Vagabon

With a smoky voice often delivered with a distinctive attack and fade, Laetitia Tamko began sharing her intimate indie rock songs under the alias Vagabon in 2014. Her stylistically wide-ranging full-length debut, Infinite Worlds, arrived in 2017. Still incorporating an array of influences, she returned with a more polished sound and reflective tone on her follow-up, Vagabon, in 2019. Growing up in Cameroon, Tamko soaked up the traditional music that surrounded her; when her family moved to New York City just as she was starting high school, her musical horizons were broadened to include indie rock. She studied engineering in college, then began writing and recording songs, at first with just her voice and guitar. In 2014, she released a song on Bandcamp, "Vermont," which featured Eamon McMullen on drums and bass. Later that year, Vagabon put out the Persian Garden EP on Miscreant Records. After using other people on drums and keyboards for recordings, she dedicated herself to learning the instruments so that on her next release, 2017's Infinite Worlds, she'd be playing both. The album was recorded with Chris Daly at Salvation Recording Co. in New Paltz, New York, with a small group of musicians helping Tamko bring her vision of dreamy indie rock and electronic pop to life. It was released by Father/Daughter Records in early 2017. She then quit her engineering job to pursue music full-time. The self-produced follow-up, Vagabon, was written largely on a laptop while on tour in support of her full-length debut. Blending digital and analog components in arrangements, she recorded it at home and in various studios before the album was mixed by John Congleton (the Decemberists, Angel Olsen). The completed Vagabon arrived on Nonesuch in late 2019. ~ Tim Sendra & Marcy Donelson, Rovi