Vagabon

The 24 year old wrote, arranged and produced this album all by herself. The work of an immensely talented melodic mastermind, Laetitia Tamko's second album touches on the magical.

The sheer musical scope means Vagabon resembles a shifting mood piece, tied together not by generic tropes but its creator's singular sensibility. [Jan 2020, p.114]

The Afro-beat timbres peeking through also reveal more about who Vagabon is, and what she is capable of. [Dec 2019, p.95]

You hear none of that struggle here. She has labored and sweated and stressed to make a record that is completely devoid of these characteristics. It might have reared up out of a clam shell like Botticelli’s Venus.

She's created a colorful palette of synths and vocals that are as organic as the traditional instruments that inspired them. Her approach should appeal to those that already know her and entice a slew of new fans as well.

It’s an unusual record made more beguiling by Tamko’s deep and adaptable voice.

Vagabon is clearly searching, and she's managed to create something of a shelter for all of us within her new work. It's difficult to listen to Vagabon and not feel at home.

Self-produced and largely self-performed, Vagabon celebrates her heritage and her community, but most of all her creative freedom to challenge musical boundaries and to break away from the norm.

It's good both for bobbing heads and bopping feet — both for being alone-alone, and alone-around-others, too.

The result is an ambitious album overflowing with generosity and empathy, warm in production and rich in theme, even if it largely lacks the punch that made Infinite Worlds so immediately memorable.

Vagabon concludes as a work of not only personal self-discovery, but evolution in real time.

Like recent releases by Robyn or Solange, this expansive and beautiful record shows Vagabon as an expert at creating pleasure and soulful reassurance from electronic pop – a surprising but welcome heelturn.

On In a Bind, she reaches for a more spiritual musical expression—taking a page from the mesmeric rhythms of Ali Farka Touré. She finds herself at ease, picking out an arpeggiated pattern flutter over a meditative choral showpiece. Less impressive, though, is how Tamko derails into the dreamy, meandering synth jams she seemed to be at odds with from the start. ... These mood shifts show Tamko at her more inquisitive, proving how far she can expand her reach while using her own resources. And it'll be intriguing to see where her ever-changing nature takes her next.

The decision to make the album an eponymous one becomes more meaningful as lyrics reveal themes of both self-sufficiency and, as in the case of "Home Soon," a sense of belonging.