Tuesday at his home in Paris. He was 50 years old.

An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances of his death, even if the authorities do not mention, at this stage, any intervention by a third party. According to French media, the artist had been suffering from headaches for several days and it could be a stroke.

If he was already a respected figure on the French electro scene, Kavinsky became a global icon thanks to Nightcallthis heady track, produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, from the duo Daft Punk, and performed with singer Lovefoxxx (CSS). A title that opened Drive before becoming one of the most striking electronic anthems of the 2010s. He said in an interview with Daftworld in 2014: “When the director Nicolas Winding Refn and the guy who did the music, former Red Hot Chilli Peppers Cliff Martinez, called me, I said banco. Damn, but even I would have paid to have my sound in it. The pitch of the film was deadly: a guy behind the wheel, with mittens, is really good! And then Winding Refn! I’m a fan of the first hour of his Pusher trilogy and what’s more, the guy told me that he was listening to Nightcall in his crate, while editing the film…”

More recently, Nightcall had experienced a new life during the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where Kavinsky performed it alongside Phoenix and Angèle, in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.

Born in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1975, Vincent Belorgey first tried his hand at comedy, notably appearing in several films by his friend Quentin Dupieux (including Steak in 2007), before devoting himself to music. Passionate about 1980s action films, arcade games and sports cars, he imagined the character of Kavinsky: a driver who came back from the dead after a Ferrari accident to produce electro music with retro-futuristic sounds. His first album, OutRunreleased in 2013, largely contributed to popularizing the synthwave movement. After a long absence, he returned in 2022 with a second album, Reborn.