Agnes Obel


Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel is a Danish singer, songwriter, and musician based in Berlin.
Her debut album, Philharmonics, was released by PIAS Recordings and certified gold in June 2011 by the Belgian Entertainment Association after selling 10,000 units. At the Danish Music Awards in November 2011, Obel won five prizes, including Best Album and Best Debut Artist. Her second album, Aventine, received positive reviews and charted in the top 40 of the charts in nine countries.
Obel's third album, Citizen of Glass, received acclaim from music critics and was the IMPALA Album of the Year Award 2016. In 2018, she curated and performed a compilation album for Late Night Tales series, titled Late Night Tales: Agnes Obel. It features artists such as Nina Simone, Henry Mancini, Ray Davies, Michelle Gurevich, Can, and Yello. Her fourth album, Myopia, was released in February 2020.

Early life

Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel was born in Gentofte, Copenhagen, on 28 October 1980, the elder of two siblings. She and her younger brother, Holger, grew up in an unconventional environment, with a father who had three children from another marriage and loved to collect strange objects and instruments. Her mother, Katja Obel, a civil servant, used to play Bartók and Chopin on the piano. Obel learned to play the piano at a very young age. About her learning, she said: "I had a classical piano teacher who told me that I shouldn't play what I didn't like. So I just played what I liked. I was never forced to play anything else." During her childhood, she found inspiration in Jan Johansson's work. Johansson's songs, European folk tunes done in a jazzy style, have been a strong influence on her musically.
In 1990, she joined a small band as a singer and bass guitar player. The group appeared at a festival and recorded some tracks. In 1994, she had a small part in the short film The Boy Who Walked Backwards / Drengen der gik baglæns by Thomas Vinterberg. Her brother, Holger Thaarup, played the main character. Credited as Agnes Obel, she appears in two scenes. She plays a pupil who shares her table with new student Andreas.
She attended high school at Det frie Gymnasium, a free school where she was able to play a good deal of music. However, she quickly dropped out of school. "At seventeen, I met a man who was running a studio. I gave up quickly my musical studies to learn sound techniques."

Career

2008–2010: ''Philharmonics''

Obel debuted as a solo singer with her first album Philharmonics. She wrote, played, sang, recorded, and produced all the material herself. "The orchestral or symphonic music never interested me. I always was attracted by simple melodies, almost childish. I put a long time before writing texts because the music seems to tell already a story, to project images." According to Obel, her piano is much more than an instrument: "The piano and the singing are two equal things to me – maybe not inseparable but very connected. You can say they are like two equal voices." She has said that, "The music is the most obvious means to express what I am, where I am."
All of the songs on Philharmonics are original works except "Close Watch" & "Katie Cruel". In Live à Paris, released on 11 April 2011 on iTunes, she sings a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between The Bars". Furthermore, Obel did a duet with Editors singer Tom Smith, performing "The Christmas Song" by Mel Tormé on the Smith & Burrows album Funny Looking Angels.
Philharmonics garnered generally positive reviews with, for example, James Skinner from the BBC saying that "the compositions... are slow, sombre, sepulchral even, but not without a sense of occasionally singular beauty". In the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles, Johanna Seban spoke about a "disarming purity" and stated, "There is, in these deeply melancholic ballads, the clearness and reassuring nobility of bedside discs." In Musicomh, Ben Edgell wrote that Obel "sings with a hushed and tender grace that waxes wistful and serene over yearning cello, harp, and piano vignettes. She's a fey siren, with a dusky, near-whispered vocal that speaks to Ane Brun or Eva Cassidy." French journalists have called her "A revelation to follow".
Obel's first album was a commercial success. In March 2011, she appeared for the first time in the United States. At the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, she performed all the songs on the album.
PIAS Recordings released a Deluxe Version of Philharmonics on 7 February 2011. The Deluxe Version contains five more tracks. Two instrumentals and three live songs: "Over the Hill", "Just So", and the new track "Smoke & Mirrors". On the Riverside EP, Obel sings "Sons & Daughters". This track is only available on the EP.
In June 2011, Philharmonics was certified gold by the Belgian Entertainment Association after selling 10,000 units. In February 2011, her first album was nominated for the 'Impala European Independent Album of the Year' and the song Riverside won the Robert Award for the Best Song of the year 2011.
In October 2011, Obel won 2012 European Border Breakers Award. The prize celebrates the top new talents in European pop music who "have all succeeded in reaching out to audiences beyond their home country through their talent and energy."
In November 2011, she won five prizes at the Danish Music Awards for her first album Philharmonics. She won Best Album of the Year, Best Pop Release of the Year, Best Debut Artist of the Year, Best Female Artist of the Year, and Best Songwriter of the Year.

