Jordan, a transcontinental duo, creates popular music that is, prima facie, multicultural. Spanish national Marcos Sueiro, from a small town in the hills outside Barcelona, met American Nicholas Markos as each of them worked on album projects in vari [+]Jordan, a transcontinental duo, creates popular music that is, prima facie, multicultural. Spanish national Marcos Sueiro, from a small town in the hills outside Barcelona, met American Nicholas Markos as each of them worked on album projects in various studios around Chicago.
Jordan developed while the two were on tour, playing in the band of English singer Cath Carroll, in the American West. Stopping their vehicle by the side of a road that threaded the Confusion Range in western Utah, the idea for Jordan materialized. "I stood upon that hilltop, my ten-thousand filaments stretched across the ether, and suddenly I was in touch with the really real," says Markos.
From the far side of the ocean, they put the wheels in motion.
Jordan's debut album. Epiphany, was meticulously constructed over the course of three years on a vintage 4-track cassette machine, due to budgetary and technological constraints. You'd never suspect the low-tech approach, though, after hearing the epic soundscapes and thunderous tones of this album. Sounds that you think are keyboards are actually guitars, and vice versa. "Marcos is a wizard; it's simply unreal what he can do with a 1984 Ensoniq keyboard and a 4-track cassette machine," marvels Nicholas. "He can make so much magic out of those old devices. You would never guess that this record was made the way it was. Marcos knows how to get the machines to bend to his will."
Comparisons are frequently made to The Blue Nile, Ultravox, and other evocative, innovative groups. All of these are valid and flattering, though Jordan also draws on the compositional inspiration of The Who's Quadrophenia and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
It is masterful, epic synth-pop, but not retro. This is definitely not shtick--it is heartfelt, forward-thinking music, with sophisticated composition. Melodies appear and reappear, weaving through different songs to create a unified whole. Instrumental pieces provide context and transition for a distinctly coherent album.
The Jordan Story
Under a darkening sky the young man gathered his things for the journey. Sensing that he would not find himself in this place again, he drew a long breath and let the smell of the air etch a bittersweet memory. Looking down the gentle decline of the hill toward the r
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