Anna Jordan is no stranger to creating intriguing soundscapes and conjuring moods through music. Having written soundtracks and incidental music for films including “Breakfast on Pluto” (2005) and “Snap” (2011) she displays a natural affinity with creating ambient colours that perfectly underscore the images on screen. Anna is a graduate of Newpark Music School in Dublin, Ireland, where she studied Jazz piano with Phil Ware, absorbing the style of pianists such as Sonny Clark and Thelonius monk. In 2006 she formed the seven-piece group Orca, one of the country's first bands to fuse jazz with eletronic music. Orca saw Anna developing her own compositions and collaborating with musicians such as saxophonist Nick Roth, bassist Top Prior and trumpeter Billy Blackmore. 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. “Dust”, Anna's début EP, sees her harness her many influences to produce a sound that is uniquely her own. Her voice conveys a broad palette of emotions, from the brittle sensuality of “Silent Sea” to the playful, summery pop of “She dances”. She is not afraid to explore more melancholy terrain either and reveal herself, as she does on the EP's title song “Dust”. It is her voice's honesty and vulnerability that gives it such strength. Lyrically she avoids confessional cliché, writing instead words that unfold with cryptic delicacy. Musically, she has the wonderful knack of composing deceptively simple melodies with immediately memorable piano lines that weave together strands of Classical, Jazz, Dance and Indian music. Dennis Cassidy, who accompanies her throughout the EP, shows just how versatile a drummer he is. The anchor man and drummer of Dublin's Jazz- Hip-Hop collective “Mixtapes from the Underground”, he holds back and provides sensitive and engaging accompaniment and ethereal arrangements that chime perfectly with Jordan's lyrics and music. With “Dust”, Anna Jordan has set up an intriguing musical stall full of sign posts to destinations where we are sure to follow her. She has arrived and she is on her way. Billy O Hanluain (music journalist)