Josete Ordonez

Artfully, Josete Ordoñez embellishes his gentle songs with the virtuoso techniques of the Spanish guitar, his actual musical origin, without ever sounding as hard as a typical flamenco guitarist. He demonstrates a sense for fine, soft melodies and placating harmonies. Lounge grooves accompany his songs in such a laid-back way that Por El Mar sounds like it could have been poured out of a cocktail shaker from paradise.

Josete Ordoñez studied the guitar (jazz and flamenco) under such diverse guitarists as Juan Maya Marote, Serranito, Tomatito, Steve Brown, Eddy Goltz, and Sean Leavytt. His touring around the globe with his own band Elementales, with ensembles like Compañía Flamenca Joaquín Ruiz, Compañía Ibérica de Danza, and Eliseo Parra Band helped Josete to develop his own style. He played first guitar at the world famous La Maestranza in Madrid.

Sensuous and perfectly dreamy, the songs are by no means solely dominated by Josete Ordoñez's guitar. On his many travels from the Meditarreanean coast to the South China Sea, he discovered plucked string instruments like the Vietnamese Dantú and the Mexican Vihuela, and played them on this album. The impression of summery serenity is underlined by Vietnamese singer Nsut Song Tao, who lends the track 'Hanoi' a sweet, exotic color. This flair is contrasted by flamenco singers Ana Salazar and Monica Molina, who add slightly wild and archaic elements with their raw and haunting Gitano voices and sweetly beseeching melismas in songs like 'Titirimundi' or 'Date a Volar'. And again and again, Josete Ordoñez's guitar brings everything together and leads us to a secret place, where we find all the things we have ever lost.