Gaga Pays Tribute to Andy Warhol as “Candy Warhol”
Though Lady Gaga has not actually worked together with the late Andy Warhol, she has credited the King of Pop Art as a driving force behind many of her theatrics, even making her own video tribute to Warhol a few years ago. The pop singer also modeled her her own creative team, Haus of Gaga, after Warhol’s Factory.

The HAUS OF GAGA, the superstar’s personal creative team, has also coordinated an ‘Art Rave’ event prior to the album/app’s November 11 release, featuring collaborative works with the likes of Jeff Koons,Inez & Vinoodh, Marina Abramovic and Robert Wilson.

or the launch of her fragrance Fame, Lady Gaga crept into an egg-like structure in the Guggenheim and fell asleep. Fashion, art, and film celebrities looked on and also reached into an opening in the egg to touch the sleeping beauty. After she woke up from the first half of the performance piece, she invited tattoo artist Mark Mahoney inside the egg. Mahoney proceeded to tattoo Gaga’s neck in front of the onlookers. Of course Gaga doesn’t sleep like anyone else.

Could these collaborations be anything like the one Jay Z did with Marina Abramovic at Pace Gallery in New York? Could the app be anything like Bjork’s Biophilia app from October 2011, corresponding with the release of her album at the time? Perhaps, but regardless, Gaga has repeatedly stated that she’s an artist first and previously collaborated with visual artists like Nick Knight, Steven Klein, and Terence Koh. Photography duo Inez & Vinoodh also directed her “You and I” series of fashion films and photographed her for V Magazine.

Cover | Lady Gaga by Inez & Vinoodh for V Magazine #71

Cover | Lady Gaga by Inez & Vinoodh for V Magazine #71

Photography and Film Collaborations With Inez and Vinoodh

American artist Jeff Koons poses next to his artwork “Michael Jackson and Bubbles” (1988) in the Fondation Beyeler
in Riehen, Switzerland.Photo creativeboysclub.com

The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic- Luminato Festival 2013, Pgoto credits: Lucie Jansch

The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic- Luminato Festival 2013, Pgoto credits: Lucie Jansch

The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic- Luminato Festival 2013, Pgoto credits: Lucie Jansch

While we are looking forward to whatever Lady Gaga has in store individually or collectively with these artists, we are also welcoming a moment where musicians are placing their work in the realm of performance art. For both Jay-Z and Gaga, much remains to be seen, but what we do know is that the next few months will be full of art, pop, performance, and big collaborations between the art and music worlds.

-via hypebeast.com & complex.com

The post JEFF KOONS, MARINA ABRAMOVIC & ROBERT WILSON GO GAGA appeared first on INHALE MAG.

Meres One (NYC) / Semor (from Germany)
businessinsider.com

5 Pointz is an outdoor exhibit for the absolute best underground art in the city, where artists from around the world show off their incredible work. After gaining permission from the building owner in 2001, the walls have seen continuous change under the curation of Jonathan Cohen, a self-described “graffiti veteran” with the signature tag “Meres One.” The graffiti mecca has been roumoured to be getting demolished and replaced with high-rise apartments. But those are only rumors, says Marie Cecile Flaguel, a spokesperson for 5 Pointz. The announcement of the destruction of 5 Pointz, mythical spot and hot spot for hip-hop culture in New York has been moult once announced and discussed. With one omission: after three years on the spot, the place is still open.

Esteban Del Valle (Chicago)
businessinsider.com

New York. Queens. Long Island. Few places in the world focus as anchor points for the hip-hop culture as the Big Apple. And 5 Pointz, an abandoned warehouse for nearly twenty years, turned into a spot of graffiti but also a cultural center, is one of those whose fame is known far beyond the shores of the Hudson. And the name “Mecca of Graffiti” represents well the aura of 5 Pointz worldwide.

Meres One (NYC) / Auks businessinsider.com
The name 5 Pointz is supposed to signify the five boroughs of New York City.

