(Gentofte, 28 October 1980)
Born in Copenhagen, she studied at the University of Roskilde but lived in Berlin. She learned to play the plan at a young age. Her mother played Chopin and Bartók on the piano. Her first album Philharmonics, released on October 4, 2010, was recognized in Denmark five times platinum. In addition, the artist was awarded the Radio'2 P3 Gold Award for the "Talent" category, while the song Riverside won the Robert Prize as "Best original song" for Thomas Vinterberg's submarine film. In Italy, the song Riverside will be chosen as the initial soundtrack for the television series "I will look for You" in 2020. The disc achieved excellent success also in France (platinum), the Netherlands (Golden Disco), Belgium (disc platinum), and most of Europe. Agnes then undertook a tour where she played with Am Kloot and Jonsi; She also played at the Berlin Film Festival, the SXSW in the United States, and Canadian Music Fest in Canada. In February 2011, Pias Recordings published a Deluxe version of Philharmonics containing five additional tracks. In November, Agnes won five prizes at the Danish Music Awards.
In April 2012, she began to record her second album in Berlin, and on June 30, the release of Aventine was definitively announced. The disc's title refers to the Aventine, one of the hills of Rome. This work also had excellent success in Denmark (#1), the Netherlands (#5), Belgium (#1), and France (#2).
In 2016 three years after the latest studio work, the Danish composer released a new album entitled "Citizen of Glass," in which she experiences new sounds thanks to the introduction of tools such as Celesta, Trautonium, electronics, and more substantial rhythms, which accompany piano and string section. The album is welcomed by critics and presented with a European tour. In addition, the song "Familiar," taken from the album "Citizen of Glass," becomes the soundtrack of the TV series "Cardinal" and is also included in the soundtrack of the German TV series "Dark."
In 2013, three years after the release of the debut album, Aventine arrived, an album with certainly less gloomy and austere sounds but more delicate and enchanted. Agnes Obel herself says that she had started delivering the profile of her new work already during the tour of the previous one, with a particular focus on the cello and other rope tools, which are, in fact, the protagonists of Aventine, whose title pays homage to The hill Aventino of Rome.
Agnes Obel says he recorded with all the very close tools among them, as close as the microphones were, in a small room that allowed her to have a rare sound. Despite elements of originality, Aventine remains quite similar, in the atmospheres, to the predecessor Philharmonics. It is undoubtedly a valid job, which is more appreciated if you don't know Philharmonics. The second work of Agnes Obel has unique and original songs (such as The Curse, Dorian, Fuel to Fire, and the instrumental Tokka) but also contains songs a little centered.
Even Aventine, the title track, is a piece to be considered because it is explosive but, simultaneously, a magical song, constantly well enriched by the violin notes. All these songs constitute the first part of the album, and from here, it follows that the real weak point of Aventine is its second part, containing not ugly but not excellent songs which "do the homework." In short, Aventine is undoubtedly not an album to be thrown away, but it may lay too much on the success of Philharmonics, of which it constitutes a sort in a row, whose novelty is the strings, that a change of course.
