Maria Usbeck

Albums by Maria Usbeck unfold like the pages of a travel diary. Informed by her childhood in South America, her young adult life in New York City, and her many world travels in between, it’s music made by a visiting outsider, tapping into a shared core of human expression. Maria's latest album, Naturaleza, is a bold new chapter for the shape-shifting musician, diving deep into her singular realm of idiosyncratic pop music while retaining the observational, inquisitorial perspective that’s marked her work thus far. It follows her striking debut Amparo (which featured co-production credits from Caroline Polachek) and 2019’s expansive, exploratory Envejeciendo, which found Maria stretching her legs into the warm glow of 1980s electronic music and the spacious grooves of city pop. Naturaleza arrives after what Usbeck describes as “a forced, fake retirement that lasted more than a year,” the conclusion of which caused her to collide with the natural world’s strange, serene, and endless outgrowths. “The chaos of life stood in stark contrast to the stillness and beauty around me—the overwhelming presence of nature,” she says.