The best music feels at once so familiar and so foreign, like home and travels combined, like a friend you can trust and get to know new things about at the same time. It makes sense for budding Los Angeles indie, baroque pop artist, Emma Ayz (pronounced “eyes”), on her debut and self-produced EP, Animus, an album that finds her coming home to herself, after a long and difficult journey of exploration, loss, and discovery. Named after the Jungian dream spirit archetype, the album is at once dreamy and about dreams.

“Loving myself is like running in a maze / But I don’t know any other way,” she sings with cool desperation on the piano and finger plucked opening title track. Part of the reason she’s familiar and foreign at once is because on each of the tracks of the album, her vocals reach for unexpected but pleasing melody lines, at every turn. She’s anything but predictable, and her songs have a beautiful somber wonder about them. She taps into 70’s folk while adding her baroque and modern touch, recalling with her buttery voice artists like Angel Olsen and Weyes Blood.

The EP was co-produced with Cassidy Turbin who has worked with Beck and includes instrumentation from guitarist Dylan Day who has worked with Jenny Lewis and bassist Daniel Rhine who has worked with Phoebe Bridgers. Other notable musicians, including players from Perfume Genius and Sharon Van Etten, grace the album. It must feel good and right for Emma, who in addition to coming to terms with her femininity and sexuality during the time of writing also decided to make the commitment to becoming a full time artist and musician.

“Three things I’m thankful for: the virgo moon, my hands, and the tears I cried for you,” she sings on “(Hardly) In Love.” There is the longing and the loss, and the ability, in the midst, to forge her own way. Along with “dream work” (she started journaling her dreams for growth and inspiration during the writing of the album) come the very real, heartbreaking experiences of life: losing a loved one to pancreatic cancer, growing up with a trans sibling and their struggles with substance abuse. The track, “Becca,” is in fact a loving tribute to his sibling’s old name: “Every piece of you is wasted on the night.”

The album shows a maturity, in lyrics and sound, that defy debut-album expectation and she’s coming strong out of the gate. She has a full length in the works with producer Luke Temple, so fans won’t have to wait long to hear even more from her direction. The album, Animus, has both the illumination and the shadows intrinsic in dreams, and shows a soul who has been to the depths before resurfacing.

Order Animus by Emma Ayz HERE