Soap&Skin - a.k.a. Austrian composer, pianist and singer Anja Plaschg - visited Budapest previously in 2011, when she performed solo. Now she gives a flavour of her abilities as a songwriter and performer in the company of a full orchestra - with wind and string sections as well as vocalists. Plaschg was born in a small village in Styria in 1990, and began playing piano at the age of six. As a teenager, her interest shifted from classical to electronic music - and this dual influence persists to this day not only on her recordings but at concerts as well, where a laptop has a permanent place on top of her piano.
Her first album, 2009's Lovetune for Vacuum, entered the top 10 in several countries (and picked up an award at the 2010 European Border Breakers Awards gala). Inspired by the death of her father, her 2012 mini-album Narrow was even better, and she followed this in 2014 by composing music for a production of Romeo and Juliet at Hamburg's Thalia Theater.
Still only 25 years old, Plaschg has a style all her own: while her piano playing is strongly influenced by Arvo Pärt and Rachmaninoff, her songs and performance style owe a primary debt to the late German singer Nico - whom she has also portrayed on stage. She has performed at evenings in tribute to the Velvet Underground & Nico alongside John Cale, as well as members of Dead Can Dance, Air, Radiohead and Supergrass. Compared by some to Björk and Patti Smith, her songs also reveal the influences of Nick Cave, Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin.
Besides her own compositions, Plaschg's performances also find room for a version of French disco hit Voyage, Voyage slowed down to ballad tempo, while her latest single, released this April, is an arrangement of an Arab-language song by the Syrian Omar Souleyman, which will hopefully be followed by a new album tied to her 2015 tour.

The concert is made possible with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest