Austrian artist Anja Plaschg has announced a new Soap&Skin covers album, TORSO, featuring her original takes on songs by the likes of Cat Power, Lana Del Rey, David Bowie, and nine others – including Sufjan Stevens' dreamy "Mystery of Love" from the now-classic soundtrack to Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name.

Arriving 22 November via Play It Again Sam, the self-produced TORSO, which follows 2018's From Gas to Solid / You Are My Friend, was an idea that grew out of a commission from Austria's Donaufestival two years ago, where Plaschg was invited to perform a whole set of covers that had been floating in and out of her repertoire since she first debuted 15 years ago with the album, Lovetune for Vacuum.

The set included songs like "Voyage, Voyage" by Desireless, "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes, "The End" by The Doors, "Born to Lose" by Shirley Bassey, and "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground, which all appear on TORSO in new versions recorded in Vienna with an ensemble musically directed by Plaschg.

On "Mysteries of Love", Plaschg makes use of the strings and brass to transform Stevens' shimmering, sunny afternoon song into something more haunting and nocturnal. Watch the lyric video below:

Writing on Instagram this morning, Plaschg says of TORSO:

"It feels like letting go of a secret. This is a different kind of cheating – not just one cover interwoven within my own songs as I did in the past, but a full-on covers record, an advanced stage of blurred self... It can be both marvelous and frightening to enter those rooms, to open those fully furnished places of other souls, study every component, see what it does – change a spot or an angle, put words from strangers into one's mouth, tell my story within the shape of others, a house built by someone else...holding, being held; taking, being taken; leading, being led by a stranger's hand."

TORSO tracklist:

1. Mystery Of Love (Sufjan Stevens)
2. God Yu Tekkem Laef Blong Mi (Hans Zimmer)
3. Born To Lose (Shirley Bassey)
4. Gods & Monsters (Lana Del Rey) *
5. Maybe Not (Cat Power)
6. Voyage, Voyage (Desireless)
7. Johnsburg, Illinois (Tom Waits)
8. Girl Loves Me (David Bowie)
9. Stars (Janis Ian)
10. Pale Blue Eyes (The Velvet Underground)
11. What's Up? (4 Non Blondes)
12. The End (The Doors)

* Digital-only bonus track

Plaschg has one festival date remaining for 2024, followed by a short Austrian tour in January:

09/06/24 Bad Ischl, Austria @ New Salt Festival
01/10/25 Graz, Austria @ Orpheum
01/11/25 Salzburg, Austria @ Rockhouse
01/17/25 Vienna, Austria @ Wiener Konzerthaus

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