After travelling around the Mediterranean and getting to know some of the different cultures that flourish on its shores, I’ve now immersed myself in a world of sounds that are distinct but related, like branches of the same tree. Sometimes taking the form of a song, sometimes that of a traditional instrument, sometimes simply providing a source of inspiration, the Mediterranean and the voices of its women are the thread that binds together this album dedicated to women, especially those who, for whatever reason, are forbidden to sing.

Javier Limón

1. Amanecer en Estambul (Dawn in Istanbul)
When I listen to Hüsnü Şenlendirici playing the Turkish clarinet, it’s just like hearing a flamenco singer performing in siguiriyas style. His depth is the essence of music and his rhythm the lifeblood of our land Aynur’s beautifully expressive voice soars from Anatolia and gradually fades away over the sound of our bulerías, always perfect for weaving love stories with other kinds of music.

2. ¡Las Caritas Desnudas! (Faces Uncovered!)
I want to see people’s faces, I want to see all of them smiling, crying, whispering, shouting and, above all, singing. All of them! The waves can’t be stopped, nor can their voices. What about lullabies?... I remember La Susi so well from my youth, and now she’s by my side, performing this song… There’s a long road ahead of us, but at least we’ve taken the first steps.

Lyrics
Water in the air,
wind from the north,
guilty green,
and the waves that never stop,
ah! the waves, please, may they never stop.

Air in the water,
sun and agony,
white foam
on the crashing waves,
ah, may the waves never stop.

If ever the sea falls silent,
if ever the water stops dancing,
if ever it has a wish,
it’s to dance with the water again.

The sea cannot stay still,
so still.

Hunger for moonlight,
fire without crosses,
their faces uncovered,
may they sing at night,
this Moorish night.

The sea is always the same,
only the ports change
as they kiss their rivers;
go down to the sea,
the mouth of the world.

And may the waves never stop.
Never stop, even for a minute.

If ever the sea falls silent,
if ever the water stops dancing,
if ever it has a wish,
it’s to dance with the water again.
The sea cannot stay still,
so still.

If ever the sea falls silent,
if ever the water stops dancing,
if ever it has a wish,
it’s to dance with the water again.
The sea cannot remain still,
so still.

3. Manuela
I have to admit Estrella breaks my heart every time I hear her sing. Her voice is a blessing for flamenco and for our coplas. This is the truth of our time and it gives hope to those yet to come. My beloved Estrella…

Lyrics
She lived among flowers and solitude,
always with others, but always silent.
She sold carnations in the narrow streets
of an Andalusia as poor as it was white.
The first man who wanted to make her his
could never understand her madness.
Free spirits never sleep,
they live forever, like sparrows,
from hand to hand, in the shade of sunflowers.

Manuela had the airs of an empress,
she made men suffer and weep.
In the Calle Grande
they still remember how she sang bulerías.
Manuela, Manuela, the loveliest girl in the square.
Manuela, Manuela, the loveliest girl in the square.

When she was called to perform in the café,
she didn’t know what to sing, but she stepped forward,
her trembling voice turned into a knife,
her notes pierced like the biting cold.
Yet once people’s hearts were broken,
she didn’t want to know, it meant nothing to her,
she left by herself and never went back on stage,
she lived always among flowers,
singing free and alone as nightingales do.

Manuela had the airs of an empress,
she made men suffer and weep.
In the Calle Grande
they still remember how she sang bulerías.
Manuela, Manuela, the loveliest girl in the square.
Manuela, Manuela, the loveliest girl in the square.

4. Fadista Louco (Fado Madness)
Is there anything more Mediterranean than the fado music of Portugal? In any case, Mariza can sing anything she likes, the echo of her voice is too difficult to understand, it’s simpler just to listen. This is pure, unadulterated emotion – listening to her always brings tears to my eyes.

Lyrics
I sing with my eyes tightly closed,
for the writer of my fados
is the one who gives them their power,
that’s why I don’t look anywhere else,
I sing with my eyes tightly closed
so I can look into my heart.

