Ursae set to release debut EP this winter

Ursae — legally, Andrew Campbell — is a 2016 graduate of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. After recording on campus and at Oscilloscope Laboratories, Campbell is set to release a five-track debut EP on Feb. 24.

Campbell takes the organic — a guitar, flute, piano, and drums — and pairs it with synths and programmed instrumentation to create a calm and colorful EP that will easily fit in with today’s indie pop scene.

The first track, “Likeness,” starts off with elevator-music vibes, bursting into a more vibrant arrangement.

Tackling the idea that people are “carbon copies” of their parents, Campbell sings: “I’ve so far to run/From cable cars and subtle signs/That we’re our father’s mumbled rhymes/ Though all has gone to some design/We’ll make darker love with time.”

The EP’s second track and first single — “So Green Her Eyes” — was released on Jan. 4. Campbell sings about a courtship with death. “I flirt with death every chance I get/Every time I see her she ignores me,” he sings. It continues: “She’s unimpressed with drugs and cigarettes/How much further can I go before she sees me?”

“Epilogue” is the closing track for the EP. Bringing the release to a close, it takes a darker turn from its predecessors. Strangely, the track seems much shorter than it is and warrants a need for more. Much like when a villain is introduced in a film and then disappears quickly, the mysterious feel of the final track leaves listeners at a standstill.

“So Green Her Eyes” and “Likeness” are now streaming on Spotify.

Kimberly Firestine can be reached at ae.spectator@gmail.com