Maripool is the project of singer/songwriter Natacha Simões, the UK based artist will release her debut album Rotten Luck on August 2026 via Smoking Room / Lost Wisdom. The LP was written during a month-long residency in Lisbon in January 2025, and shaped by isolation as much as reconnection. Set within a decaying fisherman’s building across the river – a sparse room with a broken window, dripping ceilings, and no Wi-Fi – the environment forced a stillness that defined Simões’ writing process. Days were often spent in silence, watching the river or writing in bursts, while evenings brought a return to the city and a reconnection with a past life. Rotten Luck is the follow-up to the artist’s 2024 album a day that feels like nothing at all

Says Maripool: “the album reflects the process of reconnecting with a part of myself that never fully left… confronting who I am when everything external falls apart.” The album’s title, taken from one of the songs written during the residency, encapsulates this emotional landscape; a quiet reckoning with past missteps and the search for self that followed.

Rotten Luck Recorded in South London with Joseph Futak (Tapir!, Piglet), on the album Simões brings in her live band for the first time, allowing songs to take shape organically in the studio. Many tracks were only loosely formed upon arrival, evolving through experimentation rather than strict intention – a process that lends the record its immediacy and unpredictability.

“Crossing”, inspired by the bridge between Lisbon and Almada, reflects on childhood and family – “my favourite memories as a kid… whenever I crossed that bridge with my parents on a hot summer day.” That same sense of nostalgia carries into ‘Lucky Stars In The Sky’, an instrumental written on the final day of the residency, which closes with “an audio from a 1990s VHS home video of me at the beach with my parents.”

Beyond the music, Rotten Luck is a fully realised artistic world. Simões created all of the artwork herself and worked closely with her sister, Carina Simões, and friends on the visual elements, maintaining the DIY ethos that has defined Maripool from the beginning. The video for ‘Alone Tonight’ stands out as a particularly personal achievement – a reflection of the same emotional honesty that runs through the record.

Maripool has played shows with Feeble Little Horse, Squirrel Flower, and They Are Gutting a Body of Water.

Pre-order Rotten Luck by Maripool HERE