With "Tarbes", Agnès Gayraud (La Féline) redefines the cycle of life in reverse, with a kind of "return to the beginning", to her starting point: "in Tarbes, the city where I was born", she sings in the opening over a whistling drone, a sweet and frank melody, à la Tom Sawyer evoking America.
Thirteen tracks and as many adventures, "Tarbes" forms one of the most unsettling concept albums, chronicling 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 more generally leans towards a dialogue shifting perspectives, spaces, and time between Agnès the narrator ("Va pas sur les Quais de l'Adour"), the confidante ("Je dansais allongée"), and the chronicler ("Tout doit disparaître"), playing with the poles of a very personal compass and the laws of attraction of a not-so-ordinary city.
