From musician to muse to film producer, Daphne Guinness’s diverse creative outlets have beguiled an array of visionary talents, from Alexander McQueen and Karl Lagerfeld to her recent iconic visual collaborators David LaChappelle and Nick Knight, who have both directed mesmerising videos to her new singles.

Always evolving over the course of her three acclaimed albums, Daphne Guinness unveils her most ambitious set to date with the release of her new album Sleep via Agent Anonyme Recordings. It represents her latest project with the iconic Tony Visconti (David Bowie) who contributes string arrangements throughout, performed by a 34-piece orchestra.

As we’ve heard from its previous singles, Sleep is a creative leap forward on all fronts, from the bone-crunching chiropractor samples that underpin Hip Neck Spine to the surf guitar swing and robotic future-retro vocals that make Volcano such a distinctive experience, and the poised pop of Time, which sparkles with theatricality, melodrama and nostalgia.

We’ve also heard moments of intense self-reflection, notably Mishima, which remembers the grief of her long-lost childhood nanny following the suicide of the influential Japanese poet and author Yukio Mishima, as well as more existential contemplations, such as sourcing the power of human connection as the antidote to moments of crushing loneliness on Dark Night Of The Soul.

The album’s focus track, No Joke, is arguably the most direct, hook-laden song of the set. Yet scratch beneath its sleek synth-pop immediacy and you’ll discover that Daphne’s luxuriant voice is embellished with the barbed wire of a scathing critique on politics which knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Daphne says, “On my first album I wrote a song called 'Joke' and this is a follow-up. It’s a conversation with myself, that time is running out and we need to switch off from the general negativity of the news. This song is a real hybrid of old and new technology, strings and arpeggiator - they inhabit a similar space sonically, but I think they work well together.

When I say ‘Before your eyes / An enigma lies / Desire for power by utter philistines’ it could be about any government, including all present governments in most countries. Everything seems to be about the bottom line. But it's about the politics of human nature rather than the politics of this era.”

Solitaire is Daphne’s deepest, darkest confessional to date: a sepulchral ballad which allowed her a long-needed moment of catharsis that helped her come to terms with being held at knife-point when she was five. The dark tone is then lifted with the glittering disco-pop rush of Love & Destruction which takes inspiration from Nietzsche. Meanwhile, Bedazzled goes for maximalist drama with flamboyant theatricality, a rumination on the collapse of Western civilisation.

Daphne Guinness’s vision for Sleep was fully realised with further key collaborators such as Malcolm Doherty (Rumer, Mozart Estate) and Ricky Damian (Dua Lipa, Adele), as well as Guy Pratt (Madonna, Pink Floyd) and Rob Shirakbari (Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick).

Its visual aesthetic was crafted with videos directed by David LaChappelle, Nick Knight and the artist Paul Fryer, while Hercules & Love Affair and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard have delivered remixes which have been supported by DJs including, Purple Disco Machine, Claptone, and Horse Meat Disco.