Soap&Skin presents her first cover album, ‘TORSO’. 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. 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. 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 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 favourite 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 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.

Available on gatefold double LP with embossed front cover.