Local record label to release new album from Paris-born duo

A Gainesville record label will be releasing an album by a newly-signed pop duo from Paris this summer.

The artists, Joachim Polack and Juliette Davis, met when they were 14 years old as they were growing up in Paris. They followed their shared love of music to Gainesville, Polack said.

Polack and Davis both received their master’s degree in music and musicology from Paris-Sorbonne University. After they graduated, Polack realized he was not ready to stop his musical education, he said.

The two realized their passion for Brazilian music at the age of 17, and Polack always had a dream to study the genre, he said.

Polack discovered that UF’s doctoral program in music has a specialization in Brazilian music and studies, so two years ago he moved to Gainesville and began working toward his Ph.D., he said.

Polack said the Brazilian bossa nova music of the ‘60s attempted to achieve a young, fresh sound that incorporated jazz harmonies and classical music with Brazilian folkloric harmonies. This attention to composition is something he said he channels in his own music.

“To a lot of people it now sounds like elevator music, bossa nova, but to me it’s like the most beautiful thing in the world,” he said.

Davis said a year after Polack moved to Gainesville, she followed him, and the two started their band, Pearl & The Oysters.

Davis said, “When he told me he was going to the states, I was like OK, why not?”

Not long after Davis came to Gainesville, she and Polack were picked up by Elestial Sound, a Gainesville-based record label, she said.

Rob Kowalski, the label manager for Elestial Sound, said when the label found Davis and Polack, they knew they had something special, and they helped to connect them with other Gainesville musicians so they could start their band.

“It’s a very nostalgic, pop type of thing that makes you think of Stereolab or broadcast,” Kowalski said. “It’s cute and idiosyncratic, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is why I’m a big fan.”

Elestial Sound was established in 2011 with the simple intention of putting out friends’ music in Gainesville, Kowalski said.

Today it has grown to include about 50 active graphic designers, visual artists and musicians throughout the years, he said.

Elestial Sound describes itself as a cooperatively owned record label for future art that specializes in large-scale multimedia installations and immersive performance environments, Kowalski said.

The label broke ground on a multimillion-dollar headquarters this May, which will include two professional recording studios, a fabrication studio for installations, a few artist apartments and art studios, he said.

“Joining our label is turning a key to artist development,” Kowalski said. “It’s really nurturing, and there is a community of people who are there to engage with the musician. It’s not about the notoriety or fame or money either, it’s purely about nurturing the artist community.”

When the art community received wind of Pearl & The Oysters, they were booked as headliners for a fundraiser performance that occurred in April for the Gainesville Underground Theatre Festival, said Tyler Francischine, the director of marketing and communications for the festival.

“I think they’re absolutely incredible, and that’s coming from someone who’s spent 10 years in Gainesville with this music scene,” Francischine said.

For Polack and Davis, their performance at the fundraiser was their first live show in the U.S. They had performed with bands in Paris, but never in Gainesville, Polack said.

He said there is a sense of spontaneity and collaboration in Gainesville that he never felt growing up in Paris.

“People are willing to give time and put out the best of themselves and their creativity, in Paris it was harder to be taken seriously if your art wasn’t dark and mysterious,” he said.

Polack said he and Davis began recording their new album in Paris and finished it upon arriving in Gainesville.

“The album coming out this summer is like a geographical fantasy world that we made up in a very transitional moment in our lives because we were moving,” he said. “I was fantasizing about what Florida would be like from old ads and movies. The whole premise behind the album was to kind of reconcile this weird geographical paradox.”

One of the singles from the album, “Vitamin D,” was released in late June on a 17-track compilation of Elestial Sound artists, with the rest of their album, titled “w/ Pearl & The Oysters,” set to be released Sept. 15.

Polack said they didn’t expect anything when they moved to Gainesville.

“Actually, that’s a lie,” Davis said. “We looked on Wikipedia before we came here. It said Gainesville was the No. 1 place to start a band in America, so I knew we’d be alright.”