Anna Calvi has shared a reflective new collab track with Matt Berninger, ‘Is This All There Is?’ – check it out below.
On Friday (March 20), Calvi is set to release her EP ‘Is This All There Is?’, featuring collaborations with Berninger, Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop and Perfume Genius – you can visit here to pre-order.
Having already shared a taster of the record with the visceral new song ‘God’s Lonely Man’, she has now shared the EP’s title track. Originally written for Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II – but previously unreleased, Calvi asked The National frontman to work on a new version with her.
“This song is about the bravery it takes to hope,” she said of the track. “It’s the willingness to ask questions, even when knowing you’ll never get a definitive answer.”
As for what it was like to work with Berninger, Calvi added: “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.”
Elsewhere on the EP, Calvi reimagines Kraftwerk’s classic hit ‘Computer Love’ with Anderson, and revisits her previous cover of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s ‘I See A Darkness’, featuring Perfume Genius, which dropped last year.
“The opportunity to be in the same space as people you love is so inspiring,” Calvi said previously. “To see how different people approach the same thing – it sharpens you. It’s thrilling.
“They share a kind of subversive honesty. They’re not trying to please anyone. They express exactly who they are.”
In another recent collaborative project, Calvi appeared on the huge charity ‘Help(2)’ album alongside Arctic Monkeys, Beck, Portishead‘s Beth Gibbons, Big Thief, Wolf Alice‘s Ellie Rowsell and more.
Produced and stewarded by James Ford, (Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, Florence + The Machine, Blur, Pet Shop Boys), ‘Help(2)’ was recorded through “a close collaboration with Abbey Road Studios” mostly during one week in November 2025.
Before that, Calvi brought her signature sound to the score of the fifth and sixth seasons of Peaky Blinders.
As for Berninger, spoke to NME last summer during his press tour for new solo album, ‘Get Sunk’, opening up about beating writer’s block and depression, and what’s next for The National.
“Yes. It’s been four years since the dark months where it felt like there was no flame and I didn’t want to do it anymore,” he said at the time. “I didn’t want to listen to music anymore, much less fucking make any. That was scary. Then it came back. I’ve been writing a lot these past four years. The National have generated a huge batch of possible new things. There isn’t any rush for that, but I’ve been in a real juicy and creative couple of years.
“I’m glad I had that break and that ‘Get Sunk’ took five years because I was able to go back and change so much and make it better.”
