Paper Masks captures the first collaboration between two singular, experimental artists – Japanese, Tokyo-based vocal artist and electronics player Phew, known for her collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, members of Can, former members of Einstürzende Neubauten, Jim O’Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi, and American, Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist, poet, and vocalist Danielle de Picciotto, who has performed and exhibited with Crime & The City Solution, Gudrun Gut, The Space Cowboys and her husband Alexander Hacke, founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten.

Paper Masks was developed over nearly five years. De Picciotto sent poetry and vocals from Berlin. Phew reshaped and processed De Picciotto’s spoken voice – in English and German, without looking at her lyrics—and wove in her vocals and electronics, composing and arranging the music into eight pieces. Phew said she only listened to De Picciotto’s spoken voice, wishing to evoke the unspoken and unheard sounds.

The outcome is an intimate, yet otherworldly and cryptic, minimalist dialogue across sonic universes, reflecting completely different approaches to language, space, and sound. Phew’s vintage-sounding electronics and abstract, dream-like vocal artistry intensify De Picciotto’s urgent, emotional delivery, often pushing this unique collaboration into distorted and disorienting corrupted transmissions or futurist sonic collisions.

Paper Masks is available in a limited edition jellyfish-colored vinyl, featuring lyrics and poetry, on CD, housed in an eco card pack with a lyrics and poetry booklet, and as a download option.

Eyal Hareuveni

Phew (vocals, electronics), Danielle de Picciotto (vocals, spoken word)