Soap & Skin
Lovetune For Vacuum

Anja Franziska Plaschq aka Soap And Skin comes from Styria (Austria).
I don't know if you really understand what it means to come from Styria, a land of farms, countryside, forests, and farmers, I don't know if you understand what it means to come from Styria and compose this album.

This is where I would like to start, from the childhood of Anja, who has been playing the piano since the age of six among cows and barns in the farms of Styria. From the very beginning, this farm girl had a talent and a bond in her destiny: Nico. From words to facts, in 2008 she played the role of the German singer in "Nico - La Sfinge di ghiaccio" by Fritsch in Berlin and Vienna, singing some of her songs, and her version of "Janitor Of Lunacy" in her first EP is not to be missed.
The girl from the Styria farm amazes her parents more and more every day and moves to Vienna, where she adds to her talent for the piano, an interest in the violin, but most of all, in the experimental music of Bjork and the experimental electronics of bands like Xiu Xiu.

In 2009, this little jewel "Lovetune For Vacuum" comes out, and the musical references where her debut work can be placed are the same just mentioned. The critics praise Anja, who meanwhile has become Soap And Skin, but personally, I had to wait before fully understanding and appreciating this album. Nico, Xiu Xiu, Bjork are quality names that ensure both emotions and musical exploration for me. However, in this case, I feared too much derivation, too much enthusiasm from many sides, too many bombastic adjectives read in reviews, perhaps I feared the farmers of Styria having also lived in Anja's places.

Piano and laptop immediately engage in a dialogue with an intense voice, comparable to the pathos of Nico, but with a more gentle aftertaste. If we dealt with a priestess in the albums of Nico, here we breathe the talent of a girl who mixes her purity with the suggestions of visual arts and Viennese art academies: a talent contaminated by the avant-garde.

My fears fall with the initial "Sleep" where the fragility of a black petal screams and whispers accompanied by an uncertain piano, something of Kate Bush already from the next track, Kate Bush distorted and regurgitated by experiments, and then the album's turning point "Thanatos" where Anja dons the priestess' robes for a few minutes, the new priestess of 2009. "Glaucoma On Your Eyes" is the first phrase of the third track and changes my emotions and opinions about the album. What was appreciated before becomes unmissable; what intrigued me before now finds its sublimation in the chorus "Ages of Delirium - Curse of My Oblivion". It is her, yes, it is she the worthy heir of the priestess, adding and updating the insights of Nico, but giving something more derived from her environment.
The album continues with other moving moments, disheveled like the protagonist bent over the piano, there is an influence of Fennesz that can be honestly overwhelming at times. Some songs pass without leaving a trace in the heart, but it is a debut, this often happens, and just when you think it's nothing special, a chord or note arrives that makes you change your mind, as in the remarkable "Brother of Sleep".

I fear for Anja's future because the city deforms and lets some coordinates get lost, while she should, in my opinion, maintain that genuine impact of talent matured between a healthy glass of milk and a piano note without being dragged into the elite of avant-garde music. However, I am confident that a clean heart like hers can continue the path traced by "Lovetune For Vacuum," which, with all its small flaws, remains an album to be listened to in the intimacy of one's room.