ANNA CALVI - IS THIS ALL THERE IS? [EP] - DOMINO

Anna Calvi releases her astounding EP Is This All There Is? featuring collaborations with Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop, Perfume Genius and The National’s Matt Berninger. Calvi's also shared the EP’s title track – her poignant song with Berninger – showcasing Anna’s tremendous vocal mastery as their voices weave in and out of each other.

Originally written for Joanna Hogg’s film The Souvenir Part II – but previously not released, Calvi asked Berninger to join her to create a spectacular new version. The song becomes an anthem of courage — the courage to believe there might be more. “This song is about the bravery it takes to hope,” Calvi says. “It’s the willingness to ask questions, even when knowing you’ll never get a definitive answer.”

Speaking further about working with Berninger, Calvi adds: “The tone of Matt’s voice has such an epic, almost ancient quality to it, which felt perfect for a song asking such a big existential question. We’re both searching for answers- together and yet somehow always apart, which I find beautiful. He brings an intimacy to the song that I couldn’t have imagined.”

Earlier this month, War Child’s HELP(2) album was released featuring Calvi’s beautiful contribution featuring Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell, Nilüfer Yanya and Dove Ellis. 

Is This All There Is? is the first instalment in a trilogy of records which explore identity as a metamorphosis, shaped and reshaped through the experience of falling in love. This was inspired by Calvi’s own perspective shift after becoming a parent. On the EP, Calvi dives into existential questions of modern existence: How do we reclaim intimacy? Is there something more elemental we can connect with? What does it mean to feel truly awake? “Having a child was so transformative it made me consider the possibility that everything in life could potentially shift, and that is scary but incredibly freeing. I didn’t want to take anything for granted any more. I want to exist in the best way for my child. I wanted to ask the most basic human question - is this all there is?”

“Is This All There Is?” is the third song to be shared from the EP following the electrifying “God’s Lonely Man” featuring Iggy Pop and Calvi’s exquisite duet with Perfume Genius on their “I See A Darkness” cover. On the as of yet unheard fourth track, Calvi reimagines Kraftwerk’s classic “Computer Love” alongside Laurie Anderson. With Anderson’s iconic voice at its centre and Calvi’s eerie choral arrangements creating space and shadow, it becomes a reflection on digital intimacy and emotional absence. Following her work scoring Peaky Blinders and composing two operas with visionary director Robert Wilson, the forthcoming EP plays like a cinematic soundscape — a four-song film arc populated by vivid characters. “Scoring the final two seasons of Peaky Blinders really altered how I create music. I always used to imagine my songs as mini films, but with this EP I wanted to explore a narrative which could exist throughout all the songs.”

Calvi has long surrounded herself with artists who operate on the edge of genre and expectation. She’s previously collaborated with David Byrne, Brian Eno, Marianne Faithfull, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Courtney Barnett, and Julia Holter — all artists who walk remarkable creative paths. “The opportunity to be in the same space as people you love is so inspiring,” she says. “To see how different people approach the same thing — it sharpens you. It’s thrilling.” Her collaborators on this EP — Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Perfume Genius, Matt Berninger — all share a singularity of vision. “They share a kind of subversive honesty,” Calvi notes. “They’re not trying to please anyone. They express exactly who they are.” On Is This All There Is? their voices become characters in the story, actors in the world she’s creating.

For her three albums to date, each its own dark-inked essay in turbulence and drama, Anna Calvi has been shortlisted three times for the Mercury Music Prize, nominated for a BRIT Award, received praise from the highest quarters and established herself as an artist fearless of examining identity and passion. With Is This All There Is? and what comes next in the trilogy, Anna Calvi intends to probe a little deeper into the human condition as she signs off: “I love to create cinema with pure sound. The further I explore, the more curious I become. I want to see how far I can go, and I always find myself asking: Is this all there is?”

Calvi has recently been confirmed to play Green Man festival in the summer, alongside support slots for David Byrne. She will also take part in the Barbican’s Marianne Faithfull tribute with the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton and Samantha Morton.

Anna Calvi has also continued to write on her Carving Silver In Strange Weather Substack.