Lucas Santtana, the Salvador-born singer and guitarist who has spent twenty-five years pulling Brazilian music in unexpected directions, brought “Dans le Sud” to La Maroquinerie in Paris on 30 March, four weeks after his latest album, Brasiliano, came out on NO FORMAT!. On the record it’s a duet with Rio-born, Paris-based Flavia Coelho. On stage that night the song belonged to Santtana alone, with Judith Haffner on electric bass, James Muller on drums and percussion, and Mégane Thibert on keys.

The song is a French-language postcard from the Mediterranean coast, sun and salt water and the small thrill of getting there: “ton train part à dix heures / on ira à la plage, tous les deux à vélo” (“your train leaves at ten / we’ll go to the beach, just the two of us by bike”). Santtana’s acoustic guitar and Thibert’s keyboard keep the arrangement open and unhurried, and the live version holds the same ease as the studio recording.

It fits the logic of Brasiliano precisely: an album sung in eight languages, built around the argument that Romance languages are kin, that a Bahian guitarist has as much right to dream in French as anyone.

Listen to and get your copy of Brasiliano following THIS LINK