Phew Details 'Our Likeness' Reissue | The Quietus

Phew Details ‘Our Likeness’ Reissue

The 1992 album is coming back into print courtesy of Mute

Post-punk artist Phew is reissuing her album Our Likeness.

Originally released in 1992, the album marked the Japanese artist’s debut for Mute, who are handling this reissue. It will come back into press for the first time since its initial release, and will be made available on CD and limited edition clear vinyl, as well as on digital formats for the first time. Listen to the album’s title track just below.

Our Likeness saw Phew, real name Hiromi Moritani, collaborate with Chrislo Haas at Conny Plank’s studio in Cologne. Jaki Liebezeit, Alexander Hacke and Thomas Stern also all appear across the record.

In a statement about the album’s original recording process, Moritani said: "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.

"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!"

The reissue of Our Likeness follows on from the release of Phew’s latest studio album, New Decade, through Mute last year.

Mute will release Our Likeness on February 17, 2023.

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