"Lost World was born as a result of the meeting of two streams in my creative life: flamenco and bata.

Flamenco is the Gitano (gypsy) music of Spain whose roots extend from India, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa, to the Caribbean and South America.

I discovered flamenco after wandering through its cradle, Andalucia, one Christmas six years ago and immediately fell under the spell of this primal and potent art form - captivated by the evocative singing, the explosive dance, and particularly, the highly developed and sophisticated guitar work that supports both and yet ventures out into constantly evolving new territory.

My wife bought me a flamenco guitar that New Year's Eve in Madrid. I took it out of its case the next day in the airport while waiting for my flight to Los Angeles, and have yet to put it down.

Flamenco has been the catalyst for a renaissance in my creative life, the likes of which I have never experienced. It represents an inspiring new challenge for me as a guitarist who has spent years playing Afro/Cuban Brazilian styles. And with flamenco, my deep affinity for percussion has found a new outlet in the unique way the instrument is played

I was introduced to the extraordinary world of Bata rhythms while living in New York City. Bata refers to the drums and rhythms of ceremonial Ifa - the spiritual legacy of ancestral Africa found in the Yoruba culture on its west coast. Although Bata is mainly performed in religious ceremonies, my percussionist Ricardo Isaac's deep knowledge of the form allowed me to enter this amazing world through pure rhythm and I feel blessed to have experienced and integrated elements of Bata into my music.

Both Flamenco and Bata share some important essentials that are the core of my fascination with them - that under the surface of a powerful, primal and passionate exterior there lives a deep and complex sonic architecture - a universe of rhythms.

And having been set on fire by these two powerful influences, I started to experience connections between this music and existing forms all over the world.

Lost World is, among many things, an exploration of rhythms as they appear everywhere on earth - separated by their provenance but connected by some invisible human thread. It is music that winds its way through the core of our planet and binds together seemingly disparate worlds into a connected aural tapestry. "

Eddie Reyes

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Eddie joins forces with long time partner Ricardo Isaac who brings his amazing percussion world with him and who also experienced a transformation through the flamenco universe. The CD features Eddie on flamenco and electric guitars and piano performing his own compositions in collaboration with the artists: