SELK. (official page)

SELK, is the alt- folk group spearheaded by Anna Jordan (bandleader/composer).

Anna Jordan has established herself as a serious composer with fruitful contributions to soundtracks for movies such as 'Snap' directed by Carmel Winters (best known for her film Float Like A Butterfly) and 'Breakfast On Pluto' starring Cillian Murphy, and with the release of her debut EP ‘Dust’ in 2013. Anna’s moving compositions lend well to film and more recently SELK’s track ‘Salt’ was added to the soundtrack of 2019 thriller ‘Greta’ starring Chloe Grace Moretz, with ‘Salt’ subsequently becoming SELK’s most successful release to date.

SELK' debut album ‘Beast’ was released to critical acclaim in 2016. Anna came into the orbit of Emmy winning composer Javier Navarrete - famed for his stunning score for Guillermo del Toro’s cult classic Pan’s Labyrinth - when he heard Anna perform a stripped back version of her song ‘Moments’ at a house party (just vocals and ukulele) and he was inspired to compose an orchestral score to complement the song.

Moments was released on AMS Records in February 2020.

"Moments' is a delicate lullaby – it's intimate, but Navarrete's underlying composition feels larger-than-life, too. The orchestration is not overwhelming despite its cinematic quality. Jordan is a multi-instrumentalist herself, and it's clear when listening to 'Moments' that it was crafted by two artists who are incredible at their craft. The track is studded with dark imagery, and the inherent theatricality in Jordan's fluttering vibrato calls back to the golden age of Hollywood.” - Hot Press

A further collaboration, ‘Silent Sea’ is a rework of Anna's song from her debut EP Dust. Whilst Moments, a song of yearning and redemption, was elevated by Navarrete’s intimate yet epic orchestral score, he approached this piece with a very different take. Silent Sea is underscored by haunting ambient electronics weaving through the song to create something quite unique.

"It was a pleasure to work again with Anna Jordan. Her song Silent Sea is, so far, my favourite in her repertoire. Silent Sea is a song with a huge sense of space, as suggested by its title and lyrics, and I didn’t have to do much except add depth to the original performance. I achieved that with a small number of orchestration and post-production tools: doubling original lines with different sounds, experimenting a bit with the alignment of these tracks, finding nice reverbs and delays to expand the ’room’ of the performance. I believe these tools are rather modest, but they give you the advantages of preserving the original feeling of an honest, relaxed and inspired performance. This is a beautiful song and I’m very pleased to have been involved it. I look forward to hearing more Silent Seas. I need them to find a place to think and feel in the midst of this noisy world of ours." – Javier Navarette

It is no small thing that a composer of Navarette’s standing has sought to collaborate with Jordan, it says as much about her talent as it does about his desire to plough fresh furrows of sound.

Tony Clayton Lea, Irish Times says: “Silent Sea, a collaboration with Spanish composer Javier Navarrete (Oscar-nominated for his score for Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth), is a striking tune that shines a light on Jordan’s velvet voice and the deft interplay between the original song’s airiness and Navarrete’s weaving ambient/electronica."

SELK released No Saviours on April 22nd, 2022, which is the first release from their upcoming 2nd album, due for release by the end of this year.

Praise For Selk:

'Drawing from a broad sonic palette SELK’s raw, unshackled songs possess an inherent power which prove mesmerising in a live environment, mostly due to Jordan’s singular talent.' – Hot Press

'The intimate to widescreen shift of Selk’s latest offering ‘Moments’, featuring orchestration from Javier Navarrete, has an emotionally wrought weight to it that pulls you in via an enchanting central performance from Selk.' – The Last Mix Tape

'A moody and expansive work that melds indie-pop choruses with bold soundscapes and intricate production. An engaging and impressive debut.' – GCN

‘Jordan belongs to a new generation of musicians to have emerged in recent years that beautifully blur the fault lines between different genres of music, creating new hybrids that defy easy categorisation.’- Billy O'Hanluain