Pearl & The Oysters on Guy Cabay – Cabaycédaire 
The past few years have seen Pearl & The Oysters rise from indie outsiders, serving up slinking disco, AOR, and City Pop to more of a household name as they hit their second stride on Stones Throw. The band’s influences already speak to a deep record collection that informs their sound, but recent work on two of the year’s best tribute albums has solidified the notion. The band pops up on Sub Pop’s recent tribute to Margo Guryan and, a bit closer to their own home, on an excellent exploration of Haruomi Hosono’s Hosono House. The latter finds artists picking apart the Japanese songwriter’s most famous release, ferreting out the soul and pop perfection that laid in wait for listeners with deep interests for years. Knowing that the band would certainly have more gems on their own shelves, I invited the band’s Juliette Pearl Davis (Juju) and Joachim Polack (Jojo) to dig into their collection for a Hidden Gems piece. The band explores their French roots, picking out a comp from French label Tricatel that explores Belgian jazz songwriter Guy Cabay.
“Last year, when we were in Paris, we dropped by the office of Tricatel, the French record label run by producer Bertrand Burgalat, whose music we’ve loved and admired for years. Tricatel was basically our introduction to April March, The High Llamas, and in a sense, Stereolab, so we’ve always kept up with what they were doing. That day, they told us they were about to release a record by Belgian singer-songwriter Guy Cabay, a collection of 70s Bossa Nova-inspired recordings sung in Cabay’s native Wallon dialect. They played us a couple of tracks and we were immediately bewitched by the sounds we were hearing.”
“Everything about this record is so mysterious and captivating, the songs, the melodies, Cabay’s moody semi-whispered vocals, but also the language he sings in, which sounds eerily similar to French, and yet is completely different and pretty much impossible for francophones to decipher. Tricatel’s vinyl reissue came with the translated lyrics, and the words are actually equally beautiful, which added yet another pleasant layer to an already amazing listen. The album consists of many previously unreleased (but long informally circulated) tape recordings originally cut in the 1970s, which makes it feel all the more miraculous. It is definitely a gem!”
As always I inquire if a bit of Cabay’s influence has worked its way into Pearl & The Oysters’ songwriting. “It’s more so that we share some common influences with Cabay,” they note, “as far as this particular body of works goes, Bossa Nova and folk jazz mainly. We definitely feel a kinship with his aesthetic style, though it’s hard to say if we’ve derived any clear influence from it yet, but it’s certainly a deeply inspiring record, for sure!”
Tricatel’s issue has just been released this summer, so its an easy pick up if you’re looking to expand on your collection of European jazz and pop. The comp is draped in a soft grandeur and ‘70s resplendence. Pearl & The Oysters pop up on Like Someone I Know: A Celebration of Margo Guryan and Hosono House Revisited and Planet Pearl, the band’s latest is out now from Stones Throw.
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