2011–2014: ''Aventine''

Obel began working on her second album in 2011. About her new album, she said, "I started to write new pieces, but all were instrumental ones, with the piano alone… In this moment, I feel more inclined to compose instrumental pieces. I already started to write some texts, but for me, it's more difficult to compose melodies."
In January 2013, Obel started mixing her new album. On 20 June 2013, she revealed that the new album, Aventine, would be released on 30 September 2013.
On Aventine, Obel commented: "I recorded everything quite closely, miking everything closely in a small room, with voices here, the piano here – everything is close to you. So it's sparse, but by varying the dynamic range of the songs I could create almost soundscapes. I was able to make something feel big with just these few instruments."
She played at the iTunes UK Festival at the Roundhouse in London on 17 September 2013.
Frank Eidel from quebecspot.com, commented: "It's a fascinating collection of remarkable pieces, with rich and intense arrangements supported by Obel's dazzling voice."
On 24 September 2014, Aventine became available on iTunes. Tom Burgel wrote: "The few reactions collected have been very positive and, already, full with love: The elegance of Agnes and the rare grace of her writings will cause, without any doubts, some strong palpitations in the hearts of the amateurs."
The website Mushroompromotions said: "'Aventine' is a beautiful record, intriguingly unhurried. If the first record was a wander through the forest, this one takes the time to see the beauty and feel the texture in a single leaf. It is at once microcosmic and universal. Agnes creates her own world, or as she calls it, a bubble or bell jar, to make her music. Once inside, she's no longer conscious of what's going on. This is the mystery of her modus operandi, something she cannot explain. Which simply adds to the ethereal quality of her music."
In October 2014, a deluxe edition of Aventine was released. This album featured three new songs. The deluxe edition contains a remix of 'Fuel to Fire' by David Lynch, who commented: "I loved doing this remix. I was turned onto Agnes' music through my record label... I think she has a most beautiful voice and can do things with her voice that are unique and extraordinary."
In October 2014, Obel played for the first time in L'Olympia in Paris.

2015–2017: ''Citizen of Glass''

During her 2014 tour, Obel began work on her third album: "I'm planning to work less with piano, and more with other kinds of old keyboards I'm trying to find new instruments to work with, so it's sort of on the research phase and starting to write things." She also said: "I have some clear ideas but I'm not sure it is a good idea to go into specifics on such an early stage. I mainly plan to work with old keyboards like spinet and harpsichord and then see where they take me."
In June 2015, Obel began recording the new album. She recorded strings with new musicians Frédérique Labbow, Kristina Koropecki, and John Corban.
In June 2016, she released the single 'Familiar', from the upcoming album. The song was recorded, produced, and mixed by Obel and features the violin by John Corban as well as cellos by Kristina Koropecki and Charlotte Danhier. The music video was directed by Obel's husband Alex Brüel Flagstad. Hugo Cassavetti from Telerama, wrote: "Agnes Obel, while remaining true to her fine style, expands her new musical fields. Percussions with a loud power rhythm a delicately acrobatic melody that the singer performs with a voice that was strangely moved. Yes, Obel, as split by technology, duets with her disturbing echoes with a male stamp."
In addition to violins, cellos, harpsichords, a spinet, and a celesta, Obel used a Trautonium, a rare electronic musical instrument from the 1930s.
In September 2016, Obel released a new single, "Golden Green". In Dansende Beren, Niels Bruwier wrote: "The sound of glass is never far away. The song is about the way we always find other better lives than oursshe brings out her dreamy voice, it's actually just the perfect classic pop song without embellishment. Enchanting, elysisch and paradise-like."
In October 2016, a new song from Citizen of Glass was released: "Stretch Your Eyes". This song is a new version of an older one which was played during her tour in 2014.
In October 2016, Citizen of Glass came out. The French newspaper La Croix wrote: "With several great songs, the surrealist Stretch your eyes or the luminous Golden Green, Agnes Obel has created a sumptuous, odd and modern album. Citizen of Glass confirms, with greatness, Agnes Obel as an important pop artist."
Citizen of Glass received an average score of 82 on Metacritic, meaning universal acclaim, based on 11 reviews.
Citizen of Glass received the IMPALA Album of the Year Award 2016, which rewards on a yearly basis the best album released on an independent European label.