silent green and Digital in Berlin are happy to present the return of Avant-garde vocalist, electronics innovator and post-punk artist PHEW. Her career began in the 70s when she fronted Osaka punk group Aunt Sally (who released one album on Vanity Records in 1979). Ryuichi Sakamoto produced Phew’s first solo release in 1980 and in 1981. Pass Records issued her debut LP, a classic featuring Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, and Conny Plank.
Pitchfork calls her a “Japanese underground legend”. The albums she created over the last 40 years have gone from record store rarities to being included on many “best of” lists. She worked solo with musicians such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, Chrislo Haas, Alexander Hacke, Yuji Takahashi, Seiichi Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Nagashima, Otomo Yoshihide in the group Novo Tono, Dieter Moebius on Phew’s Project Undark Radium Girls project, Jim O’Rourke and Ana da Silva.
Read here about the reissue of her 1992’s Our Likeness, released on February 17 via Mute. “On her 1992 album, the iconoclastic vocalist and her band of German experimentalists pushed each other to virtuosic extremes, spanning styles and genres.” — Pitchfork
Our Likeness saw Phew return to Conny Plank’s legendary studio in Cologne (Kraftwerk, Neu! D.A.F. etc) after more than a decade when Chrislo Haas (1956-2004 – one of the driving forces in modern electronic music, and an important figure in the Neue Deutsche Welle scene) invited her to collaborate. Haas, who had met Phew briefly when Plank engineered her debut solo album in 1981, arranged for Alexander Hacke (guitar / Einstürzende Neubauten) and Thomas Stern (bass / Crime & the City Solution) to join. Can’s peerless drummer Jaki Liebezeit also reunited with Phew to collaborate alongside this new generation of German experimental musicians.
PHEW
Wednesday, 11th October 2023 | Doors 19:00 | Start 20:00 CET
silent green | Gerichtstraße 35 in 13347 Berlin-Wedding
The concert is a cooperation of silent green and Digital in Berlin.
