Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith / Maria Usbeck / Cool Maritime

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is a composer, performer, and producer, from Orcas Island, Washington, who is based in Los Angeles, California. After several self-released albums, Smith was signed to the independent label Western Vinyl, which released her first official album, Euclid, in January 2015. Her latest album, Ears, was released in April 2016.

Growing up in Ecuador, Maria Usbeck was immersed in salsa, merengue, bachata, and Andean music, but was more attracted to German and American culture, eventually moving to the United States at 17 to attend art school. After five years of fronting the new-wave band Selebrities and writing songs in English, she knew it was time to let her mother tongue speak. That impulse manifested itself in her debut solo album, Amparo, which reads like an exotic travel diary—music made by a perceptive explorer to tap into the shared core of human expression.

Cool Maritime is an ambient electronic project.