BELLA1647 // 2 May 2025

Sally Potter has been exploring themes of human connectedness, morality, and mortality in a career that has spanned four decades, encompassing works as varied as the speculative historical epic “Orlando” and the acerbically witty comedy-drama “The Party”. In addition to her film work, Sally is a musician and singer-songwriter, a parallel vocation that began with improvised performances and concerts in the 1970s and 1980s and continued through composing music for the soundtracks of many of her critically lauded films. Her second album, ANATOMY is an entirely new affair for the multi-disciplinary artist—an eclectic and boldly visionary collection of songs that seek to tackle our species’ symbiotic relationship with the Earth, all while reflecting on the emotional threads that intertwine us all as people who share this planet.

“I call them ‘love songs to the Earth’,” explains Sally, underlining the deep emotionality running through the album’s 12 tracks. “We're not separate from the Earth, and our downfall is when we think of ourselves as such and see the planet as something we can exploit without consequences.” This sentiment becomes immediately evident on the album's opening title track, a heart-wringing ballad brimming with lilting balalaika, guitar and dulcet accordion melodies. Sally sings of the Earth as a living, breathing thing, its body co-existing with here: “The earth is my body/Skin muscle and bones/She is not mine, but I am hers/And hers alone.”