My heart is a fado singer of bygone days
that dreams of bringing chimeras to life
in uncontrolled madness.
My heart, when I sing, almost kills me,
since every time it beats
it steals a little of my life.

My heart and I, here we are, both suffering,
perhaps one day, after its beat begins to slow,
perhaps someone will still remember us
and will hear in my voice what this madman heard.

5. Media Luna Me Sonríe (The Crescent Moon Smiles Down On Me)
Lady of cante jondo and mistress of the art. Over time her flamenco wail has become more mournful and even more finely burnished, while the words that issue from her lips take on a sense of enormity. Her voice is the perfect complement to any poem.

Lyrics
In early evening the crescent moon smiles down on me.
I go back to your street,
where your memory lives,
where the jasmine flowers live
that used to fall like tears from your window,
where my soul feels at peace.

One by one your words always come back,
so too will the songs as dawn’s light breaks,
when the sun opens its hand in a fan of white light,
my tears will return,
and my bitter solitude.

Tears of the olive tree,
still earth and bare bough,
hard snow and white cold now cover our door.
Without you my heart is dead.

When spring returns again
they’ll find me as alone
as the water from the frozen rock and I’ve already gone forever.

Air and light,
fire, sky and air, the roses will bloom again,
and my lips will kiss your lovely face again,
enslaved to your mouth.

One by one your words always come back,
so too will the songs as dawn’s light breaks,
when the sun opens its hand in a fan of white light,
my tears will return,
and my bitter solitude.

6. Oro Santo (Blessed Gold)
My sister, it’s impossible to sing or compose more slowly, classics aren’t classics because of the time they’ve been around but because of the time that’s still left to them…

Lyrics
In the penumbra of this night dark and holy,
over the tundra that fills my ever waking soul

there sounds a lament,
like a prelude to the dead hours,
hours that pass with the agonising throes of a slow death.

Silence returns to clothe me in gold, my blessing,
the memory of my grandmothers returns
to give me strength and hope,
the records that taught me to love music return,
my father returned after 20 years.

Ah! if you returned,
if you returned I’d clothe you in gold, my blessing.
I’d hush everything
so that you could hear my desperate song.

If you returned I’d clothe you in gold, my blessing.
I’d hush everything
so that you could hear my desperate song.
If you returned I’d clothe you in gold, my blessing.
I’d hush everything
so that you could hear my desperate song.
If you returned I’d clothe you in gold, my blessing.
Let the world stop turning,
so that you can hear my desperate song.

7. El Beso Libanés (Lebanon Kiss)
Montse Cortés’s voice is as sweet as syrup and as sharp as ice. It comes from a bygone age, so when she sings this song, originally from the mountains of Iraq, I feel much better Orient-ated. Blessed spirit.

Lyrics
You gave me a kiss,
you stole it from me,
and now I can’t stop looking at you,
I’ll carry you in my heart,
and now I can’t stop looking at you.

You gave me a kiss,
you stole it from me,
and now I can’t stop looking at you,
I’ll carry you in my heart,
and now I can’t stop looking at you.

South of Eden even the flowers
wept, wept, wept over a woman
and still they weep, weep and weep with him.

And even the moon died of grief
because nobody wept over her,
I’ll carry you in my heart,
because nobody wept for her.
South of Eden even the flowers
wept, wept, wept over a woman
and still they weep, weep and weep with him.

You gave me a kiss,
you stole it from me,
and now I can’t stop looking at you,
I’ll carry you in my heart,
and now I can’t stop looking at you.

They wept, wept, wept over a woman
and still they weep, weep and weep with him.

They wept, wept, wept over a woman
and still they weep, weep and weep with him.

They wept, wept, wept over a woman
and still they weep, weep and weep with him.

8. La Calle del Olivar
The olive tree gives us its fruit, but once it was just a sapling, earlier still it was a tiny plant in the earth peeping out at the world, and in the beginning, before it was a seed it was an olive. Sandra has the wisdom of the olive tree in her voice and the innocence of the olive in her eyes, and she’ll go far… This is for you, Miguel “Candela”.

Lyrics
Within its nooks and crannies,
the Calle del Olivar
hides a secret.

