Daphne Guinness has confirmed release details for her debut album, Optimist In Black, due out via Agent Anonyme/Absolute on May 27 2016. The album, produced by the great Tony Visconti in sessions recorded at New York’s Avatar Studios (formerly the Power Station) – is trailed by focus tracks “The Long Now”, “Marionettes” & radio single “Fatal Flaw”. Though you’ve probably heard the name, Daphne Guinness somehow resists definition. There’s the close friendships with Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow, the various collaborations with artists & designers, alongside well-respected ventures in the world of film, with Guinness’ name appearing on the back of the Oscar-nominated Cashback, which she coproduced, alongside a role in art film The Murder of Jean Seberg. If you’re wondering at this stage what her reason for making a record with Visconti at the helm might be, a better question to ask is why she waited so long. “I began in music”, she reveals, “and I ended up there.” A young Daphne always looked set to pursue a career in music, gaining a place at the Guildhall School before life had other plans. The fruit of all this shares its title with the album track referencing the bleak period following the suicides of her close friends McQueen and Blow, is a fascinating work, with Guinness in elegantly commanding tones reminiscent of Nico, Grace Slick, Marianne Faithfull and Grace Jones, displaying a deliciously dark wit. It’s heavy with flavours of Sixties psychedelia and Seventies glam, reflecting Daphne’s own lifelong loves. Her formative listening habits, as a teen, were anachronistic: “I’ve always been stuck in the Sixties. Jefferson Airplane, The Small Faces, as well as Robert Johnson and all the blues stuff, David Bowie, and on the top, The Doors.”