Daft Punk have released the first track from their expanded, 10th anniversary reissue of Random Access Memories, their fourth and final studio album. This takes you behind the scenes as the French duo, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, worked with Todd Edwards on the writing of Fragments of Time, the LP’s 11th track.
This isn’t a retrospective look back at how Fragments of Time was created: it turns out that, on 29 February 2012, as the song was coming together at Henson Recording Studios in LA, a tape ran for the whole session, capturing Edwards and Bangalter’s creative conversations and melodic musings as the track plays in the background.
“You'll hear me laughing because Thomas came up with some really damn witty lines in it,” Edwards reportedly told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
We’re told that the lyrics were written from the perspective of the collaborators’ future selves as they recalled the moment of Fragments of Time’s creation. “Listening to the lyrics ten years later along with the creative process behind them offers listeners the feeling of mirrored reflections in an infinity loop lending to an existential foresight as if creating a sonic time capsule,” says a press release.
If you’re willing to take the risk of disrupting the space-time continuum, you can check out The Writing of Fragments of Time in the video above. This features some nice VU-meter-based visuals from Daft Punk's creative director, Cédric Hervet.
Though it was Daft Punk and Edwards who shared production and songwriting credits on Fragments of Time, they weren’t the only people involved in its production. Paul Jackson Jr played guitar, Chris Caswell added keyboards, and both Nathan East and James Genus contributed bass parts. Drums were provided by Omar Hakim and Quinn provided percussion.
The 10th anniversary edition of Random Access Memories features both the original album and 35 minutes of previously unheard music. The additional tracks feature on the third disc of the forthcoming triple-vinyl set, while a double-CD package and streaming release have also been confirmed. The album will be released on 12 May and is available for pre-order via the Daft Punk website.
