Concert at the Orpheum

Soap&Skin in Graz: Between the beginning and the end

Anja Plaschg alias Soap&Skin was a guest at the Orpheum in Graz to kick off the tour: musical open-heart surgery with painful intensity.(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

The fine art of the cover version: Anja Plaschg alias Soap&Skin kicked off her current tour on Friday evening at the Orpheum in Graz. Pain and hope make your own heart beat.

In the beginning is the end. Anja Plaschg alias Soap&Skin starts the evening with her version of the Doors classic "The End". It is also the start of her tour, which accompanies the new cover album "Torso".

And the Styrian-born singer reduces the songs she sings live to the torso that gives the album its title. She starts the evening alone on the piano, only later are two strings and four wind instruments added. But the approach to the songs remains the same: With monumental minimalism, Plaschg breaks them down to their core - the part where the heart of the song beats. Or has beaten. Because it is open-heart surgery that she undertakes for large parts of the evening.

Anja Plaschg at the Orpheum Graz(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

(Bild: Lara Tomasic)

Musical operating theater
With painful intensity, she buries herself in songs such as "Maybe Not" by Cat Power, "Johnsburg, Illinois" by Tom Waits, "Girl Loves Me" by David Bowie, "Voyage, Voyage" by Desireless or "Born to Lose" by Shirley Bassey. At times, the sounds of ventilators and heart monitors are mixed into the musical operating theater. To live or to die? The outcome seems open.

But with songs such as "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens or "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground, Plaschg also suggests that the transience of life can be wrested from the transience of love with a tender seedling of hope. And when she then adds healing songs such as "Heal" and "Italy" from her own catalog for the finale of the evening, you can feel your heart beating in your own torso again.