"Amatoria" is representative of a enduring genre that has never been a Grammy or a Billboard chart category: the make-out album.

Federico Aubele is a Buenos Aires-born musician, but he does not traffic in the fiery tango. His languorous rhythms and undress-me whispers sidle up as comfortably as silk sheets.

While much of contemporary electro-lounge music is a bit chilly, Aubele keeps his sound warm and fuzzy -- a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Like the best of the electro-poppers, he mixes acoustic and electronic instrumentation. His primary instrument is the acoustic guitar.

Aubele features several female singers, including his wife, Natalia Clavier, on the melting "Este Amor." Sabina Sciubba from the Brazilian Girls matches Aubele coo for coo in the simple, blue-tinged "Otra Vez." Miho Hatori from the East Village hipster band Cibo Mato does some oohing background vocals on "Riendo Asi."

With pedigreed ironists like Sciubba and Hatori on board, one wonders if all this Don Juan-abee stuff is some kind of joke. In fact, with his gangly body and bushy Afro, Aubele bears more than a passing resemblance to Howard Stern (or even Weird Al Yankovic), but his restraint keeps those thoughts at bay.

Growing up, Aubele was a rock fan but also heard the boleros that his mother, an amateur musician, often listened to. In 2001, he left for Europe and began to create songs with samples coloring in the space around his spare guitar work. He eventually e-mailed a few songs to the Thievery Corporation's ESL Records and they signed him up.

The title of the album, Aubele's third, is derived from "Ars Amatoria," or the "Art of Love," written by the Roman poet Ovid around 1 BC, an early -- possibly tongue-in-cheek -- guide to finding and keeping a lover. While Aubele's disc is not a how-to, it does provide a soundtrack and a gently urgent chorus for anyone engaged in the age-old hunt.

By Marty Lipp