Artist Bio:
In 1928, the French engineer Maurice Martenot invented the Martenot Ondes, a music instrument seen as the ancestor of the synthesizer. In 2000, the brothers Sébastien and Nicolas Martel create, with Sarah Murcia ,the band Las Ondas Marteles. What is the relationship between these two events? Absolutely none.
In order to understand Las Ondas Marteles, one has to draw a triangle: La Havana, Mexico, Paris. Sébastien, who played as a guitarist and arranger for Alain Chamfort and Camille (among others) goes in 1998 to Cuba. Almost at the same time, Nicolas, dancer and actor, discovers Mexico. When they meet again, the two brothers share their experiences and discover that they fell in love with the same music: bolero, a sentimental music spread all over the Spanish-speaking world. Born in Cuba during the 19th century, this music traveled on boats carrying rum and tobacco and settled down in Puerto Rico, Colombia and Mexico.
Back in Paris, the two brothers rehearse some boleros in order to sing them in duo with a guitar during a family birthday party in a Montmartre restaurant. The family was delighted; the restaurant owner as well. She asks the improvised band to come again and entertain a dinner party on the following Sunday. And on following ones as well. This experience lasted four to five months and became a real show, combining emotion with humor. When bassist friend Sarah Murcia (Magic Malik, Fred Poulet), of Spanish origin and therefore familiar with bolero, joins the duo, there only remains to find a band name. A playful and educated buddy finds it: Las Ondas Marteles were born.
In their repertoire, Ernesto Lecuona's Siboney and Carlos Gardel's Volver (a tango can easily be transformed into a bolero) mix with Miguel Angel Ruiz's compositions. Is this one a Cuban song star? Not at all. Rather a strange person met by Sébastien Martel during his first trip to Cuba. This learned and bohemian sculptor and poet confides a few things on music and life to the young Frenchman during warm evenings with a rum bottle in his town quarter called Lawton. He eventually gives him a few original songs he has written.
In Paris, Las Ondas Marteles make some arrangements of these songs and rehearse them. One day, news arrives from La Havana: Miguel Angel has died of a disease at 60. The trio then considers it their mission to make known his songs and decides to dedicate to them a whole record. This record keeps the spontaneity and the simplicity with which Miguel Angel passed to them this heritage. We'll hear snatches of his voice, of his laugh, of his profound and light-hearted thoughts. The album was made in three weeks at home in a non-professional way and with a few guests: Idelis, Miguel Angel's daughter, who sings in it; Ibrahim Maalouf with his trumpet; Vincent Segal on the cello and some percussions. No Ondes Martenot! We already told you: There is no relationship.
Y despues de todo, when all is over, what remains? A handful of notes and simple but wonderful words, reproduced with an imperfect but touching pronunciation, traces of the existence of a poet one would have liked to know. "Guarda eso para toda tu vida," says Miguel Angel's voice in "Te imagino" — "Keep this all your life." Without knowing it, he spoke to all of us.
— François-Xavier Gomez, journalist, author of "Les Musiques Cubaines", Librio-Flammarion,1999.
