''Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition)'' is the third

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

by French electronic duo

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

. It is an anniversary reissue of the duo's final

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Random Access Memories ''Random Access Memories'' is the fourth and final studio album by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk, released on 17 May 2013 through Columbia Records. It pays tribute to late Music history of the United States in the 1970s, 1970s and e ...

'' containing an extra disc with 35 minutes of bonus content, including unreleased demos and outtakes. The reissue was released on 12 May 2023.

Promotion and release

On 22 February 2021, Daft Punk announced they had split. Exactly two years later, on 22 February 2023, the duo announced a 10th anniversary edition of ''Random Access Memories'' would release, containing a bonus disc of demos and outtakes. 22 February was retroactively titled "Daft Punk Day," in which a new release and/or celebratory event is announced.

Thomas Bangalter Thomas Bangalter (; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. He has recorded and released music as a member of the trio Music S ...

, during the promotion of his solo project ''

Mythologies Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

'', said Daft Punk had wanted to not "spoil the narrative" while they were active, but felt more comfortable revealing parts of their creative process now that "the story has ended". The reissue includes the version of "

Touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

" used in the video announcing Daft Punk's disbandment. A

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels as well as free-moving sound objects, interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horiz ...

version of the reissue was also released the same day as the reissue, featuring the original 13 album tracks and “The Writing of Fragments of Time” remixed in the format. The first single from the reissue, " The Writing of Fragments of Time", featuring

Todd Edwards Todd Edward Imperatrice (born December 9, 1972), known professionally as Todd Edwards, is an American garage house record producer, DJ, and singer. Nicknamed "The God" and known by various aliases throughout his career, he has been credited as ...

, was released on 22 March, along with a music video directed by Daft Punk's creative director, Cédric Hervet. " GLBTM (Studio Outtakes)" was released on 20 April, featuring previously unused studio recordings by

Chilly Gonzales Jason Charles Beck (born 20 March 1972), professionally known as Chilly Gonzales or just Gonzales, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and producer. Currently based in Cologne, Germany, he previously lived for several years in Paris and Berlin. G ...

and other session musicians for " Give Life Back to Music". Another single, "

Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo) "Infinity Repeating" is a demo written, produced, and performed by French electronic music duo Daft Punk and American musician Julian Casablancas, along with Casablancas' band The Voidz handling additional instrumentation. Included as part of the ...

", features

Julian Casablancas Julian Fernando Casablancas (born August 23, 1978) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the Rock music, rock band the Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since their founding in 1998. Casabl ...

and the Voidz. The song and an accompanying music video directed by

Warren Fu Warren Fu is an American music video director, illustrator and designer. He has directed videos for artists such as the Weeknd, Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, The Strokes, the Killers, Hayley Williams, Mark Ronson and Julian Casablancas. Fu is si ...

premiered on 11 May at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris, France. Casablancas discussed the song in interviews in 2014. The music video, the song, and the structuring of the bonus disc of the reissue are all based on an infinity loop. Daft Punk called the track their "last song ever" in its press release. A four-part video series focusing on the making of the music video was released in December. The week before the reissue's release, coordinates and the date of 11 May 2023 appeared in

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

visualizers for specific songs off the original album, teasing a global event happening in ten cities: Berlin, Buenos Aires, London, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, Santa Monica, São Paulo, Sydney, and Tokyo. Later that week, it was revealed that

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...

had partnered with Daft Punk's creative team to promote the reissue using

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

filters and lenses. Worldwide users could use the app to get early access to the track "Horizon", with attendees at the ten cities getting to participate in a geolocated scavenger hunt. Participants at the locations could use the Snapchat filter to find

Monoliths A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous rock, igneous or ...

playing snippets of the "Infinity Repeating" music video. The release of the reissue resulted in the album reappearing at the top of the ''Billboard''

Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums and Top Dance/Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling dance music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by Nielsen ...

chart and within the top 10 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

''Memory Tapes''

In promotion of the 10th anniversary reissue, the band released a video series throughout the year called ''Memory Tapes.'' The series' guests include Julian Casablancas, Chilly Gonzales,

Panda Bear The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is ...