Opened in 1993 on the initiative of Pat DeLillo to address the lack of legal walls in the New York metropolitan area0, is was first named Phun Phactory. A privileged place for then  eccentricities of graffiti artists, the center got renamed  “5 Pointz” in the early 2000s and over time expanded its activities. Mobb Deep, Doug E Fresh, Joss Stone or Grandmaster Caz  - all occurred on these boards.

Meres One (NYC) / Zeso (France) / Cortes (Columbia)
businessinsider.com

Venue, residences (with a rent of $ 600 per month for a small studio of 42 square meters), concerts, 5 Pointz, proclaimed itself  “The Institute of Higher Bombing”  and,like a spong,e absorbs the directions taken by the movement and gives as much as possible, an accurate image of its different branches. Like a mirror. And they plan a celebration this summer!

It’s been four decades since DJ Kool Herc’s Bronx block parties helped ignite a new genre of music and a global movement. From Saturday 4 through September 14,5 Pointza Aerosol Art Center (45-46 Davis St at Jackson Ave, Long Island City, Queens; 317-219-2685, 5ptz.com) hosts “Summer 2013: Celebrating 40 Years of Hip-Hop,” a four-month tribute to both the graffiti hub’s decade in existence and the culture that inspires it. (As for the persistent rumors of its imminent date with a wrecking ball, 5 Pointz event planner Marie Flageul responds that they’re nothing new: “As of now we have not been told anything by the landlord nor is there an approved demolition, or date.”) Throughout the season, Bronx street-art crew Zimad TD4 will curate rotating gallery exhibits; influential first-generation DJ and producer Marley Marl will spin old-school house on Saturdays; and local MCs, including 5 Pointz’ resident beat-box instructor Grey Matter, will battle. Here are five free happenings we recommend tagging in your calendar (if tickets to NYC are in your plans for the summer).

Conan
businessinsider.com

Cyphy (Ariz.) / Meres One (NYC) / Yok / Creepy (Australia)
businessinsider.com

Meres One (NYC)

James Cochran (Australia)

Zimer – Shoutout to Salvador Dali
businessinsider.com

-via businessinsider.com, konbini.com and timeout.com.

The post THE ART CENTER OF HIP HOP CULTURE – HERE IS WHERE A CELEBRATION AWAITS appeared first on INHALE MAG.

“Mike Mitchell is an artist in Los Angeles. He has a wife Lauren, one normal cat, one cross-eyed cat, one blind cat, and a dog who isn’t normal, but does have great vision. He thinks high fives are pretty cool and he likes to spend as much time writing bio’s as it took to read this.” – that is the description you can find on his official website, www.sirmikeofmitchell.com.

But what exactly does this Mike Mitchell do that he manages to make an impression any place in this world he displays his works?

 Well, Mitchell is one of the most popular artists out there today. He first gained national attention with his “I’m With Coco” poster for Conan O’Brien (which went viral on the internet) and has continued to do beautiful work putting a unique spin on popular culture. Last year, his Just Like Us exhibit at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles started a collectors craze and now he is back for his second show. This one takes popular, and some not-so-popular, movie characters and provides them each with a detailed, classy portrait.

I’m With Coco Poster

At 21 he headed to Chicago for art school, which was fairly life altering. After that he lived in Madison, WI for 18 months working at Raven Software, then moved to Los Angeles in 2008 for a job at a small video game studio, and shortly after got into the iam8bit exhibit, which was a huge deal for him as an artist. By the time this show arrived, he had quit his salary job („which was sucking the life out of me” – he mentions) and began to really concentrate on gallery shows and freelance.

 Regarding this MONDO Gallery show, he explained that he had always enjoyed doing portraits, and had done a few similar ones over the years. It was definitely a departure from the bulk of what he had been doing recently, which was mostly done to take a bit of a break from painting. The itch to do something a little more ambitious and work-intensive was starting to build, plus he felt like mixing it up a bit, and was able to accomplish that over the past 5 months.

 But why these certain characters? Well, he tried to pick characters that are more under appreciated in pop culture art. It is important to him that this show feels fresh and unique, and believes his choices are helping to achieve that. The movies he chose from span all genres, but the unifying theme are characters that made a strong impression on him, regardless of their screen time. There are a few characters that aren’t even in their respected movies for more than 5 minutes, but they are a big reason to watch those movies. Sadly, he still has quite a long list of characters that he wasn’t able to get to.

