New Music: Daphne Guinness – 2B Or Not 2B

Artist, muse, and icon Daphne Guinness has created her own path in music over a series of albums, one where image is part of the concept.

But as with every release of hers, 2B Or Not 2B stands wonderfully on its own. 2B Or Not 2B is a play on the Hamlet speech and allows Daphne Guinness free rein to philosophise – in French and English – over an arrangement that looks to leftfield pop for some of its inspiration but with a gothic-meets-baroque club attitude that is quite unique.

Accompanied by a video that is an artistic statement in its own right, as much an installation as a visualiser for a single, Daphne Guinness exists in a sphere with few comparable artists – though fans of Flora Fishbach will find this an admirable and exceptional companion for the Val Synth album.

“This is the first release from my forthcoming album on which I am moving further into an electronic sound,” says Daphne Guinness. The last album, Sleep, had a lot of electronic elements, and I felt drawn more to those. I wanted to cut it all down to more simple arrangements using sounds inspired by the electronica artists that I love, such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and indeed AIR.”

“I’ve been recording in JB from AIR’s ATLAS studio in Paris with Malcolm Doherty and the brilliant engineer Michel Tainturier. Their analogue synth collection is unsurpassed; they have everything from a Polymoog to a Baldwin harpsichord, and I had the most wonderful experience in their studio.”

“I was very inspired and recorded 2B in a couple of takes. It came together very quickly. I am exploring what would have been orchestral parts using my voice, creating harmonies, counter melodies and texture.”

The Shakespeare themes came into being after studying at several acting schools in London and meeting scholar Harold Bloom, who was her son’s professor at Yale.

“When we first met,” Guinness recalls, “he asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I replied, ‘Professor Bloom, I’m Hamlet.’ He laughed, but in a way, this song was born from that moment. It is infused with the same existential angst that Hamlet embodies, that question of being or not being which never leaves you once it takes hold.”

2B Or Not 2B is out now via Agent Anonyme and can be streamed on Bandcamp and Spotify. For album news, be sure to follow Daphne Guinness on Instagram.

Header image by Mark Mullen