Parisian expatriate Gabriel Naïm Amor relocated from his native France to the saguaro-strewn landscape of Tucson, AZ in 1997, seeking to augment his cinematic French avant-pop with particles of Sonoran Desert dust. Amor's unique fusion of classic film scores, spaghetti western jangle, and Seine-influenced subtlety has colored several Tucson recording projects since his arrival in the American Southwest. Composer/multi-instrumentalist Amor initially worked with percussionist Thomas Belhom in the aptly named Amor Belhom Duo. Along with lyrical input from fellow French ex pat/filmmaker Marianne Dissard and invited participants from the local Giant Sand/Calexico/Friends of Dean Martinez axis (namely, Howe Gelb, John Convertino, Joey Burns, and Craig Schumacher), the two relocated Frenchmen produced two studio albums during their tenure. These records, Wavelab and Amor Belhom Duo, eventually saw North American release through Chicago-based Carrot Top Records in autumn 2001. Along with Amor Belhom Duo's debut disc Wavelab Performance (merely an early version of Wavelab released on Normandie Dream Records in 1998), other recordings by the pair have been made available only in Europe (Live in Tucson) or at shows (Any Time Any Way). In 2000, Amor joined Belhom, Burns, and Convertino for the recording of Tete a Tete under the collective name ABBC; the album was released in North America on Wabana Records. Amor's solo debut, the seven-song instrumental collection Soundtracks, appeared in autumn 2001 on Portland, OR's FILMguerrero label. With its running time of 29 minutes bridging the chasm that separates EP and LP, the reflective, graceful Soundtracks was composed, performed, and recorded in Tucson almost entirely by Amor (save token appearances by Burns, trumpeter John Mueller, and a sampled Belhom). In 2002, Amor launched a collaboration with drummer/vibraphonist Jimmy Carr dubbed simply Amor. ~ Charles Hodgkins