Bill-
Poster Title: “WOOPSY DAISY!”
Size: 12×16″
Edition Size: 70

The exhibit of the above works will end March 25th, at the Mondo Gallery, in Austin Texas.

The post FILM CHARACTERS RE-DESIGNED BY MIKE MITCHELL’S IMAGINATION appeared first on INHALE MAG.

“She is very good at giving more than what is expected, that last oomph,” explains Natalia Vodianova, the Russian supermodel. Vodianova became a fan the first time they met. It was at a cocktail party in Moscow two years ago, and Vodianova told Sergeenko that she adored what she was wearing. “She said she had designed it, and that her first show was the night before. The next day the entire outfit arrived at my house, along with flowers and chocolate,” Vodianova remembers. “She knows how to leave a lasting impression.” Sergeenko is part of the new wave of beautiful, superstylish Russians omnipresent on the fashion scene.

Last summer, Russian designer Ulyana Sergeenkofamously showed up in Paris to show her Haute Couture collection.  Despite a formal invitation from France’s Fédération Française de la Couture, the designer returned in January, with a gorgeous fairy tale-inspired collection of bustles, ballgowns, embroidered details and more. Here is the lookbook shot by photographer Nickolas Sushkevich, released this past week.

www.ulyanasergeenko.com

www.ulyanasergeenko.tumblr.com

Read the NYTimes‘ piece on Russian Czarinas

The post ROMANTIC HAUTE COUTURE MADE IN RUSSIA: ULYANA SERGEENKO appeared first on INHALE MAG.

STEPHEN POWERS, better known as ESPO in the art world, is set to open a solo exhibition at Alice Gallery in Brussels. The show will feature several picks from Powers’ already classic body of work, including new renditions of pieces from his ‘Metaltations’ series. The ‘Metaltations’ are inspired by the artist’s frequent epiphanies, and as such are painted quickly – though meticulously – in Powers’ signature pop art-influenced style. Look for the “Visual Blues” Exhibition, premiering at Alice Gallery on May 16.

hypebest.com

In Powers’s own words, “I’m in awe of the power and the reach of music. To compete with the majesty of music, I make paintings that are visual blues. I distill my everyday experience into paintings I call Daily Metaltations. They are painted very fast, fresh from the epiphanies that inspired them. The larger paintings draw from those metaltations and go to a deeper understanding of the transactions we make everyday to live our lives.

Highsnobiety.com

Steve Powers was born and raised and Philadelphia, then moved to New York City in 1994. After stints as publisher of On the Go Magazine, author of the book The Art Of Getting Over, and full-time graffiti writer, Powers opened his studio in Janurary of 1998. Since then he has shown at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, The 49th Venice Bienalle, The Luggage Store in San Francisco, and had his first museum solo show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 2007. In 2003, He founded the Dreamland Artist Club and partnered with Creative Time to commission over 45 artists to paint signs and rides in Coney Island. This past summer he returned to Coney Island with Creative Time and opened The Waterboard Thrill Ride. As a 2008 Fulbright Scholar, Powers painted a love story in the streets of Dublin and Belfast. He lives and works in Manhattan.

highsnobiety.com

highsnobiety.com

highsnobiety.com

Alice Gallery

4 Rue du pays de Liege

1000 Brussels

Belgium

More from Steve Powers on www.firstandfifteenth.net.

via hypebeast.com

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JEFF KOONS
Antiquity 1, 2009–12
Oil on canvas
108 x 84 inches (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

Since Jeff Koons’s first solo show in 1980, his work has been widely exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions include Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (2003); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2004, traveled to Helsinki City Art Museum in 2005); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2008); “Jeff Koons: Versailles,” Château de Versailles, France (2008–09); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2008); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; and Serpentine Gallery, London (all 2009); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2011); Schirn Kunsthalle and Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt (2012). The Whitney Museum will present a major retrospective of his work in 2014.