In one corner there’s a bar
where in the small hours
you can hear flamenco strains.

The gypsies of the neighbourhood
spend the whole night singing.

Within its nooks and crannies,
the Calle del Olivar
hides a secret.

Miguelito, spirit of the Candela,
always waited behind the door.

Tears for Morente’s tangos,
we don’t know if Paco’s coming or not.

Within its nooks and crannies,
the Calle del Olivar
hides a secret.

In the stations
I watch the days go by,
waiting every night
for the train to arrive.

When the train arrives
I go home drunk,
at daybreak.

In the stations
I watch the days go by,
waiting every night
for the train to arrive.

A child watched
the still water,
suddenly he threw
a white pebble
and the water smiled,
just as your lips smile
when you look at me.

Waiting every night
for the train to arrive.

9. Agua Misteriosa (Mysterious Water)
For some reason, every time I hear Elsa’s voice I smile, it’s wonderful. For me, microphones don’t just record music, they capture emotions as well. La Shica transmits life, like all the music of the sea.

Lyrics
Only time, only the wind,
only your voice, only the colour of your dark hair when you look at me.

I only need you to say to me that what I’m feeling isn’t crazy,
that you feel it when you look at me.

From your mouth,
my lips drank water from a mysterious source, from your mouth.

Only time, only the wind,
only your voice, only the colour of your dark hair when you look at me

I only need you to say to me that what I’m feeling isn’t crazy,
that you feel it when you look at me.

From your mouth, my lips drank water from a mysterious source,
from your mouth.

10. Komo el Pásharo ke Bola (If Like the Fluttering Bird)
This song was passed down to Yasmin by her father. Songs in the ladino dialect of the Sephardic Jews are as much ours as are the Guadalquivir, Picasso and Morente’s soleá. So many centuries have gone by, but I can still hear the sounds of our past in her voice. Yasmin puts her heart into every ancient word.

Lyrics
If like the fluttering bird
who flies from bloom to bloom
you abandoned me,
I would know nothing of love.

I love you, I adore you,
and for you I always weep,
my love has no bounds,
you are an angel of beauty,
your love inflamed me,
and I weep over your desertion.

11. Milo Mou Kai Mandarini
Eleftheria lies at the heart of this album, everything began with her. My walks through the streets of Athens, cradle of the Mediterranean, and the music I heard there were a constant source of inspiration, while Eleftheria’s depth of knowledge about all our music shines through in every word she sings.

Lyrics
In your sweet eyes in your sweet beauty,
little by little I’ve forgotten my other loves.
My apple and mandarin, what you say will be done,
and now that I’ve loved you I’m going crazy,
losing my way and dying, my love, in a far-off land.
Come with the postman who walks so quickly.

I recall so many things I have to tell you,
but when I see you I forget them all
and I’m close to death I love you so much.
Come, come, I’m begging you, don’t torture me, don’t make me cry.
I’m singing for you and you say that I don’t love you
and say that I spend my time staring at the stars in the sky.
Come, come with me and you’ll live in happiness.

12. Un Lugar Casi Vacío (An Almost Empty Place)
Noble and headstrong as a Miura bull, Genara’s flamenco style is wild, gypsy and free… It’s a gift she was born with, one that defies all reason. When she sings, she lets her imagination fly, and with a voice like hers it could soar as high as the moon.

Lyrics
You, only you have loved me.

You, only you, only you, my love, have loved me.

I know of an almost empty place,
where all that remains is your heart and mine.
I know of a place almost full of you where alone I can be happy,
ah, with you.

You, only you, only you, my love,
only you have loved me.

I know of an almost empty place,
where all that remains is your heart and mine.
I know of a place almost full of you where alone I can be happy,
ah, with you.

You, only you, only you, my love,
only you have loved me.

I know of an almost empty place,
where all that remains is your heart and mine.
I know of a place almost full of you where alone I can be happy.

I know of an almost empty place,
where all that remains is your heart and mine.
I know of a place almost full of you where alone I can be happy,
ah, with you.
Only with you,
only with you, my love,
only with you.