18 months after the release of Hunter, which explored sexuality and breaking the laws of gender conformity, Anna Calvi revisited her initial, more intimate recordings of those songs. The versions on Hunted find her masterful guitar playing and formidable vocals distilled to their bare essence, in the company of collaborators Courtney Barnett, Joe Talbot (IDLES), Charlotte Gainsbourg and Julia Holter. The tracks on Hunted shine under the light of a different lens, one that brings the in...
18 months after the release of Hunter, which explored sexuality and breaking the laws of gender conformity, Anna Calvi revisited her initial, more intimate recordings of those songs. The versions on Hunted find her masterful guitar playing and formidable vocals distilled to their bare essence, in the company of collaborators Courtney Barnett, Joe Talbot (IDLES), Charlotte Gainsbourg and Julia Holter. The tracks on Hunted shine under the light of a different lens, one that brings the innate fragility of the compositions to the forefront and exquisitely melds together the dichotomy of the hunter and the hunted, the primal and the beautiful, the vulnerable and the strong.
In the summer of 2018, Anna Calvi released her critically acclaimed third album Hunter. On it, she explored sexuality and breaking the laws of gender conformity. Following a stellar 18 months, which saw Calvi write her first television score (for BBC One’s Peaky Blinders), receive her third consecutive Mercury Prize nomination (the first solo artist to achieve this feat) and play sold out shows across the globe to her largest ever audiences, Calvi has now crafted a stunning reworking of Hunter into Hunted.
Having revisited her first ever recordings for Hunter, Calvi found they offered an intimate and private view of the songs’ initial intentions. Distilled to their bare essence on Hunted: her masterful guitar playing and formidable vocals, Calvi then asked Courtney Barnett, Joe Talbot (IDLES), Charlotte Gainsbourg and Julia Holter to collaborate with her and further transform the songs.
Calvi says of Hunted: “During a break from touring I went back and listened to the first recordings I ever made of ‘Hunter’. These recordings capture the very moment I first wrote these songs, and recorded them on my own, in my attic studio. I find something especially intimate about sharing these most private recordings with my favourite singers and asking them to lend their voices and artistic sensibility. Courtney Barnett is an amazing artist. Her voice and guitar playing together are mind blowing. Her ability to connect the profound to the smallest moments of human experience is the unique talent of a true artist.”
Barnett said of working together: “Anna is a completely awe-inspiring performer, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her onstage. I love her songwriting for its beautiful and perfect balance between aggression and tenderness”.
Rawer sounding than their original incarnations, the tracks on Hunted shine under the light of a different lens, one that brings the innate fragility of the compositions to the forefront and exquisitely melds together the dichotomy of the hunter and the hunted, the primal and the beautiful, the vulnerable and the strong.
TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
- 1Swimming Pool (feat. Julia Holter)
- 2Hunter
- 3Eden (feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg)
SIDE B
- 1Away (Hunted Version)
- 2Don’t Beat The Girl out of My Boy (feat. Courtney Barnett)
- 3Wish (feat. IDLES)
- 4Indies or Paradise
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