JEFF KOONS
Antiquity 3, 2009–11
Oil on canvas
102 x 138 inches (259.1 x 350.5 cm)

JEFF KOONS
Antiquity (Farnese Bull), 2009–12
Oil on canvas
108 x 84 inches (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

JEFF KOONS
Balloon Venus (Magenta), 2008–12
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
102 x 48 x 50 inches (259.1 x 121.9 x 127 cm)
1/5 unique versions

JEFF KOONS
Metallic Venus, 2010–12
Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating and live flowering plants
100 x 52 x 40 inches (254 x 132.1 x 101.6 cm)
Ed. of 3

Gagosian Gallery New York
980 Madison Ave.
New York City, NY 10075
United States

-via www.gagosian.com

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Louis Vuitton Travel Books 2013
Photo from http://www.ilvoelv.com/

Portrait of Elton John, by Jean-Philippe Delhomme
Image Source http://www.jphdelhomme.com/

French artist Jean-Philippe Delhomme started illustrating out of a fascination with photography. It seems only fitting then that his work for Louis Vuitton‘s Travel Book would be as picturesque, as concerned with composition as it is. The French luxury brand commissioned Delhomme to illustrate his vision of New York City for the latest in their series of Travel Books, other editions of which also cover London, Paris and other European cities. Watch Delhomme translate his imaginative, colorful vision into boldly rich gouache paintings in the above video, which takes a turn for the fantastic toward the end. The book is now available at Louis Vuitton stores and online for $56 USD.

http://www.jphdelhomme.com/
Photo by Garance Doré

Vuitton-Prada, Fashion Painting by Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Image Source http://www.jphdelhomme.com/

A painter and an illustrator, Jean-Philippe Delhomme has contributed to numerous magazines around the world since the late ’80s. His work has gained recognition with  collaborations and award-winning ad campaigns for Barneys New York, SAAB USA, The Mark Hotel NYC, Le Bon Marché, and Sotheby’s. He has also directed animated commercials, most notably for Saab USA, and Visa France.

As a fashion illustrator, and a chronicler of culture, he has written and illustrated several books: The Cultivated Lifepublished by Rizzoli International; Design Addicts published by Thames & Hudson; and Le Drame de la Déco,  Art Contemporain and Scènes de la Vie Parentale published by Editions Denoël. He has also penned several novels as well as articles for French GQ, Architectural Digest France and Vogue Paris.

http://www.louisvuitton.com/front

Louis Vuitton Travel Books – 2013 Collection
Photo from http://www.ilvoelv.com/

The post JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME IMAGINES A BIG APPLE FOR LOUIS VUITTON appeared first on INHALE MAG.

www.infine-music.com

The label is based in Paris, Lyon, and Berlin, it has been founded in 2006 by Alexandre Cazac, Yannick Matray, and French Techno legend Agoria, and it follows no stylistical guideline. It only claims to be cutting edge, humanistic, and emotional! In the last seven years it already released 21 albums and 49 EPs who long stylistically from Techno to Classic, from Flamenco to House, from Electronic to Pop. Their artist roster contains of such acclaimed musicians, DJs, and producers like the Luxembourg pianist and composer Francesco Tristano, the Austrian Electronic lad Clara Moto, the experimental Techno maverick Rone, mysterious Arandel, the Classic meets Techno trio Aufgang, the World music border crosser Bachar Mar Khalife, the Lyon based duo Spitzer, and the French Techno stars Agoria and Oxia. Also lots of collaborations with musicians like Carl Craig, Moritz von Oswald, or Apparat, as well as remixes by celebrated artists like Moeselektor, John Talabot, Robert Hood, Radio Slave, Juan Atkins, or Seth Troxler are part of their versatile discography.

Agoria
www.carhartt-wip.com

Cubenx by Baptiste Leonne

To find out why they are so eclectic we talked to the label manager Julien Gagnebien gave an interview about the label that just wants to release “easy music for hard to please people”.

The InFiné sound is hard to pigeonhole – if you could describe it in one sentence, what would you say?

