Avant-garde vocalist and experimental electronic music pioneer Phew will be touring Europe starting in a few days. Earlier this year, she was also in Europe for a number of shows, performing at various festivals shortly after the re-release of her 1992 album Our Likeness on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute Records. The upcoming tour kicks off on 7 October in Latvia at Skanu Mezs Festival, and she will also perform in Hungary, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Phew, born Hiromi Moritani, is nowadays seen as a legendary singer, composer and analogue electronics improviser with a body of work that spans different generations and placed her as the queen of avant-garde. She was the founder of punk group Aunt Sally, but since the band has broken up she has been active mostly solo. She has done collaborations with Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay, legendary krautrock producer Conny Plank, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell, Jim O’Rourke and The Boredoms, the creation of various punk bands. In 2017, she released her first solo album in 20 years, titled Light Sleep.
After that, she kept active with releasing new material with other musicians such as Ana Da Silva and Jim O’Rourke. Live, her voice is at the commands while abstract electronics are treated directly, creating tracks that are both highly emotional and sonically challenging. In 2020 a collection of material previously released on compilations, collaborations, singles and CD-r’s only got released with the title Vertigo KO via the label Disciples, while in 2021 Mute Records released New Decade, a new solo album recorded in her home studio in the Tokyo suburb of Kawasaki during the pandemic.
Phew Tour in Europe October 2023
Saturday 07 October, 2023: Skanu Mezs Festival – Riga, Latvia
Monday 09 October, 2023: BUDAPEST, HU @ UH Festival – Budapest, Hungary
Wednesday 11 October, 2023: Silent Green – Berlin, Germany
Friday 13 October, 2023: STUK Labozaal – Leuven, Belgium
Tuesday 17 October, 2023: Cafe Oto – London, United Kingdom
Wednesday 18 October, 2023: Cafe Too – London, United Kingdom
