At the end of last year Anna Calvi is back with a stunning cover of I See A Darkness by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, performed together with Perfume Genius. Today Calvi announces a new EP out on March 20th, Is This All There Is?which features three more legendary collaborations: Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson and Matt Berninger of The National.
On the EP's opening track, the electrifying God's Lonely Man, Calvi relies on Iggy Pop, the perfect figure to embody the voice of his destructive internal monologue. «It is destabilizing, raw and honest, a unique force. His presence was perfect for the narrative of this song». The song pulsates with a bold challenge: powerful guitars and fast-paced drums make it a true battle cry against emotional inertia and desperation.
The video featuring Anna and Iggy offers an intimate portrait of a real connection between two extraordinary musicians and performers. It plays with stillness and wild energy, as the two artists meet in a kind of communion. Every gesture, however subtle, contributes to creating a sense of shared transformation. When they sing in unison «I wanna be somebody tonight», seem to merge into a single electrifying force. The video is directed and produced by Luigi Calabrese and Dominic Easter, edited by Rianne White and shot in Miami.
Is This All There Is? is the first chapter of a trilogy of records that explores identity as a metamorphosis, shaped and reshaped through the experience of falling in love. The idea was born from the change in perspective Calvi experienced after becoming a parent. On the EP, Calvi dives into existential questions about contemporary life: how can we recover intimacy? Is there something more basic that we can reconnect to? What does it mean to feel truly aware? «Having a child was so transformative that it made me consider the possibility that everything in life could change, and that is scary but incredibly liberating. I no longer wanted to take anything for granted. I want to exist in the best way possible for my son. I wanted to ask myself the most fundamental human question: is that all there is to it?».
In the EP Calvi also reinterprets the Kraftwerk classic Computer Love together with Laurie Anderson. With Anderson's iconic voice at its center and Calvi's haunting, choral arrangements creating space and shadow, the song becomes a reflection on digital intimacy and emotional absence. After her work as a composer for Peaky Blinders and writing an opera with visionary director Robert Wilson, the new EP presents itself as a cinematic soundscape, the narrative arc of a four-song film populated by vivid characters. «Compose the music for the last two seasons of Peaky Blinders it really changed the way I create music. I've always imagined my songs as little films, but with this EP I wanted to explore a narrative that could exist through all the songs.”
Calvi has always surrounded himself with artists who operate on the margins of genres and expectations. In the past he has collaborated with David Byrne, Brian Eno, Marianne Faithfull, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Courtney Barnett and Julia Holterall artists who follow extraordinary creative paths. «The ability to be in the same space with people you love is incredibly inspiring“, tells. «Seeing how different people deal with the same thing makes you sharper. It's exhilarating». The collaborators on this EP — Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Perfume Genius and Matt Berninger — all share a unique vision. «They share a kind of subversive honesty», observes Calvi. «They don't try to please anyone. They express exactly what they are». In Is This All There Is? their voices become characters in the story, actors in the world that Calvi is creating.
With her three albums released to date, each an essay steeped in darkness, turbulence and drama, Anna Calvi has been shortlisted three times for the Mercury Music Prize, nominated for a BRIT Award, lauded by leading critics and established as an artist fearless in exploring identity and passion. With Is This All There Is? and what will follow in the trilogy, Anna Calvi intends to dig even deeper into the human condition, concluding thus: «I love creating cinema through pure sound. The more I explore, the more curious I become. I want to see how far I can go, and I always find myself wondering: is that all there is to it?».
Additionally, Calvi will release a new song on War Child's collaborative album HELP(2), out March 6th.Sunday Light also sees the participation of Ellie Rowsell by Wolf Alice, Nilüfer Yanya And Where Ellis.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
