Anja Plaschg alias Soap&Skin has announced her first cover album TORSO which will be released on November 22 via Play It Again Sam. The first single to be released is a version of ‘Mystery of Love; originally by Sufjan Stevens.
When the Donau-Festival invited her in 2022 to perform all the cover songs she had performed over the years, she came up with the idea of a permanent collection – which will now be released as the album TORSO. Previous albums Narrow (2012) and From Gas to Solid / You Are My Friend (2018) also featured covers without being immediately recognised as such. Simply because “it feels good to escape from myself”, says Plaschg. She likes covers – quite literally as a disguise and hiding place.
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 lyric video released with the single ‘Mystery Of Love‘ 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.
Other tracks covered on the album from a diverse range of artists include Shirley Bassey‘s ‘Born To Lose,’ 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.
The album tracklisting is as follows:
- Mystery Of Love
- God Yu Tekkem Laef Blong Mi
- Born To Lose
- Gods & Monsters (Digital only Bonustrack)
- Maybe Not
- Voyage, Voyage
- Johnsburg, Illinois
- Girl Loves Me
- Stars
- Pale Blue Eyes
- What’s Up?
- The End
The lyric video for ‘Mystery Of Love‘ can be seen below:
