Tarbes

Description

With "Tarbes," Agnès Gayraud (La Féline) redraws the cycle of life in reverse, with a sort of "return to the beginning," to its starting point: "in Tarbes, the city where I was born," she sings at the opening over a whistling drone, a sweet and straightforward melody reminiscent of Tom Sawyer evoking America. Thirteen tracks and just as many adventures, "Tarbes" forms one of the most unsettling concept albums that recounts the formative years of a young woman in her hometown. It marks an era with its references, its emotional geography, and its landmarks, but it generally leans towards a dialogue that shifts perspectives, spaces, and time between Agnès the narrator ("Don't go to the Quays of the Adour"), the confidante ("I danced lying down"), and the chronicler ("Everything must disappear"), playing with the poles of a very personal compass and the laws of attraction of a rather uncommon city.