PRESS RELEASE

Composed by David Jacques using samples from old vinyl records found at Village Records in New York.

"I built this album as a false relic — a lost tape, accidentally found and linked to the Vanderbilt family. The idea was to restore it, structure it, as if it had come out of a pile of old recordings before being shaped into a cohesive work. The title plays on this ambiguity: a historical document, a lost artifact, a forgotten cassette. And yet, every track is original.

This whole project is a tribute to the Vanderbilts and the legacy of the Gilded Age, especially Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Carl Van Vechten. These two figures acted as cultural intermediaries, supporting African American artists and fostering dialogue between different communities — Black, White, Jewish, and Queer.

It made sense to open with Carl Van Vechten, as it sets the tone for the album. Then comes He’s Dancing Like a Gun, the project’s centerpiece. This track embodies the cultural fusion that the Vanderbilts encouraged. A thick house bassline merges with an 85 BPM hip-hop beat — a contrast also inspired by SoHo, my former neighborhood in New York.

After R.I.P. Gershowitz and August 28, 1963, the album drifts away from New York’s frenzy with Disco Vietnam, moving toward Newport, where the Vanderbilts spent their summers by the sea. An airy flute rises over a nervous piano-bass and hurried hi-hats. This track highlights the stark contrast between the anxiety of the battlefield and the tranquility of home, contrasting the soldiers sent to Vietnam with the civilians left behind in the U.S.

With Yvonne & Shimmle, the album takes a dancing detour, offering a moment of lightness — a joyful escape that brings the journey to a close. It is a burst of celebration, a moment of carefree abandon."