Anna Calvi
 

So a friend tipped me off to this lady after he saw her open for Grinderman. Apparently Eno is her personal mentor now. I like her debut, what a strong voice. Some of these compositions wouldn't be out of place in a spaghetti western. Very produced, but none of it sounds too soupy. Rob Ellis (longtime collaborator with PJ Harvey, Scott Walker, and others) produced it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWx8Ipz8y7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlqTUD8yhU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR-R1oVds4w

Yes, she has an amazing voice and the album's good, I'd just say the drumming is a bit too monotonous (maybe the music would be better with more varied rhythms).

Arte Live Web will webcast a live performance by Anna Calvi:
http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Anna_Calvi_au_Trianon/

i saw her on Jules Holland and was really impressed. May well get the album

Webcast will start in about ten minutes.

Anna Calvi live at Studio Q on CBC Radio in Canada on May 27, 2011:
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2011/05/27/anna-calvi-on-q/
Set-list: "Desire", "Morning Light", and "Suzanne And I".

I haven't been this impressed with a new musician for a long time.
The album doesn't sound half as good as she is live, and I'm glad I decided to go see her even tho I didn't know much about her. It was amazing.

To me that's part of what it makes it so great.

She played a short set at KEXP a few hours ago, did anybody catch it? I hope a recording will appear at dimeadozen, pronto.

Anna Calvi - 2011-06-01 Seattle, KEXP
Uploaded by tomzero

Anna Calvi will be performing live at KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic tomorrow. Here's the info, taken from KCRW's website:

Anna Calvi

WED JUN 8, 2011
Host:

• Jason Bentley

Hailed by Brian Eno as "the best thing since Patti Smith," seductive songstress Anna Calvi packs a powerful punch on her self-titled debut. We'll witness her big sound when she joins Morning Becomes Eclectic for a live session at 11:15am.

woah....I like. Awesome voice.

Anna Calvi's KCRW session at Morning Becomes Eclectic is streaming right now.

AUDIO:
http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/med...ve&id=kcrwlive

VIDEO:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kcrw#u...&medium=239519

A recording of Anna Calvi's KCRW session is now up at dime:

Anna Calvi - Live In Session On MBE - KCRW FM 2011-06-08
Uploaded by Nibbler

This is my favourite radio session of the last three she has played recently. Not just because she and her band played a longer set, but because i think it was a great performance and a good interview. "Morning Light" was absent this time and it was missed. That one was stunning on the KEXP session, i sort of thought it would fit perfectly in a David Lynch film. The pace and emotion of that song reminded me of those sequences where Julee Cruise sings in "Twin Peaks", or something.

I checked out some live recordings of her a while ago out of curiosity, and while i don't think she's as great as Patti Smith, for instance, i still find her music really swell to listen to. I snatched a couple Anna Calvi DVDs today as well, watched them and listened again to all the radio sessions posted here. At the end, instead of feeling boredom due to overexposure, i'm wanting more stuff by Anna Calvi. I'm in the mood for this.

By the way, here's a link to her vimeo page, the "Attic Sessions" mentioned in the interview with Jason Bentley are there:
http://vimeo.com/annacalvi/videos

Well... I've been disappointed by her live performance tonight; probably not a kind of artist I'd like (no smile, no link between songs, too much pathos in the music).
Desire kicked ass though.

She's often criticized for being shy and lacking charisma, so i can of understand such qualms, although those aspects of her music and personality actually do not bother me. "Desire" is my favorite song by her, followed closely by "Morning Light".

no smile? no link between the songs?
i'm kind of struggling to believe i actually read that.

i also struggled to believe it when people decided to talk during her performance.

There was talking while she was singing too, and a couple of less talented people deciding to sing along. Oh well, one can't spoil one's fun.

I don't understand why an artist has to smile or connect the songs.
I think her stage persona is very cohesive. It was ridiculously annoying that some people didn't realise her music was quiet and decided to chat. You could tell she was getting annoyed too.

I guess what i meant is, i understand charisma is important for some people. I don't get why would it matter more than the music in this case, though. Finding flaws in the music (no links between songs, or whatever) seems a valid point, as everyone thinks different and sees music in their own personal way. I reiterate i don't see those kinds of problems with Anna Calvi myself, but then again i've never seen her live, and it's possible that live recordings do not represent reality too well(?). The record and other artifacts i've heard and/or watched have made me reach the conclusion that she's great, all things considered.

I share your feelings regarding how annoying chatters at concerts are. There are people at mostly every show here, that chat, slam-dance (no matter if the music is apt for such antics or not), sing-along in the most horrible way, and some of them even howl :eek:.

I'm not sure what he meant by links. Did he mean that the songs don't relate to each other or that they actually stop during her live performance?

What people would call lack of charisma is her charisma, her entire presence is very cohesive and leaves no room for anyone to pay attention to anything other than the music.

I wasn't so amazed when I heard the album but seeing her perform live was something else.

While she played with other louder try-hard bands and some people may have preferred those, even in her most silence moments she was a million times more powerful than most bands out there.

Her music is about passion and tragedy it'd be odd if she did that smiling.

By no link I meant pauses allowing you to do whatever you like while a musician grabs a new guitar; if you're not convinced, well, a pause might not help. And you barely enjoy the silence, since there ain't much of that in a concert. Besides, she didn't seem to demand silence to keep people in the mood (there's not that many different moods there), she just went on.

