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Phew to reissue 1992 album Our Likeness

Our Likeness will be available on clear vinyl in February.

Vocalist and post-pink artist Phew has announced a reissue of 1992’s Our Likeness, due for release on February 17 via Mute.

Phew originally came to the fore as the vocalist of the Japanese band Aunt Sally before recording a solo single with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Our Likeness saw Phew collaborate with Chrislo Haas at Conny Plank’s studio in Cologne.

“When I was recording at Conny’s Studio in 1981, a young German man came to visit, sat quietly in the studio for a while and left without saying a word. His politeness was long remembered and can still be recalled. It was when he came to Japan that I discovered he was Chrislo Haas of D.A.F. At the end of the 1980s he visited me in Tokyo, then we decided to make something together, and a few months later we were recording at Conny’s Studio,” Phew explains.

“Chrislo contacted the musicians who took part, Alex Hacke, Jaki Liebezeit and Thomas Stern, told Mute about the project and Our Likeness was released. I often wonder what kind of music Chrislo would have made if he had still been here on earth. Twenty-four years later, I met Alex Hacke again at a festival in Poland, where I got to play with hackedepicciotto. And now I am working with Danielle de Picciotto. More to come!”

You can pre-order Our Likeness on clear vinyl now.

Tracklist:
1. The Last Song
2. Our Likeness
3. Being
4. Like Water and Water
5. Glitter of Night
6. Spring
7. Smell
8. Depth of the Forehead
9. Our Element
10. Expression
11. Ocean

Japanese avant-garde musician Phew unveils new album, Vertigo KO

“The hidden message of this album is: What a terrible world we live in, but let’s survive.”

Japanese musician Phew, aka Hiromi Moritani, is releasing a new album, titled Vertigo KO, via Disciples this September.

Moritani co-founded one of Osaka’s earliest punk groups, Aunt Sally, in 1978, before going solo as Phew and working with artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto and Conny Plank.

Vertigo KO is comprised of unreleased material from the recording sessions for previous albums Light Sleep and Voice Hardcore, alongside new material and a cover of The Raincoats’ 1979 track ‘The Void’.

“This album is an unconscious sound sketch,” shares Moritani. “It is not a presentation of a worldview, but a personal documentary music of the late 2010s. The hidden message of this album is: What a terrible world we live in, but let’s survive.”

Vertigo KO follows Phew’s Vertical Jamming LP, which was also released on Disciples.

Head here to pre-order a copy in advance of Vertigo KO’s 4th September release, check out the artwork and tracklist below.

Tracklist:

1. The Very Ears Of Morning
2. The Void
3. Let’s Dance Let’s Go
4. The Very Ears Of Dusk
5. All That Vertigo
6. Midnight Awakening
7. Hearts And Flowers

Photo by: Masayuki Shioda