Vagabon

Laetitia Tamko, performing as Vagabon, crafts intimate indie rock alongside electronic pop through a smoky voice marked by its sharp attack and gradual decay. Her debut full-length, Infinite Worlds, appeared in 2017 and spanned a broad stylistic range. On the follow-up, Vagabon from 2019, she shifted toward a more refined production and introspective mood while retaining varied influences, before exploring a lighter, more playful approach on 2023’s Sorry I Haven’t Called.

Raised in Cameroon, Tamko absorbed the traditional sounds around her; her family’s relocation to New York City at the start of high school expanded her listening to encompass indie rock. After completing an engineering degree, she began composing and tracking material initially limited to vocals and guitar. In 2014 she issued the Bandcamp single “Vermont,” which included Eamon McMullen on drums and bass, and later that year released the Persian Garden EP via Miscreant Records. Having previously relied on outside contributors for drums and keyboards, she taught herself those instruments to perform both on Infinite Worlds. Chris Daly recorded the album at Salvation Recording Co. in New Paltz, New York, where a handful of supporting players helped realize her vision of dreamy indie rock and electronic pop; Father/Daughter Records issued it in early 2017, after which Tamko left her engineering position to focus on music full-time.

Written mostly on a laptop during tour dates supporting her debut, the self-produced Vagabon combined digital and analog elements across home and studio sessions before John Congleton (the Decemberists, Angel Olsen) handled mixing. Nonesuch released the album in late 2019. Two years afterward she appeared on the folk ballad “Reason to Believe” with Courtney Barnett and joined Jamila Woods on Miloe’s remix of “Winona.” Partly sketched and produced in a remote Northern German village before completion in Los Angeles with co-producer Rostam, Sorry I Haven’t Called emerged in 2023 as an exuberant yet deeply personal record that drew on more dance-oriented influences than her earlier work.