Rumour alert: New Daft Punk album and tour coming next year?

Just when you thought you couldn’t hack one more Daft Punk rumour, up pops another potential slither of information about the duo’s forthcoming album. Forgive us for the speculation, but this time it seems we might actually have an album release date at hand. A picture of what looks like album artwork (check it above) has been doing the rounds on the internet the past few days, and if it’s to be believed we could be seeing a release from the iconic pair on March 13, 2013.

Adding some credibility to the picture is the fact that fellow Frenchie Yelle tweeted the alleged album cover with the caption “Yup”, followed by a retweet that translates to “2013 the year of a new Daft Punk and a new Yelle”. Of course, that’s far from official confirmation, but it’s intriguing enough.

Then there’s the tour rumours. A second image, this time a screenshot of a conversation between graphic designer “Aeriform” (thanks to Fist in the Air for the ID) and photographer Oliver James, has also been floating ‘round the web. The conversation – which again we’d take with a grain of salt – would put Daft Punk on the bill at Denmark’s Roskilde festival, Glastonbury in England and Primavera Sound in Spain, among other European summer dates.

So what do we actually know about the mysterious new album? Nile Rodgers kicked the speculation off when he told inthemix he was working with the duo on their new album back in February. Since then, songwriter Paul Williams stated that the album was “coming maybe June” (it didn’t), Giorgio Moroder has revealed he’s in on the act too, rumours of a new song coming in July proved to be false and Rodgers has gushed again about the “cutting edge” material on the new LP. And, yes, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter themselves haven’t made any official statement regarding the ongoing rumours. So the waiting game, then, continues.