A Closer Listen

“The concept album is a much-maligned tradition, but only because too many artists go overboard. Selkie is a concept album done right, with a simple premise based on a well known legend.”

“Love can be mysterious, dangerous, and unpredictable. Sometimes beings find each other, and though the world doubts their connection, they care not. Animated Matter lands on the side of love, impossible, delirious, magical.”

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Pop Matters

“Animated Matter offer a sublime, transcendent debut with ‘Selkie’… alternately lush and liminal, buoyant and cthonic, soundscapes that conjure archetypal themes and evoke complex emotional responses.'“

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Headphone Commute

“The album revolves around a Scandinavian, Scottish and Celtic myth of the selkie: “a tragedy of impossible land/sea romance between a man and a shapeshifting seal/woman,” featuring sparkling tones, fluid drones, and muted vocals as if picked up by the hydrophones. Reminiscent of subdued lullabies by Grouper, Julianna Barwick, and Sita Ostheimer (from her work with Pepo Galán), the eight pieces on the release, submerged in ambience, shimmering textures, and dreamy delirium, emanate and flow through the dense morning flog, yet to fade from your memories.”

Inverted Audio

“‘Selkie contains some ineffable magic within the space it holds, something that is conjured up not by the muted, impressionistic Rhodes, Cox’s almost saintly choral refrains, nor by the far off glimmer of electronic instruments, but instead seemingly welling up in the gaps between these forms of music”

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