PCL: Agnes Obel

Award-winning Danish musician Agnes Obel brings her hypnotizing melodies to CCA, with a set that includes songs from her eagerly anticipated new album, Aventine (released 30 September on Play It Again Sam).

Her new record is the follow up to her critically acclaimed debut album, Philharmonics (2010), which has sold 450,000 copies across Europe, achieving Platinum status in France and Belgium and five times Platinum in her native Denmark, where Agnes picked up five Danish Music Awards (the Danish Brits) in 2011.

Originally from Copenhagen, Agnes has lived in Berlin since 2006, where Aventine was recorded at her Chalk Wood Studios between January and May this year. Like Philharmonics, the new album was written, arranged and produced by Agnes, who provides piano and vocals. Anne Miller - who has also played with Nils Frahm - adds cello, with Mika Posen of Timber Timbre playing the violin and viola on The Curse, Pass Them By and Fivefold. Robert Kondorossi of Budzillus plays guitar on Pass Them By.

"While touring Philharmonics I kept on getting all these ideas for recording, and I wanted to explore the cello and other string instruments" says Agnes. "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."