Amparo

Maria Usbeck's 2016 debut album, Amparo, is a collection of songs written across the span of three years in Ecuador, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Barcelona, Lisbon, Easter Island, Costa Rica, Florida, L.A. and her home in Brooklyn. Recorded with producer Caroline Polachek and engineer Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Amparo stems from Maria's desire to compose an album in Spanish, her native language. After five years of fronting new wave outfit Selebrities and writing songs in English, Maria experienced a delayed-onset homesickness and knew it was time to "let the mother tongue speak." Amparo is a reflection of the textures of Maria's childhood. It is also a distinctly grown-up pop record - a travel diary, music made by a visiting outsider to tap into a shared core of human expression.