Pearl & The Oysters

Pearl & the Oysters, a whimsical band devoted to French pop, relocated from their native France first to Florida and later to California, carrying their sweetly sentimental and endearingly retro songs wherever Joachim Polack and Juliette Davis settled. Their early work combined a light melodic touch with an array of instruments and guest players to produce two breezy, delightful albums of space age pop infused with soft rock and jazz elements. Flowerland, issued in 2021, captured a nostalgic, summery mood as their final Florida effort before the move west, after which they delivered two still-airier sets, Coast 2 Coast in 2023 and Planet Pearl in 2024.

The pair first connected during high school in Paris through a shared admiration for Burt Bacharach and the Pixies. By then Polack already had several years of band experience, while Davis had envisioned herself as a singer from early childhood. They later studied at Université Paris-Sorbonne, completing Master’s degrees in musicology while shaping a style that drew equally from classic French pop of the 1960s, the space age pop of the 1950s revived in the 1990s by acts such as Stereolab, and the melodic simplicity of the Beach Boys’ Love You era. Recording of their debut began in Paris, yet the project shifted midway when the duo relocated to Gainesville, Florida, allowing Polack to pursue doctoral studies in Brazilian music at the University of Florida. The self-titled Pearl & the Oysters album was completed and released there in September 2017.

Work on a follow-up commenced soon afterward, with sessions spread across four home studios in Italy and France. Additional contributions came from Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong, Carlos Valderrama of Fitness Forever, and Alex Brettin of Mild High Club. Issued jointly by Burger Records and Requiem for a Twister in 2018, Canned Music retained the upbeat, breezy character of the debut while introducing fuller arrangements. Their third album, Flowerland, appeared on Feeltrip Records in September 2021 and offered a somewhat subdued version of their earlier pop with more introspective lyrics that also served as a farewell to Florida. A wide circle of collaborators participated, including Dent May, sitarist Ami Dang, members of Edmonson, Kuo-Hung Tseng of Sunset Rollercoaster, Jules Crommelin of Parcels, and multi-instrumentalist Fay Lovsky, with mixing handled by Shags Chamberlain.

After settling in Los Angeles, the duo turned to a largely new group of musicians for Coast 2 Coast, a characteristically sweet and fizzy collection released by Stones Throw in April 2023 that carried a faint undercurrent of worldly unease. Returning participants Alex Brettin and Dent May were joined by Laetitia Sadier, Riley Geare of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian, and Davis’s father, a jazz musician who added vibraphone. Following subsequent touring, they recorded Planet Pearl with further assistance from producer Teo Halm, known for work with Rosalia and J. Balvin, along with Brijean Murphy, Crommelin, and Brettin. The album, issued by Stones Throw in September 2024, explored jazzy soft rock with Brazilian inflections and a cohesive narrative centered on a space traveler stranded on Earth.