TORSO: Vinyl 2LP

August 28, 2024: Soap&Skin announces her first cover album, released on November 22nd via Play It Again Sam.

Anja Plaschg alias Soap&Skin has always had a special talent for reinterpreting songs with her own unique approach. When the Donau-Festival invited her in 2022 to perform all the cover songs she had composed over the years, she came up with the idea of a permanent collection - which will now be released as the album "TORSO" on November 22nd via Play It Again Sam. The previous albums "Narrow" (2012) and "From Gas to Solid / You Are My Friend" (2018) also featured covers without being immediately recognized as such. Simply because “it feels good to escape from myself”, says Plaschg. She likes covers - quite literally as a disguise and hiding place.

For example, she first recorded the radio hit “Voyage, Voyage”, originally by Desireless, in 2011 for the soundtrack to Sebastian Meise's film Stillleben. Since then, it has been part of her live repertoire and has grown with her over the years. On "TORSO" it finds its place as a lifetime version. The first single, the album opener “Mystery of Love”, originally released by Sufjan Stevens, rearranged with French horn and trombone, admits us delicately into the sound world of "TORSO". The lyric video released with the single also visually refers to the album artwork. The Oscar- and Grammy-nominated song originally appeared exclusively in 2017 on the soundtrack of the coming-of-age drama and indie hit film “Call Me By Your Name” by Luca Guadagnino, with lyrics that allude to the very special, intimate relationship between the film characters Elio and Oliver.

“I hear a song,” adds Anja, “and feel there's something else I'd like to add. Then I don't listen to the original. Sometimes not for years. I record the songs from memory.” So she hasn't heard The Doors' "The End" for over seven years now. An old favorite song, a little time capsule. Similar to Shirley Bassey's "Born To Lose".

Other new interpretations are Cat Power's "Maybe Not", David Bowie's "Girl Loves Me", Tom Waits' "Johnsburg, Illinois", Janis Ian's "Stars" and "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground among others. The strongest transformation, however, was certainly the digital bonus track, Plaschg's version of Lana Del Rey's "Gods & Monsters". If Lana Del Rey still wants “fame” and “liquor” and that “slowly” in 2012, Soap&Skin sings: “fame and liquor?”, “that is nothing holy.” And sunny lethargy turns into an experimental and mysterious electro soundscape. The twelve songs on "TORSO" were recorded in Vienna by an ensemble under Anja's direction. “For the first time,” she says, “it's actually more my style to assemble the music in a safe space, alone at home, from previously recorded samples.” Still, maybe what is created collaboratively must be recorded collaboratively too.

Tracklist:

1. Mystery Of Love
2. God Yu Tekem Laef Blong Mi
3. Born To Lose
4. Maybe Not
5. Voyage, Voyage
6. Johnsburg, Illinois
7. Girl Loves Me
8. Stars
9. Pale Blue Eyes
10. What’s Up?
11. The End