I think 'commissioned' might be an inaccurate word choice, but I have read of some connections between the guitars built under the El Maya name (and a few other brand names) and Alembic; namely that the Japanese builders visited the mothership and picked up some of the construction techniques characteristic of Alembic instruments. I've got a Misato-Chushin made Bambu guitar (one of those 'other brand names') that actually has laminated strips of bamboo in its neck-through construction.
FWIW, the Bambu is one hell of a solid axe, with fantastic action, intonation and playability. I'm not sure about 600 Euros though, I got mine for $500 a few years back, and mine is serial # 10003 - third in the original production run.
