It’s important to remember that being ‘cool’ is an overrated and impossible-to-achieve social construct drawn up to allow certain people to feel superior to others. The thing is, no matter how hard you work on being cool, there are always cooler folks out there — people who wear edgier clothes than you, hold more informed views than you and listened bands before you even knew they existed. With that in mind, I have no qualms in writing about Persian Garden by Vagabon a full year too late.
Vagabon is the recording project of Lætitia Tamko who, along with Eva Lawitts (bass) and Elise Okusami (drums), makes a robust blend of indie rock and bedroom pop. Persian Garden, which came out last November, is a mini-album centred on the departure (and continued absence) of a friend or loved one which pushes and pulls in all directions, as if straining against some emotional shackles (self-imposed or otherwise). Opener ‘Cold Apartment Floors’ is a good example. The lyrics and instrumentation conjure a disconsolate air for the most part, but brimming beneath is a sense of something else, a certain charge in the guitar and Tamko’s vocals which add another dimension, hinting at a greater depth to the whole situation:
“I know its my fault, I gave up on everything
and I see you happy, it warms my heart.And we said its not the end but she wore that white dress
and I changed, we are not the same but i thought you’d waitSo we sit on my cold apartment floor where we thought we’d stay in love”
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From here the album accelerates with ‘Shadows’, an urgent track with ramshackle banjo and steel guitar supporting lyrics centred on wandering and movement (Vagabon is a meaningful moniker). The song has the breathless feel of constant action, Tamko stealing gasps between lines as she lets her words stream out in a desperate rush. ‘Vermont II’ deals with the longing that comes with a change of heart (“Freddy come back I know you love where you are /
but I think I changed my mind”) while ‘Heroine’ traces addiction through small towns and cold winters, detailing the disappointment of relapsing into old habits (“winter will never be the same now that you’re back to your old ways”), the guitars rising into squally chaos and forcing Tamko to wail behind the noise. ‘Vermont’ squirms in a different direction: backwards. Here the secondary character (Freddy?) is packing for Vermont, allowing us to see the narrator pre-mind change, wounded by deceit but trying to heal, if only to prove a point. ‘Sharks’ picks up from this point, capturing the slump in self-worth that succeeds lies and rows.
“Run and tell everybody that Laetitia is
a small fishI’m just a small fish.
And you’re a shark that hates everything.
You’re a shark that eats every fish”
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Vagabon make the special kind of sad and confused music that has the opposite effect on the listener. The sort of music that makes you feel part of something, a big sad and confused gang spread out all over the world, connected by shared experience and a sneaky feeling that life is worth living.
You can buy Persian Garden now from the Vagabon Bandcamp page. It was out on cassette via Miscreant Records but we’re waaaay too late for that. Check Ebay, maybe?
P.S. Lætitia plays guitar in Real Life Buildings, who we like very much.