Soap & Skin

Twenty-one-year-old Austrian experimenter Anja Plaschg, who records and performs under the name Soap & Skin, has been active on the music scene for five years. Plaschg’s work is characterized by a unique combination of classical song writing and electronic experiment. Her iconic sound, which marries the sounds of Regina Spektor on one side of the spectrum and the electronic shuffles of Aphexe Twina on the other, was first heard on her debut album Lovetune For Vacuum, which was released in 2009 by Couch Records. In February 2012 her long-awaited album Narrow, in which Soap & Skin mark another step forward, will be released worldwide, and will be featured in the Soap & Skin concert in Prague.

Anja Plaschg, whose intimate performance skills can be heard in her debut album as well as on two other EPs, successfully demolishes the media image of Austria as a musically indifferent country that releases no relevant recordings. Her consistent musical expression, which besides her subtle voice and electronic additions is dominated mainly by classical piano, puts her on the northern scene of the musical map. Despite taking from the fabled Scandinavian melancholy, her music works on its own and currently places her among the leaders of experimental music in Central Europe.