Julien Gagnebien: InFiné’s catalogue does not fit into a single genre. We would release with as much pride a record of minimal Flamenco from Pedro Soler and Gaspar Claus as a cold-wave-shoegaze album of Cubenx. But over the idea of categorisation there is an “emotional” feel on most of our releases and a special care taken for sequencing. All InFiné albums tell little stories.

Aufgang by Fabien Breuil

Apparat Fanart
http://www.localsuicide.com

-via carhartt-wip.com. More news in InFine’s music you can find on www.infine-music.com

The post INFINE – EASY MUSIC FOR THE HARD TO PLEASE appeared first on INHALE MAG.

Scott Bourne
http://www.writerstailblock.com

Today Scott lives in Paris, very much detached from America and the world of skateboarding. Furthermore, he exists in a way that distances him from all the trappings of digital technology, mass media, viral marketing, and the artificial shrink wrapping of the 21^st century. Instead he sits alone before a type writer, working, revising, and thinking.

Following in the footsteps of fellow American authors like Hemingway and Henry Miller, who were drawn to live in Paris, skater, poet & photographer Scott Bourne has called the French capital his home for a number of years now. Known to many in the skate community for his raw & creative skating, notably for Consolidated in the 90s, his outspoken views and full ‘black arm’ tatttoos, Bourne has always stood him out from the crowd.

Scott Bourne Photograph

Scott’s Desk
http://bitchslapmag.com

“Eclipse: Dark Lines From The City Of Light” is the title of the second book of poems by Scott Hobbs Bourne
http://bitchslapmag.com

He has published three poetry books with the help of his longtime sponsors, Carhartt, who also offered full support for his latest novel, A Room With No Windows -  a novel that is based around the author’s real life adventures, released under 1980Éditions this February.

To find out what happens when you dive into your head to search for a truth, including additional biographical questions that go beyond the book, to give all those who have never heard of Scott Bourne, a little introduction, their sponsors put together a very honest and inspirational interview you can find on http://www.carhartt-wip.com/music .

Bram De Cleen and Scott Bourne
Photograph of Bertrand Trichet

Scott Bourne: I grew up on a little family farm in North Carolina. Only house at the end of a dirt road. I was a run-a-way from a small town, mills, agriculture, factory life. After bouncing around the good old USA in a van, by thumb and sometimes freight, I ended up homeless on the streets of San Francisco with my good friend Will Daniel. When he returned to the east coast to walk the Appalachian trail, I found a shitty job and a shitty apartment and kept skating. After close to 10 years in SF, I loaded up my life and moved to Paris where I now live and write.

-via carhartt-wip.com

The post SCOTT HOBBS BOURNE – THE NOVEL, THE CAMERA AND THE SKATEBOARD appeared first on INHALE MAG.

Until the 29^th of September, Ron Mueck can be seen at Fondation Cartier. It’s the second time that the Foundation exhibits the artists’ works, after he first exhibited in 2005.

blended.fr

The Australian will invade your imagination with his out of proportion realism both with the precision as well as with his measure.

blended.fr

Otherwise, although realism is the correct term, he is also descriptive. The work of Ron Mueck has something terrible.  There is the indefinable, the subconscious, the feeling of unease not only because you are in front of a representation of the body without make-up but this representation also shows the human spirit.

blended.fr

blended.fr

blended.fr

blended.fr

Putting up the exhibition

via http://blended.fr

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photo designboom.com
Exhibition of the architectural installation project at Ingo Maurer’s show inside the Spazio Krizia, during Milan Design Week

An organic fissure runs across curving roof and wall letting in only a sliver of light that reveals the volumetric expanse of interior space, but also draws a powerful ray of light to the exterior from the activity inside. The approach is reminiscent of an alien aircraft’s entrance stairs from an old science fiction movie, perhaps lending to the mysterious nature of its origins. The long entry stairs colored a vivid red gradually separate the guest from the ground plane and dramatically allow the egg structure to grow in size as they approach the entrance through the middle of the interior seating structure. The primary platform is similar to a plate elevated above the rounded ground level, not quite reaching the edges of the envelope suggesting an infinite space.

photo designboom.com

photo designboom.com

In art history, certain symbols are more commonly encountered, often continuing a tradition of depiction that can be traced back beyond into antiquity.  The use of ornamental egg-shaped objects suspended within sacred buildings is one of these transcendental symbols.

