Growing up in Ecuador, Maria Usbeck was immersed in salsa, merengue, bachata and Andean music, but was more attracted to German and American culture than her own, eventually moving to America at 17 to attend art school. After five years of fronting new wave outfit Selebrities and writing songs in English, she knew it was time to let the mother tongue speak. That impulse manifests directly in her solo material which reads like an exotic travel diary — music made by a perceptive explorer to tap the shared core of human expression. Maria lives in New York.
Growing up in Ecuador, Maria Usbeck was immersed in salsa, merengue, bachata and Andean music, but was more attracted to German and American culture than her own, eventually moving to America at 17 to attend art school. After five years of fronting new wave outfit Selebrities and writing songs in English, she knew it was time to let the mother tongue speak. That impulse manifests directly in her solo material which reads like an exotic travel diary — music made by a perceptive explorer to tap the shared core of human expression. Maria lives in New York.
"just gets deeper and floors us more with each subsequent listen"
"the Ecuador-born, Brooklyn-based dream-pop artist takes us deep into her gorgeous new LP"
"she treats the concept of aging as if it had no endpoint, observing the process in real time"
"the songs explore distant memories of love and companionship, romances that never were, and how destiny can separate soul mates"
