Pearl & The Oysters
Juliette Pearl Davis and Joachim Polack aren’t just musical collaborators – they’re also life partners. As Pearl & the Oysters, they make songs that speak to eclectic tastes in music and pop culture; as Juju and Jojo, they’re kindred spirits. What began as a high-school friendship in Paris blossomed into a creative and personal relationship that has spanned decades and continents.
In another life, Juliette and Joachim made pop music in Paris but when the opportunity arose, the pair skipped town for the U.S. After four years immersed in the open-minded DIY scene of Gainesville, Florida, Pearl & The Oysters headed to Los Angeles, where they connected with artists including Mild High Club and Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, and finished up their new record, Coast 2 Coast.
Coast 2 Coast draws on this experience for its colorful cocktail of sounds: the swamps of Florida and sandy L.A. beaches under a mirrorball sun; a radio picking up a faraway broadcast before tuning into an oldies pop station; crashing waves that melt into the sound of Juliette’s white noise machine. It documents Juliette and Joachim’s move across the U.S. and the unfamiliar feeling of being settled, having found a “sense of ‘home’ in one another.” Coast 2 Coast is out 21 April on Stones Throw.
RAHILL
Rahill Jamalifard is a multidisciplinary artist and musician hailing from Lansing, Michigan and presently based in upstate New York’s idyllic Hudson Valley. As a founding member of Brooklyn garage-rock mainstays, Habibi, Rahill garnered a reputation for alchemizing an eclectic range of influences, distilling them into captivating and heavy pop songs that gestured towards the modes and melodies of the Iranian/American household in which she was raised—a heritage she has continued to nurture via successive trips to Iran. This affinity for Iranian culture and music is increasingly present in her emergent solo output. Indeed, maps of her familial home cities, Shiraz and Isfahan, grace the insert of her upcoming debut solo LP, Flowers At Your Feet. The record arrives fresh off the heels of 2022’s Sun Songs, a collection of covers (more-so reinterpretations, really) of standards from an eclectic and personal pantheon of cherished songwriters. Sun Songs plays something like a statement of intent—documenting a diverse range of influences, some of which date back to Rahill’s years-long stint working at Academy Records in Brooklyn; Flowers At Your Feet, out 12th May on Big Dada. documents Rahill’s complete efflorescence as a singer/songwriter, while retaining the maturity, humility, and intimacy that suffused Sun Songs.