One such enduring mystery is the egg suspended from the ceiling in Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro Altarpiece. A cursory analysis may state that the egg is well known symbol of fertility and birth. Other readings see this object as a large pearl, which along with the shell represented in the architectural features behind may represent purity.

photo designboom.com
detail of Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro Altarpiece, 1465, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

via designboom.com

The post INGO MAURER: BROKEN EGG ARCHITECTURAL INSTALLATION FOR ARTPARK IN INHOTIM appeared first on INHALE MAG.

Opened late last year near the Moorgate and Liverpool Street stations of the London Underground, London’s South Place Hotel is the latest luxury hotel to open in the heart of the English capital and boasts 80 rooms, two restaurants, three bars, and five private dining and meeting rooms. Enjoy a glimpse of the setup here and be sure to head on over to the hotel if you’re in the area in order to take in the display in its entirety.

Photographer: Ravi Sidhu/Hypebeast

Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the establishment is an installation created by artist Cathy Miles in conjunction with D&D London and Conran & Partners.

Consisting of 40 individual wire shoes, the installation is a bold experimentation with color and features everything from brogues and loafers to heels and flats alike.

via hypebeast.com

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Somewhere, in this world, people built castles… out of themselves. In Tarragona, Spain, at the Concurs de Castells, twice a year, human bodies become bricks. Last year, 32 teams from all over the region participated, attracting a live audience of over 20,000 people.

During the tower building events, teams known as collas form tightly bunched crowds consisting of hundreds of people in order to support the towers. The taller and more difficult a tower is, the more points the team scores. Each tower is typically between six and ten levels high, and each team consists of about 100-500 men, women, and children (the children climb to the top while the adults — especially the heavier ones — form the supports).

For those of us unable to make their way to the biennial festival in Tarragona, we have the watchful lens of Spanish photographer David Oliete to thank for the images below. Shooting the festival from a breathtaking aerial position last year, he snapped pictures of the towers as the 2012 competitors piled on top of each other in chaotic yet impressively organized ways.

Oliete’s position, along with the colorfully adorned participants make for a unique perspective of the event. The photographs showcase some of the astonishing features of human determination that goes into building. Last but not least, this is an inspiring event!

via davidoliete.4ormat.com

The post SOMEWHERE, THEY BUILD HUMAN CASTLES appeared first on INHALE MAG.

By Jonah Weiner

Random Access Memories, made in near-total secrecy, is one of 2013′s most eagerly anticipated – and most enigma-enshrouded – releases. Late last month, for an upcoming Rolling Stone profile of Daft Punk, they discussed the new album’s creation in extensive detail at their studio in Paris. Here are the ten things you need to know:

They began working on Random Access Memories in 2008, in Paris, with no clear plan. “After three records, there was a sense of searching for a record we hadn’t done,” Thomas says. The duo were dissatisfied with early demos that leaned heavily on electronic equipment, feeling like they were operating on “autopilot,” Thomas says. Eventually, a new approach emerged: “We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers,” he explains, “but with people.” Except for a snippet of “an Australian rock record” that opens the final track, “Contact,” Daft Punk foreswore samples entirely, and they limited the role of drum machines to just two of the album’s thirteen tracks. The only electronics come in the form of a massive, custom-built modular synthesizer that Daft Punk played live on the album, they told me, and an arsenal of vintage vocoders on which they manually manipulated factors like pitch, vibrato and legato. “There’s this thing today where the recorded human voice is processed to try to feel robotic,” Thomas says, referring to the undying AutoTune vogue. “Here, we were trying to make robotic voices sound the most human they’ve ever sounded, in terms of expressivity and emotion.”

Photo- David Black

Nile Rodgers: New Daft Punk Album ‘Went Back to Go Forward’

The title captures the duo’s endless fascination with blurs between humans and technology…“We were drawing a parallel between the brain and the hard drive – the random way that memories are stored,” says Thomas.

