Rocker Frank Darcel, founder of the group Marquis de Sade, found dead in Spain

Breton musician, writer and activist Frank Darcel, founder of the Rennes rock group Marquis de Sade, was found dead on Thursday March 14 on a beach in Galicia, in the northwest of Spain, we learned on Saturday from consistent sources. According to Galician emergency services, the body of the 65-year-old guitarist was discovered on Thursday midday by walkers on rocks on Los Castros beach, in the town of Ribadeo.

It was “in an easily accessible location, right next to the stairs leading to the beach,” they detail in a press release. Contacted by AFP, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard confirmed that the body found was that of Frank Darcel. He did not specify the cause of his death, which remains under investigation.

On Instagram, singer Pascal Obispo paid tribute on Saturday to the musician, with whom he collaborated on several occasions. “And now Frank... Infinite sadness,” he wrote under a black and white photo of the guitarist. “My dear Frank, my friend,” reacted, also on Instagram, the singer Étienne Daho, close to Frank Darcel, who accompanied him on his first album in 1981 and even produced it in its early days.

“Thousands of memories flood in and words cannot come to me to express this emptiness. Thank you for being in my life and changing it forever,” he continued. Born in Côtes d'Armor in 1958, Frank Darcel founded the rock group Marquis de Sade with singer Philippe Pascal at the age of 19. He has worked with many French musicians, including Alan Stivell.

This son of a doctor also became known for his novels, including “Vilaine Blessure”, “The Army of Free Men” and “The Drifter”, and for his political commitment in Brittany. Opposed to Parisian centralism, he joined the Breton party in 2002 and was one of the founders of Breizh Europa in 2013, which advocates the autonomy of Brittany in a federal Europe.

In 2020, he was a candidate for the municipal elections in Rennes for the small party Rennes Bretagne Europe (RBE), collecting less than 2% of the votes. “My aim is a Brittany with more powers in a federal France within a federal Europe, and it is neither from the right nor from the left,” he explained to Ouest-France during a interview in November 2019.