As a regular collaborator with the likes of Howe Gelb/Giant Sand, Devotchka and Calexico, it is no surprise to find that Naïm was able to assemble such a wonderful supporting cast for his third album of songs, which sits alongside his series of 'Soundtracks' releases, as well as his pre-solo ventures as one half of Amor Belhom Duo, one quarter of A.B.B.C., and back in his native France with the band Witches Valley. 　　 　　Having relocated to Tucson, Arizona in the mid ‘90s, Naïm has become an established part of the city's critically acclaimed band of sonically adventurous troubadours, and much like the more renowned lights of the Tucson scene shows an ability to absorb and make his own different genres, or as he himself describes it: "i had most of the songs, and i wanted to frame them through a theme...i didn't compose thinking 'Brazil', i had the songs and then decided to 'take them to Brazil'". So, 'Dansons' is the new album, inspired by Brazilian sounds, though remaining firmly in Naïm's own tradition of songwriting, primarily sung in French, partly sung in English, and sometimes, like with the opening track, simply allowing the music itself to create its own unique hybrid language - a song that began originally as 'country', took a rhythmic twist, and added some bossa nova sounding guitar, hence the title "Creole"; and similarly the sole cover version on the album – “Our Day Will Come” - takes its cue from the Ruby & The Romantics original, but transforms it from a rocksteady ballad into a bossa nova duet with the delightful vocal assistance of Emilie Marchand; Elsewhere, “The Other Step” acts as some kind of spatial counterpart to the aforementioned cover , and the title track is the per-’sonic’-fication of swaying hips with its sultry shuffle breaking into the more traditional (to Naïm’s adopted surroundings) sound of sud-ouest America, before a flourish of Djangoism brings it nicely back; Whilst once more embracing the spirit of Brazilica, the cuica adds its distinctive backdrop most predominantly on the “The Day After” - a late addition prompted by Calexico’s Joey Burns’ assertion that something was missing…see it’s all about the ingredients, and a good sonic chef will always be prepared to take on board some sound advice - yet at the same time recalls the boulevards of Paris (as further evoked by the words of Charles Baudelaire that provide the lyrics to “Le Revenant”, itself a wink to Serge Gainsbourg who pulled off a similar trick back in the revolutionary decade of Naïm’s birth), and then once more the cuica leads beautifully into “Time is Real” a pastoral meditation on the “materiality” of time, whilst alluding to the ability to rewind ‘reel to real’ in the recording process. 　　 　　With a core recording set up gathered at Jim Waters' Waterworks studios of Naïm's regular gigging partner Matt Mitchell on classical guitar, Athur Vint on drums and Giant Sand's Thøger Lund on upright bass, recording directly on to analog tape, not just for the tone quality, but as Naim says: "you can't fix it...it forces you to get the take right"; and later augmented by Howe Gelb on wurlitzer piano, Marco Rosano on accordion and Christian Ravaglioli on oboe, with Emilie Marchand adding vocals to two songs and John Convertino supplying thunder drum on another. 　　 　　So, ‘Dansons’….let’s dance….a bossa nova lighting up the musical landscape….where the french quarter spills over into a carnival of sound.