Following her critically-praised sophomore EP ‘HÖLY STRANGER’ in 2022, emerging artist ELDR delivers her highly-anticipated atmospheric new offering ‘Deer Skin’.
ELDR is the machination of artist and award-winning film composer Marina Elderton. A recipient of the PRS Women Make Music fund and a scholar from the National Film & Television School, Elderton has composed award-winning scores for the likes of BBC, Sky Arts, BFI, and Film4, including the soundtrack for Poly Styrene: I AM A CLICHÉ, which won ‘Best Documentary’ at the British Independent Film Awards and the ‘Raindance Discovery Award’, as well as being nominated for a Scottish BAFTA.
ELDR’s 2022 single ‘Friends’ premiered with WONDERLAND MAGAZINE, who praised ELDR for her “raw and unapologetic approach to tune crafting”.‘Deer Skin’ is no exception. With its hypnotic rhythm dancing around plucked textures and her own otherworldly vocals throughout, she sets an incredibly vivid tone. Combining the lo-fi beats of Norwegian producer and long term collaborator Knut Jonas Sellevold (known for his ‘King Knut’ hip hop tapes), guitar strands, and earthy harp performed by Berlin based artist Andy Aquarius, ‘Deer Skin’ see’s ELDR channel the energy of acts such as Portishead, Bjork and Joanna Newsom.
Speaking about the new track, she said, “Deer Skin paints the tale of being in a coercive and psychologically abusive relationship- something I’ve experienced personally. What can be confusing are the parallel sensations of love and fear. The somewhat alluring power dynamic constantly at play makes you feel like a deer being hunted and teased.”
These ideas are extended in the accompanying music video, directed by Philip James Mcgoldrick and shot by DP Luciana Riso. The video presents a bold photographic movement piece exploring themes of abuse, coercion, subjugation and racism. Shot in grainy black and white in an abandoned church, the core themes are narrated through a dance re-enacting a hunt. With choreography by Alex Kamienski and a stunning central performance by Modest Mulenga, the video doesn’t shy away from an inditement of historic injustices and racial violence. The video was produced by Elderton’s production company EMC Productions, in association with Cooke Lenses.
After releasing her debut EP ‘Defender’, she gave birth to her first child. Finding herself in lockdown with a newborn, unable to perform live, she began visually recording her experiences of motherhood. With many commenting that family and a career in the music industry are incompatible, it became a necessity to show those that this wasn’t the case, and so ELDR:TV was born- a DIY reality web series documenting life behind the scenes as a musician and a mother. The series was recently awarded Best Documentary Series at the Sydney Webfest and is now available on SeekaTV. No stranger to conjuring highly imaginative cinematic worlds, ELDR’s other visual projects include a recent VR headset experience which staged a screening of her video ‘Black Pearl’ on a virtual island. Black Pearl VR was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London) in 2023.
After establishing her first music project White Russia, she found herself in the midst of the commercial music machine. She found the experience confined and restrictive, and was forced to take a step back into the pursuit of something more organic. Emerging from an occultist background, and a brief spell with organised religion, she has since rejected much of those beliefs but still finds artistic inspiration in their rituals. These guides in her life have allowed her to draw from a deeply vulnerable source as part of her songwriting, embracing both the darkness and the light, and positioning ELDR as a vehicle to promote healing and empowerment through her captivating music.