DJ Falcon Stéphane Quême () (born January 2, 1973), known as DJ Falcon, is a French DJ, record producer and photographer. He is the brother of Delphine Quême (Quartet) and a cousin of Alan Braxe (Alain Quême). He has been described as " French touch's ...

, Todd Edwards,

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 1 ...

Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to: Authors * Paul Williams (Crawdaddy) (1948–2013), American music and science fiction journalist; founder of ''Crawdaddy'' and the Philip K. Dick Society * Paul Williams (Irish journalist) (born 1964), Irish journalis ...

and Chris Caswell. The videos were shot at Gang Studios in Paris and Henson Studios in Los Angeles and feature behind-the-scenes footage of the recording of ''Random Access Memories''. Made up of eight episodes, the series features many of the album's collaborators reflecting on the duo's status, music, and split. Julian Casablancas discusses the creation of "

Instant Crush "Instant Crush" is a song written, produced, and performed by French electronic music duo Daft Punk featuring American musician Julian Casablancas. It was released as the fourth single from Daft Punk's fourth studio album, ''Random Access Memorie ...

" and "Infinity Repeating," saying he thought the latter was a fitting song to "end Daft Punk on forever," while also joking that the idea was "dramatic," not believing the duo would stay permanently split. Chilly Gonzales called the duo's work on the album "

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

levels of planning" when discussing his piano solo on "Within." Collaborators DJ Falcon and Todd Edwards spoke on the duo's split as well, with Falcon specifically praising the choice to end Daft Punk with the song and video for "Infinity Repeating". Edwards expressed regret that Daft Punk did not tour ''Random Access Memories'', but stated he was not shocked when they split, saying the two "were already going in different directions, musically". Pharrell Williams revealed in his episode that he did not expect the finished versions of " Get Lucky" or " Lose Yourself to Dance" to feature his vocals, assuming both songs would be sung by other artists. Williams said he was so focused during the writing and recording sessions that he forgot what the material had sounded like, due to the length of time between meetings and the lack of access to the material. His episode contains footage of Williams' reaction to hearing both finished tracks for the first time. Nile Rodgers described the experience of working with the duo as life-changing, saying "life was one way before ''Random Access Memories'', and completely different after." Rodgers called the album's impact a learning experience and spoke about how the album led to him collaborating with younger artists of different cultures. The final episode of ''Memory Tapes'' features Chris Caswell and Paul Williams. The two discuss first meeting Daft Punk, the importance of '' Phantom of the Paradise'' to the duo's history, and end by thanking them for making an album that encourages listeners to "explore," stating "there's so much out there."

Track listing

Sample credits * "Contact" contains a sample from " We Ride Tonight", as performed by the Sherbs, and an excerpt from the

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...

mission, spoken by

Eugene Cernan Eugene Andrew Cernan (; March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, United States naval aviator, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. Cernan traveled into space three times and ...

, courtesy of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes. The bonus disc, other than "Horizon", does not have individual performer credits.

Reissue supervised by

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo (; born 8 February 1974) is a French musician. He is known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has produced several works from his now-def ...

* Florian Lagatta * Cédric Hervet

Featured artists

– vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6–9, 12),

modular synthesizer Modular synthesizers are synthesizers composed of separate modules for different functions. The modules can be connected together by the user to create a patch. The outputs from the modules may include audio signals, analog control voltages, ...

(tracks 1, 3, 7, 10, 12, 13),

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

(tracks 2, 5, 8, 9, 15), keyboards (tracks 3, 4, 5, 11), guitar (track 5),

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, concept, art direction *

– vocals (track 12) *

– vocals (track 5, 17), lead guitar (track 5) and co-production (track 5, 17) *

– vocals and co-production (track 11) *

– modular synthesizer and co-production (track 13) *

– keyboards (track 1), piano (track 4) *

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work ...

– voice (track 3) *

– guitar (tracks 1, 6, 8) * The Voidz – additional instrumentation (track 17) *

– vocals and lyrics (track 7), lyrics (track 9) *

– vocals (tracks 6, 8)

Additional musicians

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage ba ...

–

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

(tracks 1–3, 9–11, 15),

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...

