Post Show: Soap&Skin at the Purcell Room

Who better to provide the soundtrack to a forbiddingly gloomy October evening than Soap&Skin, the experimental music project of 19-year-old Viennese singer-songwriter Anja Plaschg. Having opened for Patti Smith at Meltdown Festival in June of this year, this time she returns to Southbank Centre a headline act. A hush falls on the Purcell Room as she drifts on stage, clad in black, a Tim Burton-esque fantasy of wild hair, cheekbones and ghostly pallor.

It’s thrilling set steeped in gothic theatrics, built around an astonishing voice that in one breath can tear from keening melody to a harrowing shriek. As the show reaches its climax she suddenly leaps down into the front row stalking menacingly through the aisles, leaving the audience not so much sitting on the edge of their seats as leaping out of them.

From the blogs

Like the album, Soap&Skin the live experience is creepy, heartbreaking and beautiful. The music is the same, but the performance is astonishing.
– MusicOHM

For Marche Funèbre she departs from her piano stool and dances like Helena Bonham Carter emulating a malfunctioning robot.
– The Line Of Best Fit

I kind of imagine her living in an Austrian castle guarded by wolves that shoot lightning from their eyes.
– Anika In London

Live Photos

Photographer: Minh Le