Much like our weather, the music of Vagabon has the propensity to catch you by surprise; leaning one way, lulling you in, and then suddenly shifting direction; sun bursting through stormy clouds that just a moment before seemed impenetrable. Having caught the eyes and ears of a select few with the release of her debut cassette via Miscreant Records, the past few months has seen Lætitia Tamko’s stock rise immeasurably; building towards the release of her forceful, beautifully wholesome debut album, via Father/Daughter Records, next month. An astonishing meeting of worlds and ways, “Infinite Worlds” is a gripping document of Lætitia’s journey, flitting between punchy indie-rock and more experimental excursions that showcase her ever-expanding craft.
“I’m just doing music, day to day. It’s the job now,” she says, with a giggle that perhaps hints at the incredulity of such a thing. she admits. “It’s my dream job, and it’s so special to only work on the stuff that you love.”
Cultivating her work via the New York underground scene, Vagabon played a number of key support slots, and it was during one such show, supporting Mitski in 2014, when she met Jeanette Wall; Mitski’s manager and founder of the wonderful Miscreant label, which has helped support the likes of PWR BTTM, Lisa Prank, and more, and who would go on to release the first Vagabon EP that same year. “I first started writing songs around three years ago,” Lætitia says, looking back on that time. “The first collection that I wrote I immediately recorded with a friend and put them online, which are the demos that I called “Persian Garden”. It’s kind of been a whirlwind since then.”
The idea of travel, and the associate strands of home and time and place that so often get tangled up in such things, play a meaningful role in the songs that make-up Vagabon’s debut album, or at least they’ve heavily informed and influenced the work which has led to it. “I’ve been living in New York for the last eleven years, but I was born in Cameroon,” she says. “I’ve been here for so long that I feel like New York is my home, but I also have an attachment to the placed I lived until I was fourteen. I’m fascinated with movement, from both a physical and emotional place,” she continues. “I speak of the idea of home in my writing, and that probably stems from the geographical moves I’ve made in my life,”
The Embers by Vagabon from the upcoming debut record, “Infinite Worlds” out February 24th, 2017 on Father/Daughter Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 