After the luminous Natural album, in which he soulfully revisited the very roots of pure bossa & samba, this was the second international release by seductive Brazilian singer/guitarist Celso Fonseca who has been a regular collaborator of Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso & more.

The title Rive Gauche Rio is a combined allusion to Celso's beloved city of Rio and to the Parisian Left Bank, two places which have radically changed since their golden years in the '50s and '60s... yet the spirit of that era lives on in people's collective imagination, and sometimes also in music.

Rive Gauche Rio features nine original, limpid Celso Fonseca compositions, two unusual covers (a reinterpretation of Irish singer / songwriter Damien Rice's "Delicate", a Portuguese version of French crooner Henri Salvador's "J'ai Vu"), and a refreshing duet in Spanish with Uruguayan singer & guitarist Jorge Drexler (who, incidentally, had just won the Oscar for Best Song for his contribution to Motorcycle Diaries, the Che Guevara biopic by Brazilian director Walter Salles).

The instrumentation on this  album is a touch fuller than on Natural (several songs have a definite band feel, with drums, bass, a '60s-style Fender Rhodes as well as sparse woodwinds) but the atmosphere and mood of Rive Gauche Rio is an extension of that of Natural: warm, inspired, elegant, sensual, and dominated by Celso's caressing voice and splendid guitar playing.

Rive Gauche Rio was recorded for Crammed's Ziriguiboom imprint.