…and their endless fascination with the past. 2001’s Discovery was in part a backward-looking concept album about revisiting the funk, disco and soft-rock of Thomas’ and Guy-Manuel’s childhood. For Random Access Memories, they hired “top-notch session players,” says Guy-Manuel, with credits on classic records by Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, and Eric Clapton. Chic mastermind Nile Rodgers played rhythm guitar on a few tracks. “The Seventies and the Eighties are the tastiest era for us,” Guy-Manuel says. “And all these guys were tripping on meeting again and playing together again.” He adds: “It’s not that we can’t make crazy futuristic sounding stuff, but we wanted to play with the past.”

Pharrell, Julian Casablancas, Giorgio Moroder, and Animal Collective’s Panda Bear are among the guest vocalists. “We were at a party for Madonna’s last album,” Pharrell recalls, “and I was like, You guys should have produced this! Why did that not happen? Madonna and the robots would have been unbelievable! They were like, We’re working on something. I said, Whatever you do, call me – I’ll play tambourine on it. They looked at each other and they were like, We’ll be in touch.” Pharrell wound up singing on “Get Lucky” and a stomping disco track called “Lose Yourself to Dance.”

The album’s move away from computerized sounds reflects Daft Punk’s “ambivalence” about the EDM craze they helped to inspire. “Electronic music right now is in its comfort zone and it’s not moving one inch,” Thomas says. “That’s not what artists are supposed to do.” He adds that the genre is suffering “an identity crisis: You hear a song, whose track is it? There’s no signature. Skrillex has been successful because he has a recognizable sound: You hear a dubstep song, even if it’s not him, you think it’s him.”

Keep an eye on those Saturday Night Live commercial breaks. So far, Daft Punk have debuted two fifteen-second chunks of “Get Lucky” in ads that play during Saturday Night Live, incrementally revealing more of the song. Along with billboards advertising the album, these TV ads represent a throwback impulse that’s guiding the new album’s roll-out. “When you drive on the sunset strip and see these billboards, it’s more magical than a banner ad,” Thomas says. “SNL is this part of American culture with a certain timelessness to it.” (A billboard overhanging the I-10 east greeted motorists driving to Coachella this weekend.)

The new songs came together around the world. Most vocals and overdubs happened in Paris, but the rhythm sections were committed to Ampex reels in Los Angeles and New York, at Electric Ladyland studio, Henson (formerly A&M) studios, and other venerated old rooms. “There are songs on the album that traveled into five studios over two and a half years,” Thomas says. “They’re vials being filled up with life. Today, electronic music is made in airports and hotel rooms, by DJs traveling. It has a sense of movement, maybe, but it’s not the same vibe as going into these studios that contain specific things.”

While recording, Daft Punk found time in their schedules to jam with Kanye West for his next album. At their Paris studio, they laid down a combination of live and programmed drums while Kanye worked out rough vocals on the fly. “It was very raw: he was rapping – kind of screaming primally, actually,” Thomas says. “Kanye doesn’t give a fuck,” Guy-Manuel adds. “He’s a good friend.” Director (and longtime Daft Punk compatriot) Michel Gondry says that Kanye recently played him “two songs” that sprang from the session. “One of them, I told him it sounded solid and powerful – I envisioned a cube when I heard it,” Gondry says. “He told me, Chris Cunningham’s already directing the video!”

The biker gear from the last album and tour is out; sequins are in. Hedi Slimane, the Saint-Laurent-by-way-of-Dior-Homme fashion designer who made Daft Punk’s black-leather bike-dude outfits for their last album, 2005’s Human After All, designed their new look (spied for the first time in the exclusive photo above.)

They say there are no current tour plans to promote the album. Their “Alive 2007″ world tour, in which they played within a giant steel pyramid covered in screens, was a marvel of pop stagecraft, but Thomas says “we have no current plans” to tour the new record. “We want to focus everything on the act and excitement of listening to the album. We don’t see a tour as an accessory to an album.” When they do finally hit the road, he added, it will be with a career-encompassing set list, not one overly focused on the new material.

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