Radium Girls by Phew, Erika Kobayashi, Dieter Moebius

In the shadow of the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011, Japanese musician Phew, artist Erika Kobayashi, and German electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) came together for an extraordinary project. Together, they developed the concept album Radium Girls 2011, which they released in 2012 under the project name Project UNDARK—114 years after the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie. The album is dedicated to the so-called Radium Girls, female factory workers in the United States during the 1920s who painted watch dials with radioactive luminous paint and suffered severe health consequences from radium poisoning. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the label Bureau B is reissuing Radium Girls — for the first time also on vinyl.

Phew's career began in the 70s fronting trailblazing 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 H. Czukay and J. Liebezeit of Can, and Conny Plank. She’s since collaborated with members of DAF, Neubauten, The Raincoats and more.