Soap&Skin is the experimental musical project of Austrian artist Anja Plaschg (born 5 April 1990).
Life
Anja Plaschg grew up in a small village called Poppendorf (near Gnas) in south east Styria, where her parents have a farm. She has played piano since she was six. At the age of 14 she began violin studies and developed an interest in electronic music. She attended the Graz Polytechnic for Graphic Design, but dropped out at 16 and moved to Vienna shortly afterwards. There she studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in the master class of Daniel Richter, but at 18 dropped out again.[1][2]
After only playing a handful of concerts she was already being dubbed a "Wunderkind".[3] In 2008 she played German singer Nico in the play "Nico - Sphinx aus Eis" by Werner Fritsch in Berlin and Vienna, performing several songs in it, including "Janitor of Lunacy", from her first EP.[1][4]
Her first album, called Lovetune for Vacuum, was released in March 2009.[5] It received excellent reviews and placed in the Austrian Top 10. The album also achieved chart positions in Germany, Belgium, and France. Music journalists have already claimed to see in her a new star of Austrian pop.[6]
Plaschg's father died in 2009[7][8][9] from a heart attack.[10] During this time, Plaschg stated that she suffered "serious depression"[11] for which she was hospitalized.[11][7] The death influenced much of her second album, Narrow.
In 2011 she created the song "Goodbye" together with Apparat. It was used in the final episode of the fourth season of Breaking Bad and later as the title song of the German Netflix-series Dark.[13][14][15]
In 2012, she debuted as an actress, playing the role of the supporting character Carmen in the Austrian movie Stillleben (English title: Still Life).
Two tracks, "Italy" and "Safe with Me" are used in the Italian film Sicilian Ghost Story (2017), written and directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza.
Plaschg's third full album, From Gas to Solid / you are my friend, was released on 28 October 2018. A music video for "Heal", one of the tracks from the album, was released on 7 August 2018. The track "Italy" has been used in the 2022 Corsage film.
On 14 September 2021, Plaschg announced that she would be playing several concerts in 2022.[16] The announcement contained a list of three shows, as well as a note from the artist stating that in the meantime she will be "diving down 300 years along [her] European ancestors exploring the arid surface of trees and roots of trauma, evil, pain."[16]
Discography
Anja Plaschg at Haldern Pop Festival 2019
Albums
2009: Lovetune for Vacuum (Couch Records/PIAS Records) – Austria #5, Germany #47
2012: Narrow (PIAS Records) – Austria #1, Germany #53
2018: From Gas to Solid / You Are My Friend (PIAS Records) – Austria #3, Germany #68, Switzerland #82
