La Mar Enfortuna

Sensuous and lyrical, La Mar Enfortuna is the Sephardic side project from the masterminds of legendary noir rock group Elysian Fields, Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles. La Mar Enfortuna is a modern exploration of lost or forgotten music mostly of the Sephardim from the 11th to the 16th century, with exotic melodies and instruments, songs sung in ladino, arabic, aramaic, spanish, greek, and english; reinvented by Bloedow and Charles, with a sensibility that embraces jazz, folk, rock, Eastern, and Latin musics. Besides Charles and Bloedow, the core group as it now stands includes Doug Wieselman, Ted Reichman, Robert DiPietro, and Brahim Fribgane. The group has just released it's second La Mar record called "Convivencia", again on John Zorn's Tzadik label. Other guests on the new record include Ljova Zhurbin, Chuscales, Liaqat Khan, and Benjamin Lapidus. The band has played in Washington, DC, New York City, Paris, at La Cigalle, La Huerta de Federico Garcia Lorca in Granada, Spain, as well as the Chicago World Music Festival.



[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[



to purchase the first CD, go here: www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=7146

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[



Here's what the highly discerning Downtown Music Gallery had to say about their first CD:

This luscious release shows yet another side to this couple's alluring sound by featuring mostly Sephardic melodies and a handful of originals in a similar vein. While Oren plays a dozen or so instruments here, they also utilize the talents of many of downtown's finest like Ted Reichman, Kenny Wollesen, Danny Blume, Jamie Saft and Jane Scarpantoni. What I dig most about this release is the blend of middle-eastern-European melodies with a simmering psychedelic haze that surrounds it. On "La Rosa" there is a dark and chilling vibe which is punctuated by distant sampled screams, Ted Reichman's somber accordion and Jennifer's mesmerizing voice. Oren's voice, backwards guitar and/or saz also do a superb job on the hypnotic gem "Ayyu-Ha S-Saqi". Another charming thing about this cd is how many of the tunes are quite skeletal, with just a minimum of instruments surrounding the delectable voice(s). There are two groovy instrumentals written by Oren which also have that same winning middle-eastern vibe that feels just right. "Salome" was written by Charles and Bloedow and has the only English lyrics here, making it the closest to that Elysian Fields sound and Jennifer exudes a certain sexiness in her voice which can be intoxicating. "Porke Yorach" is the longest piece here and it is a sort of slow dance number with the horns softly murmuring at the sides and Jennifer's voice soothing us into an almost trance-like state. Word is that Jennifer & Oren's music is big in France and we can see & hear why - check out these exotic, sensuous and enchanting sounds with some fine wine or cognac and your partner of choice." - BLG , Downtown Music Gallery



Be sure and visit the elysian fields page: www.myspace.com/elysianfieldsnyc