Polo & Pan is a French electronic music duo comprising Paul Armand Delille and Alex Grynszpan. Born under the stars in 2012, shortly after the orbital collision of two satellites: Polocorp & Peter Pan. Since then, they have released three EPs and an album together. Their songs are funky but suave, uniquely fun, and evoke a fantasy of European nightlife. Key influences include LCD Soundsystem and Claude Debussy – a combination that may, at first, seem peculiar, until one realizes how it aligns perfectly with Polo & Pan’s crisp sense of silence. Their début album Caravelle (2017) was conceived as a voyage across blissful destinations. Close your eyes on “Zoom Zoom” and it’s 1964, somewhere near Ipanema; close them again and travel to the rainforests of Cameroon with “Bakara”. Though most of the duo’s lyrics are in French, many of their songs are infused with vintage samples and exotic instruments, including Pygmy flutes—a blend that invites both surprise and enchantment.
Histoire improbable d’une fantaisie
Proche de l’équateur à un point précis
Latitude 500, longitude 36
Au cœur de la forêt à cette interstice
Dans ta tenue d’Ève verdoyante
Tu étais d’une beauté étourdissante
Des oiseaux nous chantaient leur mélopée
Et nous vivions heureux dans la canopée
An unlikely story about a fantasy
Near the equator, in a specific spot
Latitude 500 longitude 36
In the heart of the forest at this interstice
In your verdurous dress just like Eve’s
Your beauty was astonishing
Birds were singing us their melodies
And we were living happy in the canopy
Refrain
Jungle sauvage ouvre tes bras
Il en faut peu pour toi et moi
Prenons racine dans les bois
Enfants naïfs ou hors-la-loi
Les pieds plantés dans un ruisseau
Écoutent chanter ce drôle d’oiseau
Il nous invite un peu plus haut
À partager nos idéaux
Wild jungle, open your arms
You and I don’t need very much
Let’s take root in the woods
Naive children or renegades
With our legs in the stream
Listening to the song of this funny bird
It invites us to go a bit higher
To share our ideals
Histoire mémorable d’une rêverie
Que nous vivions ensemble en Amazonie
Un retour aux sources, vie sans artifices
À deux dans la forêt loin des maléfices
Dans la torpeur moite et luxuriante
D’une jungle aux lianes exubérantes
Les arbres millénaires nous ont adoptés
Et nous vivions heureux dans la canopée
A memorable story about a reverie
That we lived together in the Amazon
Back to the sources, a life without artifice
The two of us in the forest, far away from the bad
In the muggy and luxurious torpor
Of a jungle full of exuberant lianas
The thousand-year-old trees had adopted us
And we were living happy in the canopy
Refrain