By no smile my mind was on the other girl, Mally, mostly. The drummer enjoyed the show and tried to make eye contact with his partners, which is a good point in my book (watching people create some quality thing together).

I read and heard so many positive things, I wanted to let you know you could say you're disappointed when you are.

I'd never be disappointed with any one of those things.
I'm there for the music.
If some people are not interested, they don't need to do anything to keep them entertained. It's not a play.
She doesn't have to demand silence, the audience should remain silent out of respect.

Yeah, i don't know why there has be to such an emphasis on the apparent fact that she's shy. Judging by the interviews i've read and heard, i don't have complaints about her personality, i like it. Now, just in the same way a good host can obtain an extroverted and valuable interview despite the so-called shy nature of their subject's personality (refer to Anna Calvi's interview with Jason Bentley for the KCRW session and then compare to the KEXP one, to get my point if needed to); the way an audience (or even just a part of it) acts or behaves at a show, must also affect and/or influence the mood of the performers, and thus the show. Maybe the conditions weren't the most ideal that night for something that could be considered the peak of quality on both parts? Anyway, she definitely smiles, and otherwise interacts in some limit both with the audience and her bandmates, judging by some recordings out there (as proven by the performance webcast by arte.tv, for instance).

Smiling is overrated.

But I don't see why people should even comment on an artist's personality, as if it's her obligation to act nice and entertaining. She makes music and that's all she's giving. She owes nothing to the audience.

In her case, I think those complaints have to be from people who misunderstand what her music is all about. It's full of silences, it's raw, moody and minimal so it makes no sense to expect her to behave in the opposite way.

Also, apparently her stage persona is a play on the flamenco dancer sort of thing? Except that she's dressed as the man.

New single, "Desire", is out in 7" format in a limited run. The official video clip is over at bitchdork:
http://www.pitchfork.com/tv/#/music-...i/2754-desire/
I fucking love it. In some places, it seems like something that would come out of David Lynch's mind on the "Twin Peaks" era.

Got it, bye

Anna Calvi's performance for UK's Channel 4's Sessions From Abbey Road, recorded last month, was finally broadcast last night alongside an acoustic set by Blondie. Here are some photos of Anna that were taken by Tom Bunning:
http://livefromabbeyroad.tumblr.com/...alvi-annacalvi

The full episode can be streamed here (unless you are, like myself, in a third world country, or at least outside of the UK):
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/l...ad/4od#3203648

Blondie's set is available as a PAL DVD at dime. I hope someone captured Anna Calvi's performance as well, and i pray for a torrent to make the rounds soon. If anyone watched this show, and could post the set-list (i've been unable to find it so far) to help me nourish bigger expectations, i would be very appreciative. Thanks.

http://www.soluzionisemplici.net/anna-calvi/

ihihihihihi

yes!

Thank you so much for posting this.

Glad you like it hbj!
It's a nice small interview, even if the questions aren't the sharpest thinkable (does this make sense?).

The interviewer asked her the so common question about her shyness or introversion. Anna must be already tired of being asked that one yet she answered in a polite and clear manner. That's the only question i disliked on that interview.

Hopefully someone asks a question and gets an answer that would shed some light in regards to David Lynch being a possible influence on Anna Calvi's music and aesthetic. I see knox agrees with me on my little observation on the "Desire" video, maybe some others do too, so i don't think it's just my mind playing tricks on me. If it's not Lynch's influence what's present in there, i'd like to see her spilling the beans anyway.

Oh definitely.
The video is totally Lynch.
I had no doubt about it while seeing her live.
I was thinking blue velvet/el club silencio/julee cruise the entire time.

Is it just me but... isn't asking a shy person about their shyness just rude? and kind of stupid?

She definitely has a great voice. Need to hear some more songs.

chicka, in case you are interested, you can download a Pro-shot DVD of Anna Calvi's performance at Canal + in France last February from Megaupload here:
http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...postcount=2022

A while ago i uploaded tomzero's capture of Anna's performance at KEXP FM Studios in Seattle on June 1st. The download link is still active:
http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...postcount=1983


Anna Calvi's soundcloud page is worth of a visit if you'd like to listen to some more tunes. You can stream audio of the "Desire" 7" single, the "Blackout" single, the KCRW session she recently did for Morning Becomes Eclectic, the "Jezebel/Moulinette" single, and the debut album in its entirety. I think there were demos for "Blackout" and "First We Kiss", but it seems those have been removed:
http://soundcloud.com/annacalvi/sets

I was desperately waiting for this one:

Anna Calvi - 'Live from Abbey Road' Channel 4 TV UK, (3 song PAL DVD)
Uploaded by PontiacB

Bump.


Some words Anna said at some point in which her interest in film is evident:

I see my songs as mini films; I want to take the listener into another world for the space of a song. I always want to create a real sense of atmosphere. It is really important to me that the music dictates the story as much as the lyrics do - much like a film score. Both musically and visually I want to evoke a sense of passion, I'm interested in portraying romance which at the same time feels mysterious and sometimes dark; the songs often summon a sense of outside danger, of forces which you can't control, at the same time within a landscape which sounds beautiful".

I finally found a video in which she refers to artists that she considers her influences in this aspect of her music: David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, and Wong Kar-Wai are casually mentioned in an interview segment in ARTE TV's program One Shot Note.

Anyway, here's a link to download that video. It also contains nifty performances of "Desire" and "Blackout":
http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...postcount=2031

Anna Calvi performed "Desire" last night on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7xIbxGPwPk

Thank you!