(tracks 7, 9) * Chris Caswell – keyboards (tracks 1–4, 7–11, 15), orchestration, arrangements *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American Jazz fusion, fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. In addition to being a recording artist in his own right, Jackson is also a session player, with a career ...

– guitar (tracks 1–3, 7–11, 15) *

Nathan East Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass guitarist and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts ...

– bass (tracks 1–6, 8, 11, 15) * James Genus – bass (tracks 3, 7, 9–11, 13) * John "J.R." Robinson – drums (tracks 1,2, 4–6, 15) *

Omar Hakim Omar Hakim (born February 12, 1959) is an American drummer, producer, arranger and composer. His session work covers jazz, jazz fusion, and pop music. He has worked with Weather Report, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Chic, Sting, Madonna, Dire S ...

– drums (tracks 3, 7–9, 11, 13), percussion (track 10) * Quinn – percussion (tracks 1, 3–5, 7, 10, 11), drums (track 7) * Thomas Bloch –

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

(track 7), cristal baschet (track 10)

Orchestra

Conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

– Douglas Walter * Contractor – Joseph Solido * Violin – Assa Dori, Johana Krejci, Rita Weber, Kevin Connolly, Joel Pargman, Song Lee, Irina Voloshina, Margaret Wooten, Mary K. Sloan, Nina Evtuhov, Miwako Watanabe, Samuel Fischer, Lisa Dondinger, Rafael Rishik, Cynthia Moussas, Sara Perkins, Neel Hammond, Olivia Tsui, Calabria McChesney, Carrie Kennedy, Lisa Sutton, Audrey Solomon * Viola – Andrew Picken, Alma Fernandez, Rodney Wirtz, Carolyn Riley, Harry Shirinan, Jody Rubin, Roland Kato, Ray Tischer * Cello – Christina Soule, Paula Hochalter, Vanessa F. Smith, Timothy Loo, Armen Ksajikian *

Double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

– Charles Berghofer, Don Ferrone, Drew Dembowski * Flute – Greg Huckins, Steve Kajala, Sara Andon *

Oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

– Earl Dumler *

Clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

– Marty Krystall, Gene Cipriano *

Bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

– Gene Cipriano *

Bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

– Judith Farmer *

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...

– David Kosoff *

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

– Nathan Campbell, James Atkinson, Justin Hageman, Stephanie O’Keefe, Danielle Ondarza * Trumpet – Gary Grant, Warren Luening, Charles Findley, Larry McGuire * Trombone – Andrew Martin, Charles Morillas, Charles Looper, Bob McChesny *

Bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

– Craig Gosnell * Percussion – Brian Kilgore, Mark Converse * Booth – Chris Caswell * Choir (track 7) – Shirley Koesnadi, Alissa M. Cremshaw, Elaina S. Crenshaw, Alexandra Gunn, Jeffery Gunn, Emma S. Gunn, Victor Pineshi, Mariah A. Britt, Joshua Britt, Alycia Grant, Chelsea T. DiBlasi, Jessica Rotter, conducted by Angie Jaree

Production

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering * Chab (Antoine Chabert) – mastering (album and reissue) * Cédric Hervet – creative director, cover art *

– cover art, illustrations * Mick Guzauski – recording, mixing engineer * Peter Franco – recording engineer * Florian Lagatta – recording engineer, mastering (reissue) * Daniel Lerner – digital audio engineer

''Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition)''

On 28 September 2023, Daft Punk announced another anniversary reissue, a

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson ('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 200 ...

called ''Random Access Memories (Drumless Edition)''. It was released on 17 November 2023 and includes the original 13 album tracks without any drum or percussive elements. "Within (Drumless Edition)" and "Motherboard (Drumless Edition)" were released as promotional singles. As with the 10th anniversary reissue, a

version of the reissue was also released the same day. Reception to the drumless edition was mixed, with outlets, critics, and fans unsure of the specific purpose of the release, with some speculation it was for DJs and producers to make their own mixes using the album.

Charts

References

{{italic title, all=yes, noerror Daft Punk compilation albums Albums produced by Thomas Bangalter Albums produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo 2023 albums Reissue albums Columbia Records albums Legacy Recordings albums