Biography
In 1997 Gabriel Naïm Amor left Paris for Tucson, Arizona, where the surrounding Sonoran Desert began to seep into the cinematic French avant-pop he had cultivated back home. His singular mixture of orchestral film scoring, spaghetti-western guitar textures, and understated Seine-side elegance has since left its mark on numerous Tucson-based sessions.
Early on, the multi-instrumentalist joined forces with percussionist Thomas Belhom under the name Amor Belhom Duo. Together with French filmmaker and lyricist Marianne Dissard plus several musicians tied to the Giant Sand, Calexico, and Friends of Dean Martinez circle—Howe Gelb, John Convertino, Joey Burns, and Craig Schumacher—the pair completed two studio albums that Carrot Top Records issued across North America in autumn 2001. Additional Duo material surfaced earlier as Wavelab Performance on Normandie Dream Records in 1998, while Live in Tucson and Any Time Any Way remained available only in Europe or directly from the band.
During 2000 Amor, Belhom, Burns, and Convertino recorded the album Tete a Tete, released in North America by Wabana Records under the group name ABBC. Amor’s first solo effort, the seven-track instrumental set Soundtracks, followed in autumn 2001 on Portland’s FILMguerrero imprint. Running twenty-nine minutes and hovering between EP and LP length, the contemplative work was written, played, and captured almost entirely in Tucson by Amor himself, with brief contributions from Burns, trumpeter John Mueller, and sampled percussion from Belhom. In 2002 he began a new project with drummer and vibraphonist Jimmy Carr simply called Amor.
Early on, the multi-instrumentalist joined forces with percussionist Thomas Belhom under the name Amor Belhom Duo. Together with French filmmaker and lyricist Marianne Dissard plus several musicians tied to the Giant Sand, Calexico, and Friends of Dean Martinez circle—Howe Gelb, John Convertino, Joey Burns, and Craig Schumacher—the pair completed two studio albums that Carrot Top Records issued across North America in autumn 2001. Additional Duo material surfaced earlier as Wavelab Performance on Normandie Dream Records in 1998, while Live in Tucson and Any Time Any Way remained available only in Europe or directly from the band.
During 2000 Amor, Belhom, Burns, and Convertino recorded the album Tete a Tete, released in North America by Wabana Records under the group name ABBC. Amor’s first solo effort, the seven-track instrumental set Soundtracks, followed in autumn 2001 on Portland’s FILMguerrero imprint. Running twenty-nine minutes and hovering between EP and LP length, the contemplative work was written, played, and captured almost entirely in Tucson by Amor himself, with brief contributions from Burns, trumpeter John Mueller, and sampled percussion from Belhom. In 2002 he began a new project with drummer and vibraphonist Jimmy Carr simply called Amor.
Albums
